Jack Perschke » Health

David Cameron’s Video – Why Vote Conservative?

Jack — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:20:57 +0000

If you’re umming and aaahing about whether or not to vote Conservative at the next election, I hope this helps.

Conservatives and the NHS

Jack — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:09:54 +0000

Cameron launches our draft manifesto for the NHS

David Cameron has launched the Conservative Party’s draft health manifesto, and is asking for your questions about it online.

Over three years ago Cameron spelled out his priorities in three letters – NHS. Since then, we have consistently fought to protect the values the NHS stands for and have campaigned to defend the NHS from Labour’s cuts and reorganisations.

Cameron today gave a speech setting out our plans for healthcare, and Shadow Cabinet members and activists up and down the country have been campaigning on the issue.

As the party of the NHS, we will never change the idea at the heart of our NHS – that healthcare in this country is free at the point of use and available to everyone based on need, not ability to pay. Labour promised to save the NHS but today, despite the massive increase in spending, the gap in health outcomes between the UK and the rest of Europe has actually widened.

A decade of top-down, bureaucratic mismanagement has consistently undermined the professionalism and motivation of NHS staff and skewed NHS priorities away from patient care, creating a culture where ticking boxes is more important than giving patients the treatment they need. We can’t go on with an NHS that puts targets before patients.

We understand the pressures the NHS faces. In recognition of its special place in our society, we are committed to protecting health spending in real terms – we will not make the sick pay for Labour’s Debt Crisis. But that doesn’t mean the NHS shouldn’t change. When you’re more likely to die of cancer in Britain than most other countries in Europe – and when the number of managers in the NHS is rising almost three times as fast as the number of nurses – the question isn’t whether the NHS should change, it’s how the NHS should change.

We have a reform plan to make the changes the NHS needs. Our reform plan, detailed in this Draft Manifesto, is based on the methods of the post-bureaucratic age – decentralisation, accountability and transparency.

You can read the Draft Manifesto in full using the document reader below, or alternatively click here to download a copy in PDF format. To ask David a question about any of the policies, or to vote on other people’s questions, go to the Draft Manifesto page.

Health

Jack — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:15:10 +0000

Few things matter more to our country than the NHS – it’s an institution that binds the nation together.

And a Conservative Government will work tirelessly to earn the trust of the patients and staff of the NHS.

We will always provide the funding the NHS needs and are committed to real increases in health spending
We will scrap Labour’s plans to cut A&E and maternity services, which are not supported by evidence that patient access and care will be improved, so that patients have access to high-quality services at their local hospital
We will protect family doctor services by opposing Labour’s plans to impose impersonal “polyclinics” at the expense of local GP surgeries
We will make money available for 45,000 more single rooms in the NHS over five years, almost doubling their current number. This will mean every patient going into hospital for planned care can have a single room if they want one
We will reform the way drugs are priced so that all new treatments that are clinically effective are made available, ending the situation whereby cancer drugs that are routinely available in the rest of Europe and not provided in this country

Most importantly, we will set the NHS free from the ministerial meddling that has resulted in money being diverted from patient care to wasteful bureaucracy. We want to deliver an NHS that provides the best health standards in the world, and ensure every patient is able to choose a good healthcare provider for their needs.

Our draft NHS Autonomy and Accountability Bill, published in 2007, set out plans to release NHS staff from top-down interference and allow them to concentrate on doing what they do best: providing top-quality care to patients.

A vital part of this is the creation of an independent NHS Board to take responsibility for dividing up NHS funds between different parts of the country away from Ministerial meddling. This body will allocate money fairly and in a way which will help secure equal access to healthcare for all.

Find out more about our health policies by downloading Our Plan for NHS Improvement