What the new Health and Care Bill means for the NHS and future privatisation
As the NHS prepares to face its toughest winter on record, the government has just passed a new Health and Care bill that will usher in a huge reorganisation of the health service
Despite following one of the most difficult periods in the health service’s history, at a time when the NHS faces its worst winter crisis on record and has a waiting list of over 6m patients, the bill does nothing to cut wait times, boost staffing levels, or put any money towards helping the 2,000 elderly people whose requests for care are refused every day.
Initially intended to combine social care with health and include local authorities, it was hoped that the bill would make adult social care free at the point of use and force the NHS and local authorities to pool their resources.
However, it’s changed quite a lot from its initial inception – leading to criticism from frontline NHS staff as well as a number of MPs and campaign groups, who say that the bill opens up the NHS to further privatisation.
Will the new Health and Care bill privatise the NHS?
A Unite spokesperson told The Big Issue earlier this month that the bill will bring about a ‘complete break up of the NHS as we know it’.
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The new bill effectively divides the single, central, and public National Health Service into 42 independently-run parts, allowing private companies to make decisions about public spending and health services for the first time in its history.
By making space for private firms on these newly-created boards, corporate interests will be given a vote on how health and social care is prioritised in each area of the country – leading to concern that profit motives could override public needs, not to mention the potential for conflicts of interest in the awarding of contracts.
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Doctor-led campaign organisation EveryDoctor tweeted that the new bill will ’embed private companies in the NHS in England – giving them the power to decide who gets what treatment when’.
Pointing out that 11% of the NHS budget already goes to private companies, campaigners added: “No one should be profiting from public healthcare, it’s as black and white as that.”
Does the bill enable ministers to interfere in the day-to-day running of the NHS?
The bill gives greater powers over the NHS to Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and creates scope for greater political interference in day-to-day decision making.
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There are concerns around this, as Mr Javid has previously questioned why people ‘go to the state’ for health care and said that they ‘have to take some responsibility’ too.
When he laid out his vision for the NHS at the Conservative party conference earlier this year, he said: “The state was needed in this pandemic more than any time in peacetime, but government shouldn’t own all risks and responsibilities in life.
“Health and social care it begins at home. It should be family first, then community, then the state.”
The new bill requires the Secretary of State to be notified of any and all proposed changes, dramatically reducing the ability of the NHS to manage its services day by day.
A report by The Kings Fund examining the bill concludes that this places ‘a significant burden on local and national NHS bodies awaiting decisions – and delaying changes to services that clinicians have already concluded would benefit patients’.
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It adds: “Affording such broad powers to the Secretary of State is at odds with the stated intent of the reforms to reduce bureaucracy and empower local decision-making.”
How does the bill address the big challenges facing the NHS right now?
Workforce shortages are one of the biggest challenges facing the sector right now, with staff across both the NHS and care sector currently experiencing high levels of stress, absenteeism and turnover.
However, the bill does very little to address these challenges – and only requires the Health Secretary to report ‘at least every five years’ on workforce needs.
Whilst integrating the system is key to providing better joined-up care, measures relating to the workforce have been criticised as ‘weak’ by the The Kings Fund, with the organisation adding that Sajid Javid ‘could wait until 2027 to produce such a report’.
Instead, it’s called for a “fully funded workforce strategy that addresses staff shortages, boosts retention by improving working cultures and includes a renewed commitment to providing compassionate and inclusive leadership.”
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How does the bill affect duties to provide hospital care and patient treatment?
Some experts have warned that the wording of the bill does away with the statutory duty to provide hospital care, meaning that if the bill passes through the House of Lords the NHS will no longer be obliged to care for people in a hospital setting.
Lawyer Peter Roderick and public health doctor Allyson Pollock both say it removes the current legal duty to look after people in hospital.
This also means that options for legal action when care is denied will be withdrawn, as the new bill provides no right to care in the first place.
Each of the 42 new bodies will be given strict budgets, meaning that decision-making powers will ultimately be limited to the short term.
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There is some concern that these strict spending limits could lead to longer wait times on care once the money runs out, leading to a potential postcode lottery as services and standards will be dictated by where you live.
Ultimately, the bill means that health care will differ for patients across postcodes as all decision-making will be centered around the needs of the local population with boards deciding what services to offer and what to omit.
How will the new bill benefit patients?
In theory, if the reforms succeed in creating an environment where separate organisations can work together more collaboratively, patients with multiple health issues could see a move towards joined-up care where the wider factors that influence health and wellbeing are taken into account.
Currently, services are provided by a range of different organisations that sometimes work together well but other times do not.
In the future, it is hoped that that bill will enable NHS organisations, local authorities, social care providers, VCS organisations, community leaders and others to work together on long-term health plans – but only time can tell on this.
SIR Kevin Sinfield among list of local names officially recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours 2026
Danny Jones
While many individuals were already public knowledge, we’re made up to hear that SIR Kevin Sinfield has now finally received his long-overdue knighthood, and he’s not the only recognisable local and/or beloved famous face to have been recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours list for 2026.
There are so many worthy names on the list, but it goes without saying that the ‘Sir Kev’ campaign is one that countless have been flying the flag for rather high over the past few years.
Sinfield, 45, is not only a rugby league and England legend, but he has warmed hearts across the country and beyond through his superhuman ‘7 in 7’ ultramarathon efforts on behalf of the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) in recent times, all in memory of his old teammate and best friend: the late, great Rob Burrow.
Following his 2014 MBE, OBE in 2021, and CBE in ’23, we struggle to think of anyone more deserving of the accolade than the Oldham native, to be honest; here he is talking about the great privilege earlier this month:
Hero, legend, inspiration – these words don’t even begin to cut it.
That being said, he’s not the only ex-sportsman with a crucial Greater Manchester connection to have been honoured this year, as former Scotland international and Manchester United player Lou Macari (who still has a chippy in his name right near the ground) has also been made an MBE.
While Sinfield was recognised for services to sport and charity, 77-year-old Macari has been awarded the accolade for his work helping the homeless across not just the North West but all over the country.
Setting up the Macari Foundation back in 2016 and creating vital shelters, fundraising and support schemes – not to mention being involved in various other adjacent charitable initiatives such as the now annual Old Trafford Stadium Sleepout – it’s a cause he’s backed for more than a decade now.
Put quite simply, he’s helped change people’s lives for the better and save them full-stop.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Monday, 15 June, the Stoke-on-Trent-based, legendary Celtic centre-forward and retired Red was visibly humbled by what could arguably now be his most treasured medal.
Lou Macari has been recognised for his decade-long commitment to a homeless charity in Stoke-on-Trent by being made an MBE in the King's Birthday Honours.
As for other names this year, several Lionesses were also featured as part of the list for 2026, including Euros winners Chloe Kelly and Alessia Russo, both of whom also previously played for Manchester City and Man United, respectively.
Fellow WSL stars Michelle Agyemang, Jess Carter, Hannah Hampton and Lauren James also joined the duo, along with a quintet of other national team players who were given MBEs as part of King Charles III’s New Year’s Honours List, with the prior official ceremony taking place last month.
One of those names, most notably for Mancs, was Tyldesley’s very own Ella Toone, another MUWFC star who has also shone under England Women’s manager Sarina Wiegman.
You can find the full Birthday Honours List right HERE.
30 years ago, the IRA detonated a 1,500kg lorry bomb on Corporation Street in the heart of Manchester – here’s the story
Georgina Pellant
Today marks three whole decades since an explosion from the inside of a lorry parked on Corporation Street shattered windows and destroyed buildings across the city centre.
Causing an evisceration that stretched for miles, when the 1,500 kilogram IRA bomb went off in 1996, it was the biggest detonation in Great Britain since the Second World War.
Following the explosion, the city fell silent – leaving rack, rubble and ruin in its wake. Famously, one red post box was left standing – today fitted with a memorial plaque in remembrance of the tragedy.
It seems scary to think that back then, most people could only stand there, watch on and worry.
The bomb caused an estimated £700 million worth of damage to Manchester’s infrastructure and economy, and over a quarter of a century later, locals still tell the stories of where they were when it went off – and of the devastation it left behind.
Notably, one resident of the Cromford Court maisonettes on top of the Arndale – a 77-year-old RAF veteran suffering from the flu – didn’t even bother to get up when the telephone warning to evacuate hit, considering himself to have survived much worse feats during his time in military service.
Having been a rear gunner in a Lancaster in the war, he reportedly told police and authorities “he was buggered if he was going to let a small bomb affect him.”
In subsequent years, Danny O’Neill has become a part of an urban legend surrounding the bomb as his staggering story has been told time and time again.
Around 90 minutes prior to the detonation, the Provisional Irish Republican Army had telephoned in warnings – meaning that around 75,000 people were able to be evacuated from the area before the bomb went off from the back of a van.
However, the bomb squad were unable to defuse it in time, leading to over 200 injuries from people still left in the area.
Thankfully, despite those injuries, there were no fatalities, and many of those reported traumas came from the shattering of thousands of windows and other damage to buildings in which unsuspecting people were getting on with their days.
Several buildings near the explosion were damaged beyond repair and had to be demolished, while many more were closed for months for structural repairs, and this prompted the biggest regeneration of Manchester city centre ever – something that is still continuing to this day, arguably at a more rapid rate than ever.
The city lay dormant for days after the explosion, as people came to terms with what had happened and kept their distance. Many moved out of the centre for a period of time, while many more simply decided not to visit for fear of another incident.
It was a desolate place, eerily quiet, and in need of some serious TLC.
According to Home Office statistics, an estimated 400 businesses within half a mile (0.8 km) of the 1996 blast were affected, 40% of which did not recover.
Credit: Manchester Libraries
Market Street – near the explosion and at that time the second-busiest shopping street in the UK – was considered by some a “fearful” place, and one that was to be “avoided like the plague”.
The prospect of pulling Manchester’s bustling city centre out of its darkest depression was not casually approached by those in charge.
It was acknowledged as a mammoth task from the get-go, but Greater Manchester has never let anything get in its way. Despite how steep the hill is that we’re standing at the base of, we always manage to reach the peak, ready to go again.
Georgina Pellant -
23rd November 2021 
