Paul Burstow and Health Integration

The mood as well as the weather was sunny in Victoria Lubbock’s garden in Hackney this afternoon. After all, that London borough produced the highest vote in favour of AV of anywhere in the country on Thursday. Moreover, in London there were no local elections, so Liberal Democrats in the capital aren’t feeling quite as wounded as in some other parts of the UK, though frustrated at the results. Besides, the Hackney local party had organised a splendid debate on the NHS reforms between Health Minister Paul Burstow and Prateek Buch of the Social Liberal Forum, the still relatiuvely new group within the Party that is pushing for a more assertive social liberal approach to the Party’s involvement in the government. In fact, at the Sheffield LibDem Spring Conference, key figures from the Social Liberal Forum were at the forefront of the debate that resulted in substantial amendments to the NHS Bill currently under consideration. The movers of that motion accepted the amendments and again today there was considerable room for agreement and negotiation between the positions set out by the two speakers. Paul particularly stressed his key concern of the integration of the NHS and social care; mental health in particular has not always received the attention it merits. I am sure there will be some quite vigorous arguments when the Social Liberal Forum holds its conference at City University in London on 18 June.

Link: http://socialliberal.net

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