Tories: NHS is vital
Thursday, 03 Jan 2008 11:53
David Cameron has affirmed his belief in the importance of the UK's health service, saying "few things matter more to our country than the NHS".
His comments came in a speech at the start of the year in which he laid out the Conservative party's aim to become the party of the NHS - stealing the crown away from Labour.
Speaking at a hospital in Manchester, Mr Cameron pledged that his party would "work tirelessly… to deserve the trust of the patients and staff of the NHS".
"In this, the NHS's 60th year, the Conservative Party has an historic opportunity: to replace Labour as the party of the NHS," he said.
"That's quite an aspiration - but I believe it is our duty to live up to it. To be the party of the NHS is an honour that must be earned."
Laying out Conservative policy on the NHS, Mr Cameron said his party would remove "all centrally-imposed process targets", enabling staff to "focus instead on outcomes".
"We'll stop the health department endlessly measuring processes, and concentrate on outcomes - the 'what' not the 'how'," the Conservative leader said.
"We'll measure cancer survival rates, for instance - not the number of radiotherapy courses delivered per month in a particular oncology unit.
"That means that health policy can become evidence-based rather than target-driven - delivering not only equity, but excellence and value for money too."
One of the most controversial policies announced by Mr Cameron is for money to be withheld from hospitals which fail to prevent hospital-acquired infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile (C.diff).
"It should be a basic rule of social policy that you don't pay for what you don't want more of. Money should attend success, not failure," he explained.
"So, for instance, I don't think hospitals should be paid - or paid in full - for a treatment which leaves the patient with a hospital-acquired infection like MRSA."