Nick Clegg has singled out the role of Monitor, the NHS regulator, as the area of the embattled NHS bill that needs the “most substantial changes” and has said that all references to the body being an economic regulator “should be removed”.

In a presentation by the deputy prime minister to the weekly meeting of his parliamentary party and leaked to the Guardian, Clegg circulated a page-long document in which he set out how he believes the regulator should be reconceived.

“Instead of having a duty to promote competition, Monitor’s main duty should be explicitly to protect and promote the interests of patients,” Clegg wrote, saying the NHS cannot be regulated as if it was just a utility “like electricity or telephones”.

A new role for Monitor has long been a running sore in the health secretary’s plans. Last week Steve Field, the man appointed by David Cameron to oversee the “pause” in the health legislation, said he also thought the proposed new role for Monitor should be scrapped. Instead, it should promote co-operation and collaboration and the integration of health services.

…more at The Guardian

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   Clegg pushes back at Lansley on NHS regulator http://bit.ly/kre0Px

2. Crimson Crip

   RT @libcon: Clegg pushes back at Lansley on NHS regulator http://bit.ly/kre0Px