Doctors Labour MPs and trade unions urged the Government to slow its plans to create a

Doctors, Labour MPs and trade unions urged the Government to slow its plans to create a network of prestige hospitals yesterday after one of Tony Blair’s senior advisers warned that they could create a two-tier health service. Two motions have been tabled calling on the organisation to oppose the scheme.The Government came under pressure to think again after The Independent disclosed that Adair Turner, a member of Mr Blair’s “blue skies” Forward Strategy Unit, had recommended a delay until after the capacity of the NHS had been increased.But Downing Street insisted the plans would not be delayed, saying: “This is about a process of levelling up, not levelling down, and it is about improving standards right across the board.”The Department of Health stuck to its goal of seeing the first wave of foundation hospitals set up by the end of next year. The Treasury, though, is understood to echo Mr Turner’s caution on the planned timescale.David Hinchliffe, Labour chairman of the Health Select Committee, said the Government would have difficulty ignoring a warning from such a senior adviser “The points that Adair Turner is making are very relevant Among many Labour MPs … there are very real fears that we could have a two-tier system arising from the advantage being given to foundation hospitals.”John Edmonds, general secretary of the GMB union, which has thousands of members working in hospitals, said: “The trade unions have been warning for months that the Government’s privatisation plans would lead to the fragmentation of the NHS, and Mr Turner has confirmed that view. If the Prime Minister will not listen to trade unionists, perhaps he will at least take note of his own adviser.”In the BMA survey, doctors expressed concern that freeing hospitals able to achieve the top “three star” performance rating would widen the divide with other hospitals.John Wattis, a consultant in old age psychiatry in Leeds, said: “I think the whole thing is a terribly divisive idea. Everyone in the NHS needs a less centrally directed, more empowering style of management.

Just giving this to the fortunate few, who for historical reasons are better off than the rest, will only increase inequality and reduce morale.”Bernie Bedford a South-ampton GP, said: “It’s arguable that the people who most need freeing from central control are the ones that aren’t performing so well Those in difficulty may well get worse.”. The plight of the couple who have been ordered to remove the security gates from their home in Hampstead Garden Suburb, north London, will have struck a chord in many. They installed the gates after they had been attacked several times but planners do not want the character of the area changed. Moneynetmortgagesearches The plight of the couple who have been ordered to remove the security gates from their home in Hampstead Garden Suburb, north London, will have struck a chord in many. The difference now is that the measures people are adopting are designed to keep themselves safe as much as their possessions.

Gates deter the less determined and are popular, Noel de Keyzer of FPDSavills in Hampstead, says.”Overt wealth attracts muggings, and we have seen car-jackings and nasty break-ins here. When people hear of violent robberies they are bound to take extra precautions and they’re prepared to spend a lot on sophisticated security devices. Sonic beams, closed circuit television, isolation facilities on the alarm and panic buttons are all becoming more common.”At the extreme, panic rooms, along the lines of Jodie Foster’s new movie, Panic Room, are beginning to appear. Those who feel vulnerable, want to be able to retreat behind steel doors with a safety system that has CCTV, telecoms, gas detection equipment and an air supply. FPDSavills have two properties with panic rooms, one at £2m, the other £5m.But even homes between £200,000 and £700,000 have had security upgrades, Mr de Keyzer says.

In Kentish Town, north London, each flat in a converted school has its own burglar alarm, and at another development, intruders crossing the perimeter face a warning triggered by cameras.This year’s crime figures do little to reassure the nervous. A long-standing trend of falling crime has been reversed, driven in part by an increase in burglaries, muggings and other street crime. Avon and Somerset police, for instance, have reported a “shock rise” of 29 per cent in burglary and a 77 per cent boom in street robbery.The Metropolitan Police report a 5 per cent rise in burglary, and street crime up by 38 per cent. When there was a murder in a quiet Battersea street this year, people wondered if that would affect area house prices, Oliver Davenport of Douglas & Gordon’s Battersea office, in south London, says “It is amazing how short-lived peoples’ memories are. It has had no detrimental effect on the surrounding area.”But what I have noticed more recently is that the number of clients who do not want a ‘for sale’ board outside their property has risen dramatically to about 50 per cent A couple of years ago, that was 20 per cent. This is partly due to vendors being more security-conscious and concerned about unexpected visitors late at night claiming to be interested in the property.”In central London, where foreign purchasers have a strong presence, estate agents know security is a particular issue to those who do not live here 12 months a year and like to be confident about leaving their homes.