A HEALTH expert from Huddersfield has predicted chaos in Britain’s health service.

Peter Bradshaw echoed the fears of GPs who have written to Prime Minister David Cameron over plans to revamp the NHS.

The Government risks “unravelling” the NHS irreversibly if it fails to re-think key elements of its plans to reform the health service, a doctors’ leader has warned.

Dr Clare Gerada, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), said there were “several elements” in the Health and Social Care Bill which, if enacted, would “cause harm” to patients and potentially destabilise the NHS forever.

That view was supported by Dr Bradshaw, emeritus professor of health service policy at Huddersfield University.

He said: “GPs are rightly concerned. One of their major fears is that private providers will be brought in to run health care services and their prime motive will be profit.

“That could lead to a return of the postcode lottery health services and also a fragmentation with some services not being provided by the new providers but by a sub-standard NHS.

“The private companies have responsibilities to their shareholders first and foremost and that is a worry.”

The pause called by the Government in the passage of the Bill should be used for a rewrite of the section dealing with competition, said Dr Gerada.

“I would hope that during this pause that actually the Government will reflect on what we are all saying and will rewrite the part of the Bill which is actually risking the NHS.”

Her remarks were made as the RCGP wrote to the Prime Minister outlining “serious concerns” regarding aspects of the proposals and offering a number of recommendations.