NHS direct result- Cameron 2 Brown 0
Health Direct is pleased to report that at long last the Conservatives have produced a positive set of proposals for the future of the NHS. Coming hard on the heels of brother brown's bonkers plan for the NHS at last week's Labour conference, it looks as though politicians are finally waking up to the plea of millions of voters for a proper health service.
Now building on his lead according to today's FT David Cameron will next week challenge Gordon Brown to prove his modernising credentials by calling on him to back a Conservative proposal that would finally embed the healthcare market initiated by Tony Blair.
Mr Cameron will seek to turn the spotlight on the chancellor's commitment to radical reform as parliament returns from the long summer break by urging the government to support Conservative plans for an "independence bill" for the National Health Service.
Under Mr Cameron's proposal, a statutorily independent board would be responsible for commissioning care for NHS patients. A separate economic regulator would oversee competition between NHS hospitals, foundation trusts and the independent sector. And a third body would undertake resource allocation, ensuring ministers could not manipulate it for political ends.
Mr Cameron will claim the bill represents a coherent way to give the NHS greater independence at a time when the government itself is divided over Mr Brown's proposal for an NHS board, and when details of the chancellor's proposals are still skeletal.
The package would cement the separation between commissioning and supply of services, and the greater involvement of the private and voluntary sectors, towards which the NHS is heading.
It would put the seal on Mr Blair's NHS reform programme, which the Conservatives would offer to support in the teeth of backbench Labour opposition and any reservations the chancellor may have - just as they did with the schools bill earlier this year.
In the longer run, the Conservatives hope it would remove the NHS as an election issue. Mr Cameron has already pledged that under the Conservatives, the NHS would remain tax-funded and free at the point of use, with treatment based on need not ability to pay.
The Tories calculate that if Mr Brown, as Labour's heir presumptive, backs their "independence bill", it would be hard for him to accuse them of dismantling the NHS at the election.
If he declines - or supports a version that does not set in place the purchaser/provider divide - it would allow them to portray Mr Brown as "the road block to reform" since government policy is already heading in that direction.
Andrew Lansley, shadow health spokesman, said on BBC radio yesterday the Tories had said repeatedly they wanted "to take the politics and politicians out of day-to-day management of the NHS". He added: "If Gordon Brown agrees with us, to that extent it is great," but he doubted the chancellor wanted genuinely to abandon government targets to make the NHS independent.
In the absence of any detail, the chancellor's proposal for an NHS board has split Labour MPs. Some Blairites believe that implementing such a change now would halt reform as the service would not take the purchaser/provider split to the next stage without ministerial direction. Some Brownites hope that it would indeed slow up, or halt, the marketisation of services.
Mr Brown himself has not made his intention clear.
The full report can be found at:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/717252ee-540e-11db-8a2a-0000779e2340.html
Now building on his lead according to today's FT David Cameron will next week challenge Gordon Brown to prove his modernising credentials by calling on him to back a Conservative proposal that would finally embed the healthcare market initiated by Tony Blair.
Mr Cameron will seek to turn the spotlight on the chancellor's commitment to radical reform as parliament returns from the long summer break by urging the government to support Conservative plans for an "independence bill" for the National Health Service.
Under Mr Cameron's proposal, a statutorily independent board would be responsible for commissioning care for NHS patients. A separate economic regulator would oversee competition between NHS hospitals, foundation trusts and the independent sector. And a third body would undertake resource allocation, ensuring ministers could not manipulate it for political ends.
Mr Cameron will claim the bill represents a coherent way to give the NHS greater independence at a time when the government itself is divided over Mr Brown's proposal for an NHS board, and when details of the chancellor's proposals are still skeletal.
The package would cement the separation between commissioning and supply of services, and the greater involvement of the private and voluntary sectors, towards which the NHS is heading.
It would put the seal on Mr Blair's NHS reform programme, which the Conservatives would offer to support in the teeth of backbench Labour opposition and any reservations the chancellor may have - just as they did with the schools bill earlier this year.
In the longer run, the Conservatives hope it would remove the NHS as an election issue. Mr Cameron has already pledged that under the Conservatives, the NHS would remain tax-funded and free at the point of use, with treatment based on need not ability to pay.
The Tories calculate that if Mr Brown, as Labour's heir presumptive, backs their "independence bill", it would be hard for him to accuse them of dismantling the NHS at the election.
If he declines - or supports a version that does not set in place the purchaser/provider divide - it would allow them to portray Mr Brown as "the road block to reform" since government policy is already heading in that direction.
Andrew Lansley, shadow health spokesman, said on BBC radio yesterday the Tories had said repeatedly they wanted "to take the politics and politicians out of day-to-day management of the NHS". He added: "If Gordon Brown agrees with us, to that extent it is great," but he doubted the chancellor wanted genuinely to abandon government targets to make the NHS independent.
In the absence of any detail, the chancellor's proposal for an NHS board has split Labour MPs. Some Blairites believe that implementing such a change now would halt reform as the service would not take the purchaser/provider split to the next stage without ministerial direction. Some Brownites hope that it would indeed slow up, or halt, the marketisation of services.
Mr Brown himself has not made his intention clear.
The full report can be found at:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/717252ee-540e-11db-8a2a-0000779e2340.html
posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic at
9:44 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home