Lib Dem plans to protect and improve the NHS (Wantage and Didcot Liberal Democrats)

Wantage and Didcot Liberal Democrats <info@wantagelibdems.org.uk>

Lib Dem plans to protect and improve the NHS

March 1, 2010 7:42 AM

Wantage & Didcot spokesman Alan Armitage at Wallingford community hospital

Lib Dem Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb MP has published a paper outlining the ways in which the Party would protect and improve the National Health Service. This can be read in full at http://www.etelligent.uk.com/etelligent/published/LIBDEMSFEDERAL/siteFiles/resources/pdf/protecting_and_improving_the_nhs.pdf

Party Leader Nick Clegg MP said: "The NHS is a source of pride because it's built on the basic British principle of fairness. We're right to be proud of the NHS but the truth is that it still isn't as good as it should be: it's often too big and complex, too much money is being wasted on bureaucracy and doctors and nurses spend too much time trying to meet government targets instead of caring for patients. Liberal Democrats are totally committed to the NHS, free at the point of use - care when you need it, regardless of your ability to pay."

But that is just the starting point. The real challenge is to improve the NHS at a time when the public finances are in a mess. We need a new approach. That means changing the way the NHS works so the money goes further and patients come first. Our first priority is this: the money we save from cutting back on waste, we will reinvest back into the healthcare you need. We will give people the power to have a say in how their local NHS is run and stop hospital closures in their area.

Entitlements to treatment will be backed up by a guarantee that if you're not treated on time, the NHS will pay for you to go private. We will give everyone the right to choose their GP and tackle health inequalities by paying doctors extra to treat patients from the most deprived areas. The paper sets out the Liberal Democrats commitments to the NHS in three main areas:

• Protecting and Improving the NHS

• More control over the healthcare you need

• Quality care for all patients

One of the problems with the way the NHS is run is that politicians and bureaucrats keep interfering. Lib Dems want to change this by devolving power into the hands of local people. In a decentralised model, the need for a costly, all-powerful Department of Health, micromanaging the day-to-day operation of the NHS, disappears. Reducing the size of the central bureaucracy could lead to enormous efficiency savings. The Lib Dems will halve the size of the Department of Health over the next parliament. We will also halve the amount the Department of Health spends on advertising, publishing and public relations.

Liberal Democrats believe that one important way to improve the NHS is to make care flexible, designed to suit what patients' need. And we believe care would improve if local people had a say in how their health services were run. We will give power back to doctors and nurses by giving them control over budgets and responsibility for running their own wards and units. And we will give people the power to take control over their local NHS through elected health boards.