by Nikki da Costa, Conservative Home
In early March, the Times revealed that the government will pay private companies to end the lives of the terminally ill. Yesterday, it was confirmed that ministers will have complete discretion and all the power necessary to do this.
Sounds dystopian. But it was also a practical, hard-nosed, response of a government that must make workable Kim Leadbeater’s private member’s bill, while also trying to wrestle the NHS into shape and cut waiting lists.
Ministers, we were told, had “no in-principle objection”; repeatedly they’ve emphasised that the Government’s job is to make it ‘workable’, and ensure the bill provides an ‘adequate’ or ‘sufficient’ legal basis for providing these services.
As a result, multiple safeguards – such as assessments carried out by multi-disciplinary teams – have been discounted because they present ‘operational challenges’ for an overstretched NHS.
Now those concerns have grown to encompass the entire bill. To save the NHS and avoid undermining efforts to bring down waiting lists, we will contract out the responsibility to for-profit companies. And MPs must simply trust ministers to get on with it: detail that was meant to be provided in the last day of committee never materialised.
Instead, the Bill now provides ministers with complete discretion and flexibility in commissioning the services. It includes a sweeping Henry VIII clause granting broad powers for the “provision of voluntary assisted dying services” and to fundamentally reconfigure the NHS.
With a metaphorical flick of a backbench MP’s pen, a red line has been scratched through the NHS’ founding principles.
Ministers will no longer be under a duty to provide a Health Service which improves the physical and mental health of the people of England and Wales, and which prevents, diagnoses and treats physical and mental illness. The duty will expand to the provision of an NHS which assists in the ending of the lives of the terminally ill.
MPs will be asked to vote for this, and to accept that the Bill is completely silent on how services will be regulated.