Patients would come first, says Lansley
Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley today promised to make the NHS respond directly to the needs of patients by increasing their control over when and where they are treated.
Promoting the “Right to Choose” policy, he said that under the Conservatives, patients would be able to find out every hospital’s record on waiting times, infection rates and patient experiences so that they could make meaningful choices.
Treatment in the NHS would remain free, and patients going private to get a higher level of service would be paid half what the operation would cost on the NHS.
Speaking to the Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth, Mr Lansley denied Labour’s charge that Tories neither understood nor cared about the health service, and praised doctors and nurses for being “part of the fabric of our quality of life”.
The problem was that, under Labour, “first-class people are working in a second-rate system”, and the service is “submerged in bureaucracy”, he said.
The answer was to give patients more choice about how they were treated – and to give them real choice, not one restricted to “the options decided by the bureaucracy” as Labour wanted.
Patients would be able to book, through their GP, treatment at the hospital of their choice. The treatment would be free and to NHS standards, regardless of whether it was delivered at a foundation hospital or a private one. Patients wanting to go private and get extra services – taking the burden off the health service – would be supported by being paid half the NHS cost.
Mr Lansley said: “That’s a saving for the NHS and a fair deal for patients who would otherwise pay twice for their healthcare. It’s a practical approach which will deliver further reductions in waiting lists for everyone.”
He said choice was “a powerful means to an end” to deliver the services patients needed – but to create choice, information was essential.
“Getting more information about waiting times, infection rates on wards, clinical outcomes, the number of cancelled operations, whether there are mixed sex wards or single rooms, access and transport and patient’s experiences at the hospital – such information makes choice real.”
People would still be free to choose their local hospital, he insisted.
“But if you want to be treated in weeks rather than months, or one hospital has high infection rates on the ward, then you should be able to choose another hospital.
“Labour would restrict choice to the options decided by the bureaucracy. That is no choice.”
The Shadow Health Secretary said patient choice would stimulate investment but also determine where that extra investment went. In addition, it would encourage patients to take responsibility for their own care and force hospitals to provide better care, including infection-free wards and lower waiting times.
He attacked Labour’s record on public health, saying levels of TB, binge-drinking and obesity were “shocking”, and pledged to create the post of Secretary of State for Public Health in a Conservative administration.
