Can You Trust Andrew Lansley With the NHS?

The short answer is no!  Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health, composer of the Health and Social Care Bill cannot be trusted with the NHS.  Why?  Because he has a conflict of interest when it comes to the NHS.  The General Principles of Conduct for MP's state:


Integrity
Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might influence them in the performance of their official duties (Parliamentary Codes of Conduct). 

It is widely known that Andrew Lansley accepted a donation of £21,000 from John Nash, the chairman of private healthcare provider Care UK and founder of the private equity fund Sovereign Capital, which owns several other private healthcare companies, to help fund his private office whilst shadow health minister.  For unknown reasons, attention is not drawn to this fact.  Furthermore, his wife, Sarah Low,  is the managing director of Low Associates.  Among their many clients are pharmaceutical companies SmithKline Beecham, Unilever and Procter & Gamble.  Strangely, these companies are no longer shown on the Low Associates website.

Surely this represents a massive conflict of interest and raises doubts about the integrity of Andrew Lansley?  Are these companies not the very people who stand to make money out of this Health Bill?

But what of the Conservative Party itself?  Well, it appears that they also have strange bedfellows when it comes to the Health Bill.  Lord Michael Ashcroft, who has donated over £5m to the Conservative Party over the past ten years, by chance, happens to be a key investor in Impellam Group.  Among the many things that Impellam Group control is Medacs Healthcare which provides temporary staffing solutions to healthcare providers.  Well, I cannot speak for everyone, but this again looks remakably like a major conflict of interest.  Is this not another company that will benefit heavily should this Health Bill be passed?

And the Liberal Democrats are not exactly coming up smelling of roses either.  Alpha Healthcare have made donations to the Liberal Democrat Party since 2004 to the tune of £540,000.

When all this is considered together, it certainly call into question the motivations behind the Health Bill and whether it is about improving patient care or just lining the pockets of those that provide funds to political parties.  It certainly does nothing to inspire trust in politicians.