Sunday, March 13, 2005
Delivering on health improvements
Last week I had the great pleasure of accompanying the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the Secretary of State for Health, Dr John Reid, to St George’s Hospital.
There they could see the benefits of the Labour Government’s record investment in the NHS with the new £50million Atkinson Morley wing, recently opened by the Princess Royal. We were also told of the improvements in Accident and Emergency waiting times, with 99% of patients treated, admitted or discharged within 4 hours compared to 55% in 1997, and of the four new GPs surgeries which have opened in Tooting since 1997.
But improvements achieved so far are still not enough. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair MP said, 'We are putting more money into Wandsworth's health services to improve local health services for all. In Tooting, the new £50 million Atkinson Morley hospital block and four new GP surgeries are making a real difference, but we know we need to do more. Our pledge on health, is that no one will wait more than 18 weeks from first visit to the GP to hospital treatment or operation.’
He went on to outline the three ways in which a Labour Government will achieve this.
'First, by increasing capacity in the NHS. There are nearly 20,000 more doctors and 77,000 nurses in the NHS than in 1997 with many more in medical schools. We are undertaking the biggest hospital building programme since the NHS was founded with 24 major new hospitals already open along with new treatment centres -
and scores more in the pipeline. This will enable us to treat more patients, faster.'
'Secondly, by increasing patient choice so that spare capacity in the system is used as efficiently as possible and patient can opt to have a faster operation by going somewhere other than the local hospital.'
'Thirdly, by using the independent health sector to cut waiting times for NHS patients
- in fact an extra 250,000 operations. But this capacity will be used to treat NHS patients in line with NHS values - free at the point of use and always with the judgement based on clinical need, not ability to pay.'
This is all in stark contrast to the Tory plans for the NHS, which will take £1billion out of the NHS to subsidise a few people to go private, if they have the money to meet the rest of the cost of their treatment. Remember, when the Conservatives were running the health service some people had to wait 18 months for treatment.
Sadiq
There they could see the benefits of the Labour Government’s record investment in the NHS with the new £50million Atkinson Morley wing, recently opened by the Princess Royal. We were also told of the improvements in Accident and Emergency waiting times, with 99% of patients treated, admitted or discharged within 4 hours compared to 55% in 1997, and of the four new GPs surgeries which have opened in Tooting since 1997.
But improvements achieved so far are still not enough. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair MP said, 'We are putting more money into Wandsworth's health services to improve local health services for all. In Tooting, the new £50 million Atkinson Morley hospital block and four new GP surgeries are making a real difference, but we know we need to do more. Our pledge on health, is that no one will wait more than 18 weeks from first visit to the GP to hospital treatment or operation.’
He went on to outline the three ways in which a Labour Government will achieve this.
'First, by increasing capacity in the NHS. There are nearly 20,000 more doctors and 77,000 nurses in the NHS than in 1997 with many more in medical schools. We are undertaking the biggest hospital building programme since the NHS was founded with 24 major new hospitals already open along with new treatment centres -
and scores more in the pipeline. This will enable us to treat more patients, faster.'
'Secondly, by increasing patient choice so that spare capacity in the system is used as efficiently as possible and patient can opt to have a faster operation by going somewhere other than the local hospital.'
'Thirdly, by using the independent health sector to cut waiting times for NHS patients
- in fact an extra 250,000 operations. But this capacity will be used to treat NHS patients in line with NHS values - free at the point of use and always with the judgement based on clinical need, not ability to pay.'
This is all in stark contrast to the Tory plans for the NHS, which will take £1billion out of the NHS to subsidise a few people to go private, if they have the money to meet the rest of the cost of their treatment. Remember, when the Conservatives were running the health service some people had to wait 18 months for treatment.
Sadiq
