Cameron to meet health professionals

London: Prime Minister David Cameron begins the fight to save his NHS bill on Monday  by convening a summit of health practitioners to look at how to implement his health reforms.

The Downing Street round table, likely to be attended by the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, has already experienced controversy after some professional groups claimed to have been excluded owing to their hostility to the bill.

Cameron has said little in detail about the health reforms since the Conservative Home website called for the bill which is in the Lords to be dropped, and claimed at least three cabinet ministers were urging that it be shelved.

The prime minister is determined to ride out the criticism, but knows he has to win back alienated health professionals.

His aides insisted Cameron was not planning a second pause on the bill and was focused on getting it on to the statute book by the end of spring.

Significant changes

The Health Service Journal, which broke the news of the summit, claimed a number of professional groups were angry over who had or had not been invited.

Downing Street declined to give details of attendees, but it is thought to include the presidents of some of the royal medical colleges, NHS Confederation chief executive, Mike Farrar, and British Medical Association chairman, Hamish Meldrum.

It indicates the government intends to press on with implementing its health bill rather that discussing dropping it or making significant changes.

The Academy of Royal Colleges chair, Sir Neil Douglas, wrote to the Royal College presidents, saying: "Some of you will have been invited to a meeting with the prime minister on Monday. This is being titled as a meeting to discuss implementation of the NHS reforms which would indicate where the government is coming from." He added: "Just to clarify, this is not the meeting between the colleges and the PM that many of us discussed three weeks ago in BMA house but is a Downing Street initiative. We are not yet clear of the invitation list but it appears to be selective and definitely broader than the colleges."

Not invited

The chief of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Clare Gerada, confirmed her organisation has not been invited. The colleges of radiology and pathology have also not been invited.

However, the meeting will be an opportunity for Cameron to gauge the source of the controversy with the bill and how readily it can be overcome.

He is bound to face calls to drop the third part of the bill that focuses on extending competition, a position recently adopted by the Liberal Democrat peer Lady Williams to the surprise of some senior Lib Dems.

Aides to Nick Clegg are aware they are in danger of loyally defending a bill as part of the coalition agreement only to find the Conservatives retreat at the last minute.

News of the meeting came as the e-petition on the government website calling for the bill to be dropped rose to above 120,000 signatures.

— Guardian News& Media Ltd