06 January 2006
In the first of a series of speeches outlining his vision of 'compassionate Conservatism', new Tory leader David Cameron pledged to take the government's market reforms in the NHS even further.
Reassuring those who suspect the party of wanting to introduce a means-tested or no-frills minimum 'safety net' NHS, Cameron argued on January 4: 'Under a Conservative government, the NHS will remain free at the point of need and available to everyone, regardless of how much money they have in the bank.'
Speaking at the King's Fund think-tank, he acknowledged that some within his party advocated replacing the NHS with a US-style health insurance system. Cameron pledged: 'I will never go down that route.'
He described as 'flawed' the Tories' 'patient passport' policy of last May's election campaign – whereby NHS funds would subsidise patients opting to go private. He said it had helped to fuel a 'damaging' public 'prejudice' that the Conservatives were more interested in encouraging people to opt out of the NHS than in investing to improve it.
'[The NHS] is not something charitable or demeaning,' said Cameron, 'so we should not use taxpayers' money to encourage the better-off to opt out.'
Cameron said that there were many points of consensus between the Conservatives and the Labour government, but said that the government had 'failed to follow through with sufficient boldness'.
Indicating his approval of the current move to view the NHS more as a commissioner than a provider of health services, Cameron argued: 'The core activity of the NHS is not… the management of hospitals, the training of doctors, or the recruitment of nurses. These are secondary activities. The primary purpose of the NHS… is to secure for every single person in this country free access to quality health care.'
Although Cameron ditched the patient passport policy, he said he was still wedded to the 'extremely sensible' wider policy of expanding private and voluntary sector provision. This would be likely to move private involvement beyond the 15% cap for elective surgery suggested by the government.
PFjan2006
