06 October 2000
Conservative plans to promote private health care would create a two-tier health system in which the rich would gain quicker access to care, Health Secretary Alan Milburn said this week.
He told delegates at the Institute of Healthcare The health secretary added: 'The Conservatives have overtly signalled that their model would be a two-tier system with faster treatment for those who can afford to pay, ironically subsidised by the taxpayer.'
Some politicians and sections of the media were trying to write off the NHS but he was determined to prove them wrong by winning back public confidence.
Milburn urged managers and clinicians to work together to implement the NHS Plan and insisted that its agenda must not be sidelined by 'a bad set of figures' or 'occasional problems in patient care'.
'The NHS Plan offers the best, maybe even the last, opportunity for the NHS to show it is capable of transforming services to meet the needs of the modern age.'
He accepted this would take time but added he wished to see progress on waiting times and measures to tackle winter pressures in the next few months. 'Progress on waiting is an absolute bottom line.'
PFoct2000
