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Choice and health
At a debate attended by pensions minister Malcolm Wicks and Conservative policy chief David Cameron, consumers' rights organisation Which? has been challenging government policy on improving public services through extending choice.
New Which? research found that the government had failed to listen to what the public want on key areas like health, food, education and pensions.
Which? was highlighting the gap between the choices offered by government on key public services and the ones which people actually want.
Stakeholder Response: Which?
Graham Vidler, head of policy, said: "The government must create a proper framework to ensure competition and choice operate fairly and effectively to the benefit of all patients, wherever they live and whatever their personal circumstances or state of health."
Stakeholder Response: BUPA
A BUPA spokesperson said: "The best proposals are ones that deliver the best results for patients. There is growing public acceptance of the private sector playing a greater role in today’s healthcare landscape.
"Ninety-three per cent of people we polled recently have no objection to private hospitals treating NHS patients if it means faster treatment at no extra cost. More crucially, two thirds rejected the idea that it meant the beginning of the end for the NHS and the same number rejected the idea that it went against the principles of the NHS.
"In a Populus survey conducted for last year’s BUPA Health Debate, 98 per cent said that if they needed hospital treatment, their priority was clean and comfortable surroundings. And two thirds believed that this was an area where the independent sector had an advantage.
"It's really important that the use of the private sector continues, and that it is not a two or three year tactical initiative until additional capacity is developed within the public system."
Stakeholder Response: Help the Aged
Jonathan Ellis, health and social care policy manager at Help the Aged, said: "Extending choice within the NHS is a laudable objective. Older people, like many other parts of the population, just want to make sure that they are treated quickly, safely and respectfully.
"Basic community-based NHS services such as chiropody and dentistry are frequently in short supply, with long waiting lists for NHS treatment, leaving many people with the undesirable choice of continuing to wait or paying privately for their care.
"In order to deliver choice within healthcare, the government must address the difficulties that many older people face in accessing healthcare services. It needs to empower patients by giving them genuine individual choices – about where, when, how and by whom they are treated."
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Published:
Tue, 22 Mar 2005 14:58:09 GMT+00
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