Reforms come under fire in angry debate on NHS

The Government's health reforms were savaged by angry delegates at the Labour conference as the leader of Britain's biggest union said the NHS was now under greater threat than it was during Conservative rule.

While staff in a vital part of the NHS took strike action over privatisation, the assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution warning that "immense damage" was being caused by the "breakneck speed of change". It was the Labour leadership's second defeat of the day following a call by conference for more direct investment in council housing. Amid rowdy scenes, the conference decisively rejected a compromise statement from the party executive offering greater consultation over NHS reforms.

Dave Prentis, leader of the public service union Unison, denounced ministers for ordering a "dangerous change of direction" in policy towards the health service. The Unison general secretary told the conference in Manchester that cutbacks, redundancies and "market madness" meant that the NHS was "moving into crisis".

Mr Prentis, whose speech was cut short by the conference chairman, said the Government was at risk of squandering the legacy set by the Labour government elected in 1997which had saved the NHS from the "ravages of privatisation" under the Tories.

Mr Prentis warned that health service staff were being demoralised by a "tidal wave" of reform and a "permanent revolution". Officials running the debate infuriated delegates by switching off Mr Prentis's microphone after he exceeded the prescribed 10 minutes. One delegate shouted: "Let him finish. It's our conference, not yours."

Jack Dromey, the party treasurer, accused Gary Titley, leader of the Labour group in the European Parliament who was chairing the conference, of "outrageous discourtesy".

The Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, said there were limits to the role of the private sector in the NHS, but defended the Government's record.

She told the conference that the Government could not turn its back on the £1bn that she said would be made available to the health service as a consequence of the decision to outsource NHS Logistics.

As the row broke out, hundreds of Unison members walked out on the second of two 24-hour strikes at NHS Logistics in protest at the decision to contract out its operations to the delivery company DHL.

Mr Prentis has written to the Health minister Andy Burnham, seeking assurances from him that the terms and conditions of NHS Logistics staff will be protected when DHL takes over.

He urged the Government to postpone the DHL takeover, due on Sunday, until written guarantees had been provided. He said the company had failed to attend a meeting called to discuss the issues.

The Unison leader said that concerns had grown among NHS Logistics staff after the GMB general union called a ballot on strike action at DHL, accusing the company of seeking to dismiss 3,000 of its existing permanent staff and replace them with casual labour.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said that protection for the workforce was written into the 10-year contract with DHL. But in his letter to the minister, Mr Prentis said Unison representatives had not seen the document and needed to know precisely what assurances had been given and how they would be enforced.

Speaking at a fringe meeting at the party conference, Mr Burnham said the decision to contract out the services provided by NHS Logistics was a "difficult" one and said he would consider if it was possible to show to Unison officials the parts of the contract with DHL dealing with employees' terms and conditions.