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Primary Care Trusts and Ambulance Trusts

I thank the Minister for providing me with a copy of his statement in advance, and for putting local information on the Board for the use of hon. Members. Since Labour came to office, there have been seven reorganisations of the NHS already, and today’s pair are the eighth and ninth. Under the cloak of words such as ““modernisation”” or ““reform””, this is change for change’s sake. Has the Minister any idea of the effect that the reorganisation has on staff morale, and on the ability to retain the good? It means that underperformers inevitably will be recycled into similar jobs in the new organisations. It causes instability among clinical staff—doctors, nurses and allied professions—and inflicts uncertainty and inefficiency in the NHS supply chain. Above all, is he aware that it leaves patients wondering where they feature in it all? The Government have form, however. They never allow anything to settle and bed down—much to the consternation of the hard-working people trying to deliver the front-line patient services. In Government, as in all walks of life, the addiction to constant structural change is a well known technique deployed by those who did not get it right the first time—or the second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth times. Imposing another restructuring and a further reorganisation is a great wheeze to put through changes in a bid to avoid accountability and to keep running ahead of mistakes. The mounting job losses in the NHS show that the Government are no longer lulling the public, whose trust in the Government, not least in respect of the NHS, has plummeted. Let us look at why the Government have felt impelled to announce yet more changes to the NHS—