When I took on the job of shadow health secretary a month ago I made an offer to Andrew Lansley. I asked the government to put the NHS first by dropping their damaging Health and Social Care Bill and in return Labour will work with them to reform NHS commissioning within the existing structures. Andrew Lansley dismissed the offer with a churlish response, but it still stands. It would save money and bring much-needed stability to the system.

As the NHS faces the biggest financial challenge in its history, the very last thing it needs is to waste £2 billion on a distracting re-organisation. When I was health secretary, senior civil servants told me that the scale of this financial challenge was so enormous that it would require every ounce of our energy to get through it safely without seeing standards in the NHS slip backwards, damaging services and patient care.

But the necessary grip, focus and leadership at every level of the system has been lost. The NHS is in limbo and there is drift at local level. Waiting lists are getting longer, hospital trust finances are in a fragile state and random cuts are being made to services without any clear direction. The Government have allowed the Primary Care Trusts to disintegrate but the new structures are not properly established.

Instead of giving the NHS the stability it needs to focus on the financial challenge, the Government has thrown all the pieces of the jigsaw up in the air. It has allowed the NHS to become bogged down in a demoralising and destabilising debate about reorganisation.

It began as a vague pre-election promise to give GPs more say over commissioning decisions has evolved into a 420 page Bill that rips up everything that has gone before and unpicks the fabric of a successful NHS.

This is why today I launched Labour’s new campaign to unite the country in a call on the government to drop its unwanted Health Bill. The ‘Drop the Bill’ petition will show the full scale of opposition to the government’s plans and unify patients, NHS staff and the public in a final rallying cry.

It is plain for all to see that the government has abjectly failed to make the case and build support for its Bill. Polls of doctors, nurses and NHS staff show overwhelming opposition. But, most importantly, patients do not want it as they can see it spells the end of the NHS as we know it. By ploughing on with his Health Bill, Cameron is showing he is out of touch with public and professional opinion.

For ‘Drop the Bill’ to succeed it must be a grounded campaign with roots throughout our NHS. This is why Labour’s shadow health team will be holding events in every English region over the next three months, work-shadowing NHS staff and holding ‘Drop the Bill’ rallies.

Aneurin Bevan said there would be an NHS for as long as there were ‘folk left with the faith to fight for it’. I know there are many millions of people in England who share that faith. Today, I ask them to come forward, sign the petition and show they’ve got the fight to defend it.

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Andy Burnham MP is shadow secretary of state for health

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Photo: Drop the Bill