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Health and Social Care Bill

I wish to speak against the amendment. So far there have been only three contributions to the debate but I am still searching for any real reason to support it, other than perhaps saying, if it is not disingenuous of me to do so, that we should not do it at all. The acute services are now working more closely with social services and the Government’s policy around health and social care is being drawn together. People like me and the staff with whom I work are very keen for the Healthcare Commission to follow best practice in other regulatory bodies associated with the type of care we are delivering. As someone who has worked through lots of mergers and organisational changes—although not in a regulatory body—I can say that there is never a good time for this to happen. My noble friend Lord Lipsey referred to ““this crucial moment””. I have been involved as the chair of a health trust for only two and a half years but I have yet to see a time when this is not crucial. As someone said, the crucial issue here is the improvement of care for patients. I believe we should go ahead with this as soon as we feel it is safe, an issue on which we spent a great deal of time previously. For all the reasons we discussed in the previous amendment, we must make sure that we do this in the best possible way.