UK physicians reject the Health and Social Care Bill.

Christmas has not been benevolent to the Andrew Lansley's brainchild. Pressure is mounting on the , Health and Social Care Bill, now that the report stage – further line by line examination  - is about to be scheduled.

The British Medical Association, a voluntary association with over two-thirds of practising UK doctors in membership and an independent trade union, released in December a position statement "Why the BMA is opposing the whole Bill". The document calls for the "reform package as a whole" to be rethought. "It is not too late to think again. The Government’s reform approach is adversely affecting the ability of the health service to deal with the real priority of improving quality in the face of a massive financial challenge. This, rather than unnecessary and unwelcome restructuring, should be the priority."

Seven former presidents of the  Faculty of Public Health (FPH), the standard setting body for specialists in public health in the United Kingdom, have recently written to prime minister David Cameron to warn that the proposals will damage the public’s health and that ‘the package of changes proposed in the NHS Health and Social Care Bill will disrupt and destabilise the health service and exacerbate inequalities in the health of the population of England.’ An extraordinary General Meeting of the has been called by the end of the month to discuss the FPH's position.

GPs might be expected to show much more enthusiastic support for a Bill that would put them in the driver's seat of the NHS. But they clearly do not.

A recent online poll conducted by the Royal College of General Practitioners among its members on the support and actions to be taken in the relation to the Health and Social Care Bill has included 2,625 self selected members from a membership of over 44,000 (about 7%). With this limitations in mind, the results show that about 5 out of 10 of the participants "strongly" support to seek the withdrawal of the bill, while about other 3 out of 10 would support it. and it did not really make much of difference whether this should be done in isolation (93%) or as part of a joint effort with other Colleges (98%).

If the bill is finally passed in its current format, the opposition of the very professionals that will have responsibility for its implementing casts serious doubts that it may achieve the stated objectives.