Radical plans to reform the NHS may be amended, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has said.
Lansley said that the plans, which include giving control of 80% of NHS spending on commissioning to GPs and bringing in more private competition, were “always under review”.
He added that if possible the Government would “clarify and amend in order to reassure people” on the NHS reforms - following criticisms of the proposals at the Liberal Democrat spring conference.
Speaking on The Politics Show on BBC1 on Sunday, the Conservative Health Secretary said: “As you put a bill through Parliament you look carefully at how the legislation delivers in the context of the reforms that we have set out.
“We have already made changes, we are not sitting there going: ‘Oh, we know the answers and nothing must change.’”
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At the Lib Dem conference in Sheffield, Baroness Shirley Williams called the NHS reforms “lousy”, while backbencher Andrew George said the Lib Dems should not be the “architects of the NHS’s demise”.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg responded to the criticism, rejecting claims that the reforms would lead to the health service being privatised.
Clegg said: “No Government of which I am part will tamper with the essential contract at the heart of the NHS: to care collectively for each other as fellow citizens.
“World-class health care for all. Publicly funded. Free. Centred on patients, not profits. So yes to health reforms, but no – always no – to the privatisation of health.”
Lansley’s comments follow policy reversals from the coalition government on selling forest land and scrapping free milk for under-fives.