The revolt has come days before the bill is due to get its second reading in the Lords next Tuesday (October 11).
In an open letter the health experts have said the plans will cause ‘irreparable harm’ and should be thrown out.
The letter states that proposals will put patients at risk, waste money and damage public trust in the NHS.
The call for peers to reject the bill was published in the
Daily Telegraph and concludes:
‘It is our professional judgement that the Health and Social Care Bill will erode the NHS’s ethical and co-operative foundations and that it will not deliver efficiency, quality, fairness or choice.
‘We therefore request that you reject passage of the Health and Social Care Bill.’
The letter was coordinated by Dr David McCoy, a senior clinical research fellow at University College London and NHS public health consultant.
It was signed by more than 300 public health figures, including about 50 professors, who signed up in just a few days.
A Department of Health spokesman said there was disappointment that those who have signed the letter have ‘fallen back into such generalised assertions for which there is not one shred of evidence’.
He added that the reform plans are a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ to put public health at the heart of local health plans.
Shadow health secretary John Healey said the Tories are in denial about how strong opposition is to the bill and has also called on the Lords to reject it.
He said the government has ‘railroaded its plans through the Commons’ and added that ‘heavy responsibility is now going to be shouldered by the Lords’.
David Cameron has continued to defend the reform and said he is not surprised that some NHS staffs are wary about parts of the proposals.
He said there have always been opponents to ‘greater choice for patients and greater competition with the NHS’.
But added that he believes the reforms ‘will improve patient care’ and ‘above all, they will be good for patients’.
