John Baron

Conservative Party | Billericay and District

Points of View

Our NHS

Despite the best efforts of NHS staff, to whom we are all thankful for all their hard work and achievements, the NHS suffers from a surge in Government targets and micro-management from Whitehall which is preventing the NHS from doing so much better.

These targets need monitoring and this is why the number of new managers within the NHS has grown at 3 times the rate of new doctors and nurses, with the result that a lot of the new money is not reaching front line services. 

This explains why, despite an extra 40% increase in expenditure in real terms since 1997, there has on average only been a 5% increase in hospital treatments.  It is also why we still have nearly a million people on the waiting list, why average waiting times are not falling, and why locally we have a shortage of GPs, dentists and chiropodists in some parts of the constituency.

In short, patients are suffering because they are having to wait longer than necessary for treatment.  Waiting lists are a British disease.  Our spending on health matches European levels and yet, by contrast there are far fewer or no waiting lists on the continent.

This is why the Conservatives would scrap targets and the star ratings system in order to allow doctors and nurses true freedom to treat patients according to clinical, not political, priorities. 

We would replace targets with a set of clinical standards to ensure patients received the treatment they deserve and were aware of what they should expect from the NHS when it came to their particular condition - presently this is not always the case, particularly with those suffering from a number of long term medical conditions.

In addition, under the new Conservative's policies, patients will be given the 'right to choose', with the help of their GP, to go to any NHS hospital in England  for their treatment rather than being forced to except the hospital that best suits the Government. 

Furthermore patients, at no cost to themselves, will also have the freedom to be treated in any private hospital which can perform the operation at a cost equal to or less than the NHS. 

Where private hospitals charge more than the NHS for an operation, patients will also have the choice to claim 50% of the NHS cost of that operation and put it towards treatment in a private hospital.  Those who could not afford this would still benefit from shorter NHS waiting lists, whilst the NHS would benefit because the significant savings it would make on these operations could be used elsewhere.

These reforms, I believe, would ensure the NHS realises its full potential and patients would benefit as a consequence.