According to the Conservative Party website the Conservative Party will try to achieve the following if they gain power at the 2010 general election:
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.
Conservative Party Health and NHS Policy :http://www.conservatives.com/Policy/Where_we_stand/Health.aspx
I would be interested to hear both positive and negative views on Conservative’s Health and NHS policies in the comments below?
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3 responses to Conservative Policies : Conservative Health and NHS Policy
The Conservatives don’t seem to have twigged that most patients – acutely ill or living with long term condition – are in no position to choose anything other than the nearest provider. Or that if we were going to be choosing other providers there would have to be spare capacity, which costs money. Choice is fine if the buyers understand what they are buying and can learn from their mistakes.
You can’t buy or sell health. You can only sell treatment. So markets and choice might deliver more treatment, but they won’t deliver health.
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Conservative Policies : Conservative Health and NHS Policy
I had an operation on my back almost a year ago (very long term chronic pain) I went to the closest NHS surgeon for two degraded discs to be fused/pinned.
I researched the surgeon online and read some good stuff (he was well published), so I was happy with him, but if I wasn’t and I had a choice there wouldn’t have been a lot I could do with it anyway since I couldn’t travel long distances (was hard enough travelling 1 hour to the hospital to see my surgeon).
Giving patients a choice sounds great, but isn’t the NHS under enough pressure without adding another layer of costly bureaucracy in managing something like this?
Wouldn’t the money be better spent removing bad doctors etc… that no one wants to be treated by? You hear about them on the news from time to time when a hospital has a poor record in some area due to specific doctors.
Similar question with 45,000 more single beds, is that really a good use of tax payers money?
It’s the NHS not private health care, by luck I was in a private room after my operation for about a day and a half until some idiot was playing up on the ward and they switched me, have to admit preferred being on the ward: 6 days in a room on my own, would not have been fun! It also appeared to be more effort for the nurses dealing with patients in single rooms.
Wouldn’t the money be better spent on removing mixed sex wards which IMO is a much bigger issue than single rooms!
All that being said is the 45,000 single rooms still a Conservative policy, I see the page I got the above Conservative Health policy from has changed?
I looked through the Conservative Draft Health Manifesto, but there’s only a mention of aiming for single beds:
“Single rooms are needed to control infection and provide safety and privacy. We will end the scandal of mixed-sex accommodation and increase the number of single rooms in hospitals, as resources allow.”
You’d think when I made this site and added the Conservative policies in September 2009 they’d have pretty much had their general election policies nailed down by then. Looks like I have to update them all!
David
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Conservative Policies : Conservative Health and NHS Policy
Are these aspirations or promises. If promises how much will it cost and given we are in a recession where is the money coming from. Could I suggest that for once the obscenely rich make some serious contributions for a change.
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