Election campaign begins with NHS pledges

---

David Cameron has used the launch of the first chapter of the Conservative election manifesto to insist that the health service would be protected under a Tory government.

Speaking in front of a giant new campaign poster, 1,000 of which have gone up around the country, Cameron said that the Conservatives were now "the party of the National Health Service".

The NHS has traditionally been safe Labour Party electoral territory.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said that the fact that they had chosen to publish the NHS chapter first was "in itself an indication of our priorities".

"The Conservative Party, and in particular David Cameron, is committed to cutting the deficit but not the NHS," he told and audience of journalists and party activists in central London.

But he said that cutting the deficit while protecting real increases in the NHS budget was "not an easy commitment to make".

He added: "There will have to be spending cuts"

Attacking Labour's record on health, Cameron said the NHS had become a "giant machine" controlled from above.

"Unlike us they have not committed to protecting areas of the health budget such as public health and capital investment".

A Conservative government would focus on cutting NHS targets and central government control of public services, he added.

"Every change that we make will have at its heart this simple idea; we need to give the NHS back to the people"

He said doctors and nurses would answer to the people on wards rather than people in Whitehall.

"Patients will have the power in our NHS," he said.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham claimed the Conservatives planned to get rid of cancer diagnosis and treatment targets and could not be trusted with the NHS.

Cameron has outlined two specific health policies that he said would create "more choice" and "drive up standards".

He revealed that a Tory government would introduce a "health premium" that targeted resources at the poorest parts of the country.

Under the proposals outlined in the draft manifesto chapter, public health funding would be weighted so that extra resources go to the poorest areas with the worst health outcomes.

This would represent a "significant shift" in how money is allocated in the health budget, he argued.

"Health inequalities in 21st Britain are as wide as they were in Victorian times," Cameron said. Which was one of the most "unjust, unfair and frankly shocking things about Britain today".

He also unveiled plans for "maternity networks", designed to bring together maternity services in one area under one structure, which he said would have both clinical and social benefits.

Cameron said that under Labour many maternity services had become "baby factories" where mothers often felt neglected.

During a question and answer session following the launch, Cameron sought to drive home his commitment to protecting the health service.

"We are not going to cut the NHS, the NHS is special," he said.