Political news

LMC leaders have rejected a call for a ‘slap on the wrist’ for BMA leaders over their handling of the Government’s NHS reforms, in a close vote this morning.

Exclusive The Labour Party will support the proposed industrial action by GPs over pensions so long as measures are taken to prevent it damaging patient care, Pulse can reveal.

Exclusive The headline-grabbing rollout of the Government’s flagship psychological therapies programme has not been funded by new money and comes at the expense of existing mental health initiatives, Pulse can reveal.

The Government’s Health and Social Care Bill has cleared its final hurdle and is now law, after receiving Royal Assent.

BMA chair Dr Hamish Meldrum, Professor Wendy Savage, co-chair of Keep Our NHS Public and NHS Confederation chief executive Mike Farrar give their views

The GPC will press the Government to make the health reforms work for the benefit of patients rather than private companies, now that they are poised to become law.

Nearly 250 doctors including scores of GPs have launched a campaign to unseat Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs at the next election as revenge for backing the health bill.

Liberal Democrat party members dealt a further blow to party leader Nick Clegg this weekend by failing to back the coalition Government’s concessions on the Health and Social Care Bill.

Liberal Democrat activists face a crucial vote this weekend over whether to back the Government’s controversial health bill, or call for it to be scrapped.

The BMA is to proceed with plans to ballot GPs on industrial action after a final pensions offer tabled by the Government refused to offer any major concessions.

The Government has lost its appeal against a decision instructing it to publish the risks associated with the introduction of its NHS reforms.

A GP leader who has been filmed chasing health secretary Andrew Lansley on a visit to a London hospital to voice his concerns over the health bill, says he was forced to take action after his requests for a talk with Mr Lansley were snubbed.

Exclusive Dozens of CCG leaders are to hit back at calls from fellow commissioning GPs for the health bill to be dropped, backing a joint letter warning that abandoning the bill now would be a ‘disaster’.

Exclusive A second clinical commissioning group has written to the Prime Minister calling for the withdrawal of the health bill, as GP commissioners pile pressure on the Government to rethink the legislation.

The GPC has called on the Government to withdraw the health bill and begin drawing up a ‘sensible alternative’ that would maintain GP commissioning without the need for legislation in Parliament.

Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband clashed in the House of Commons today over Tower Hamlets clinical commissioning group’s call for the health bill to be scrapped.

MPs on the Backbench Business Committee have refused to allow time for a parliamentary debate after a leading GP’s e-petition calling on the Government to drop the health bill collected more than 162,000 signatures.

Exclusive A pioneering CCG led by the senior GP who hosted Andrew Lansley’s first public speech as health secretary has become the first in the country to urge the Prime Minister to drop the health bill.

Exclusive The BMA will decide a menu of ‘craft-specific’ options for industrial action over pensions, with members warning they have to avoid the ‘bear trap’ of being blamed by the Government for service failures.

Following the news this weekend that the BMA is to ballot its members on industrial action short of strikes, read all the reaction from leading figures on both sides of the dispute.

See where your local pathfinder is, who is running it and what population it will cover.