Royal College of Surgeons condemns NHS reforms

Surgeons have condemned the coalition's NHS shakeup but stopped short of demanding the scrapping of the health and social care bill.

An extraordinary general meeting of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) passed a highly critical motion on Thursday night saying the bill would damage the NHS.

But the college bucked the recent trend within the medical community by rejecting a call for it to move to a position of outright opposition to the bill by seeking its withdrawal.

The move will bring a small amount of comfort for the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, as he steers the troubled legislation through what he hopes are its final stages this month. Other major medical organisations, such as the British Medical Association and royal colleges representing nurses, midwives and other health professionals, have called for the government to abandon its plans and devise new policies for the NHS in England.

The RCS's decision means that opponents of the bill cannot claim the entire medical establishment is united in its plea for the government to abandon its plans. A total of 176 surgeons attended the meeting at the college's London headquarters.

By a majority of 101 to 70 they agreed that the bill would "damage the NHS and widen healthcare inequalities, with detrimental effects on education, training and patient care in England".

But members held back from the dramatic step of backing its withdrawal. While 76 agreed that the college should "publicly call for withdrawal of the health and social care bill", 99 disagreed.

Prof Norman Williams, the RCS president, said: "It was encouraging to see so many members and fellows come out to debate the bill. This is a clear reflection of how important the future of the NHS and high-quality patient care is to surgeons. There was clear support for the action that the college has taken so far, critically engaging with the bill."

Meanwhile, Labour has made a last-ditch move to encourage Liberal Democrats gathering for their spring conference in Gateshead to overturn the party's stance on the bill and endorse calls for the plans to be dropped.

Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, has written an open letter to Lib Dem members which has been published on the Liberal Democrat Voice website. In it he seeks to exploit the unease in the party's ranks in a bid to engineer a grassroots rebellion that would give its leader, Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, a major problem. Clegg, Lady Williams and most of the party's MPs appear to be happy to let the bill pass now that the government has accepted Lib Dem amendments on key issues such as competition and plans to let NHS hospitals raise 49% of their income from private patients.

Burnham wrote: "I feel sure your president, Tim Farron, spoke for many Liberal Democrats in saying the bill should have been dropped. Only three weeks ago, Lady Williams argued that the third part of the bill, the competition chapters, should be deleted."

Williams later scaled down her suggestion, settling instead for that key section – which critics warn will lead to widespread privatisation of NHS services – to undergo amendments.

"If our two parties had worked together on this aim, there's a fair chance we could have achieved it and mitigated the damage. That's frustrating. But it's not too late. Parliament is sleepwalking into the looming disaster for the NHS of this defective bill entering the statute book but it is within your power to stop it," Burnham added.

"It is clear that many prominent Liberal Democrats, in private if not in public, consider this bill to be a dud. I feel certain that the long-term best interests of your party are better served by acknowledging that and doing something about it, rather than acting out of a misplaced sense of loyalty to the coalition. In doing so, you would of course be implementing the letter of the coalition agreement."

The Lib Dems are due to stage what seems certain to be an impassioned, and possibly divisive, debate on the bill at their gathering this weekend.