The former Westcountry MP argues plans to hand GPs up to £100 billion of the health budget and increase private sector involvement risks undermining "vital aspects and principles of the NHS".
Lord Owen, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) founder, said the reforms would lead to an increase in litigation claims and damage the relationship between doctor and patient.
"There was no mention in either the Conservative or Liberal Democrat party manifestos of an intention to carry forward anything like this revolutionary change," he claims.
Lord Owen, a former MP for Plymouth Devonport, is hoping substantial parts of the controversial Health and Social Care Bill can be re-written when it shortly enters the House of Lords.
Born in Plymouth, Lord Owen, a former GP, was health minister in the Labour government of the 1970s before forming the SDP.
He has now published a pamphlet ahead of speaking yesterday in the Lords on NHS care. The report calls on the coalition Government to "replace existing health ministers", allowing for "fresh thinking, and much less dogmatism".
Under the reforms, 80 per cent of the NHS budget will pass to GPs to commission services for patients. The Bill also allows for increased competition between the NHS and private companies – the concept of "any willing provider".
Lord Owen said plans to abolish local primary care trusts, including those covering Cornwall, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, "immediately destabilised" the NHS and saw good doctors and nurses "look for the exit door".
He said the added commissioning responsibilities had left a "large proportion" of GPs "silent and, perhaps, bewildered, by the changes".
By increasing private sector health sector provision, ministers are "embarking on a course involving the deepest conflict with age-old values, traditions and concepts of respect and the public good", he said.
"Health is not a market commodity," Lord Owen said.
The intervention came as reports yesterday suggested that Downing Street fears Health Secretary Andrew Lansley's reforms could do lasting damage to Mr Cameron.
In his report, Lord Owen said that cherishing the NHS was a key aspect of Mr Cameron's election campaign.
He said: "Many NHS workers were wooed by Cameron's obvious emotional commitment to the NHS care his son had received."
Preparing to attack the Bill in the Lords yesterday, the crossbench peer said the coalition lacked a mandate for many of the reforms.
He said: "Perhaps the Government are deliberately hiding the ends because they know if they did not do so it would make its health policy even more unpopular and incoherent."
Sarah Wollaston, GP-turned-Tory MP for Totnes, has warned that the Government is in danger of changing the NHS "beyond recognition" and the reform is "doomed to fail".
But health minister Simon Burns responded: "The report isn't an accurate reflection of what we are doing to modernise the NHS. We are passionate about ensuring high quality, efficient services for patients."
Lord Owen, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) founder, said the reforms would lead to an increase in litigation claims and damage the relationship between doctor and patient.
"There was no mention in either the Conservative or Liberal Democrat party manifestos of an intention to carry forward anything like this revolutionary change," he claims.
Born in Plymouth, Lord Owen, a former GP, was health minister in the Labour government of the 1970s before forming the SDP.
He has now published a pamphlet ahead of speaking yesterday in the Lords on NHS care. The report calls on the coalition Government to "replace existing health ministers", allowing for "fresh thinking, and much less dogmatism".
Under the reforms, 80 per cent of the NHS budget will pass to GPs to commission services for patients. The Bill also allows for increased competition between the NHS and private companies – the concept of "any willing provider".
Lord Owen said plans to abolish local primary care trusts, including those covering Cornwall, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, "immediately destabilised" the NHS and saw good doctors and nurses "look for the exit door".
He said the added commissioning responsibilities had left a "large proportion" of GPs "silent and, perhaps, bewildered, by the changes".
By increasing private sector health sector provision, ministers are "embarking on a course involving the deepest conflict with age-old values, traditions and concepts of respect and the public good", he said.
"Health is not a market commodity," Lord Owen said.
The intervention came as reports yesterday suggested that Downing Street fears Health Secretary Andrew Lansley's reforms could do lasting damage to Mr Cameron.
In his report, Lord Owen said that cherishing the NHS was a key aspect of Mr Cameron's election campaign.
He said: "Many NHS workers were wooed by Cameron's obvious emotional commitment to the NHS care his son had received."
Preparing to attack the Bill in the Lords yesterday, the crossbench peer said the coalition lacked a mandate for many of the reforms.
He said: "Perhaps the Government are deliberately hiding the ends because they know if they did not do so it would make its health policy even more unpopular and incoherent."
Sarah Wollaston, GP-turned-Tory MP for Totnes, has warned that the Government is in danger of changing the NHS "beyond recognition" and the reform is "doomed to fail".
But health minister Simon Burns responded: "The report isn't an accurate reflection of what we are doing to modernise the NHS. We are passionate about ensuring high quality, efficient services for patients."
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