The chairman of the BMA's hospital consultant committee has said he fears that patients will increasingly lose out if proposed reforms to the NHS become law.

Dr Mark Porter has said that the changes, which would see GPs given control over £80bn of the NHS budget, would reduce the quality of patient care and would take the country back to the system that existed in the 1930s and 40s before the NHS was formed. He said that the changes would lead to a patchwork with services better in some areas than others and that private healthcare firms would be able to "cherry pick" patients who were comparatively easy to treat while leaving those with more complex illnesses having to rely on the NHS as a "provider of last resort".

Dr Porter added that the government wanted to see more involvement from private, charitable and co-operative providers of healthcare but said that that system: "failed to provide comprehensive and universal service for the citizens of this country. That's why health was nationalised. But they're proposing to go back to the days before the NHS".

His comments have been criticised by the Department of Health which said that the modernisation of the NHS would enable patients to be offered high-quality care and improved health outcomes.  A spokesman said: "The BMA have historically opposed giving patients a choice of voluntary, independent and public sector services. But it is not in the interests of patients to bow to their demands".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8365334/NHS-reforms-will-return-health-service-to-1930s.html