Paediatricians withdraw support for health bill

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has become the latest medical organisation to call on the government to drop its controversial changes to the NHS in England.

The decision was taken just three days after the group met David Cameron to discuss the plans, which ministers say would encourage more competition from private companies and charities. .

President of the college, Professor Terence Stephenson, said it never backed the Health and Social Care Bill, and now a substantial majority of voting members believed the plans carried "risk for children and young people".