Title: RCP should make an urgent statement against Health and Social Care Bill
Abstract: We write as concerned Fellows of England's Royal College of Physicians (RCP), many of whom attended the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on Feb 27, 2012, at which an overwhelming majority voted for the RCP to oppose the UK Government publicly on the Health and Social Care Bill.1The LancetThe Royal College of Physicians of London roars.Lancet. 2012; 379: 778Google Scholar RCP Council is currently surveying all Fellows, including those living abroad, and says that it hopes to announce the results on March 16. The experience of all other colleges opposing the Bill was that EGMs voting overwhelmingly against it were followed by similarly overwhelming votes against in the wider survey. We are concerned, given the urgency of the situation, that the RCP must issue a definitive public statement on March 16 regarding support or opposition on the basis of this wider ballot. Given that debate on this Bill ends on March 19, we must have assurance that the results will be publicly released before then, otherwise all this effort will have been wasted, with significant reputational damage to our college. Apart from supporting a survey of Fellows, those attending the EGM voted on four additional non-binding motions. The results were as follows: The RCP (1) considers that the Health and Social Care Bill, if passed, will damage the NHS [National Health Service] and the health of the public in England (89% in favour); (2) should call publicly for complete withdrawal of the Health and Social Care Bill (79% in favour); (3) should seek an alliance with other willing Royal Colleges and NHS stakeholder organisations to call collectively for the withdrawal of the Health and Social Care Bill (81% in favour); and (4) should hold a joint press conference with the BMA [British Medical Association] and other willing Royal Colleges and NHS stakeholder organisations to make a joint public statement calling for the Bill to be withdrawn (69% in favour). However, on March 2, 2012, a senior officer of the RCP sent an email stating that “What we need to do is keep our links with government open” and distancing the RCP from what he called the “overtly political step of demanding withdrawal of the Bill”. This does not reflect the voting at the EGM, which stressed that this is no time for the RCP to sit on the fence. Since the EGM, alarming stories have emerged that substantiate the concerns of those calling for withdrawal of the Bill.2Rose D NHS fairness tsar urged to quit by doctors over ‘conflict of interest’ following £799,000 payment for U.S. private health giant. Daily Mail.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2109907/NHS-fairness-tsar-urged-quit-doctors-conflict-following-799-000-payment-U-S-private-health-giant.html#ixzz1oEu4oz7aDate: March 4, 2012Google Scholar We call on our President and RCP Council to make clear and timely public statements reflecting the views and motions expressed at the EGM and the ongoing ballot before this dangerous Bill becomes law. The signatories are: Mark Aitken, Ruth Akiyo, Chris Allen, Holger Alroggan, Heather Angus-Leppan, John Ashton, Anne Aukett, Alan Bailey, Guy Baily, Ian Barton, Sushen Bhattacharya, Carol Brayne, Gary Brook, Chris Burns-Cox, Richard Butterworth, Philip Buttery, Chris Carne, Charles Cayley, Krishna Chatterjee, Eddy Chua, David Cohen, Alasdair Coles, Francesca Crawley, Paul Cullinan, Andrew Cummin, George Davey-Smith, Mark Dayer, Patrick Deegan, Edward Dickinson, Shah Ebrahim, Martin Eccles, Noemi Eiser, Sarah Elkin, Pamela Ewan, Nick Finer, Helen Firth, Peter Fisher, Andrea Franks, Jonathan Fuld, Nagui Gendi, Julian Gillmore, Trisha Greenhalgh, Richard Greenhall, Chris Griffiths, Indi Gupta, Tayyab Haider, Roger Hayter, Andrew Herxheimer, Graham Hitman, Walter Holland, Philip Home, Nick Hopkinson, Brian Hurwitz, Steve Iliffe, Robin Illingworth, Philip Ind, Anthony Isaacs, Howard Jacobs, Dean Jenkins, Michael Joffe, Lesley Kay, Harry Keen, Kay-Tee Khaw, Helen Lachmann, Robin Lachmann, Sir Peter Lachmann, Aroon Lal, Dan Lee, Ravi Mahadeva, Alan Maryon-Davis, David Matthews, Raymond Mcallister, Martin McKee, Dwight McLeod, John McSorley, Paul Meyer, Jenny Mindell, Siobahn Murphy, Shauaib Nasser, Michael Naughton, David Nicholl, Angus Nicoll, James O'Beirne, Sharon O'Brien, Eoin O'Brien, Kevin O'Kane, Kevin O'Shaughnessy, Amanda Ogilvy-Stuart, Jackie Pace, Philip Pearson, Charlotte Pratt, Neil Pride, Brian Quilty, Anisur Rahman, Salman Rawaf, Helen Reeves, Jim Ritter, James Robertson, Alfa Sa'adu, Peter Sandercock, John Scadding, Mathias Schmid, Alwyn Smith, Tom Solomon, Jeremy Stern, Sarah Stewart-Brown, Sheldon Stone, Shahrad Taheri, Mike Thomas, Richard Thomson, Nigel Trudgill, Shanti Vijayaraghavan, Andy Wardlaw, Charles Warlow, Peter Whincup, Charles Wiles, Bob Will, Ian Williams, John Yates, John Yudkin, Bernard Yung. We declare that we have no conflicts of interest.