The LIFT Council has welcomed the new Health and Social Care Bill, but warns the Government must make sure it “does not allow estate ownership issues to jeopardise its ambitions for healthcare reform”.
The Bill enables the Health Secretary to deal with property belonging to primary care Trusts ahead of their 2013 abolition. The LIFT Council says “the wrong choice” of future residual estate owner “could severely limit the scope of the Government’s wider health agenda”. Chris Whitehouse, its chairman, said: “Putting these estates in the wrong hands could thwart its own long-term ambitions by undermining competition and patient choice.”
