OUR REFORM PLAN FOR THE NHS

As the party of the NHS, we will never change the idea at the heart of our NHS

– that healthcare in this country is free at the point of use and available to everyone based on need, not ability to pay.

A decade of top-down, bureaucratic mismanagement has consistently undermined the professionalism and motivation of NHS staff and skewed NHS priorities away

from patient care, creating a culture where ticking boxes is more important than giving patients the treatment they need.

We can’t go on with an NHS that puts targets before patients.

We understand the pressures the NHS faces. In recognition of its special place in our society, we are committed to protecting health spending in real terms – we will not make the sick pay for Labour’s Debt Crisis.

We have a reform plan to make the changes the NHS needs.

Our reform plan is based on the methods of the post-bureaucratic age:

– decentralisation, accountability and transparency. Applying these ideas to the NHS will help us to improve it for everyone and allow us to meet people’s rising expectations.

Instead of bureaucratic accountability there will be democratic accountability.

We will decentralise power, so that patients have a real choice.

And by publishing information about the kind of results that healthcare providers are achieving, we will make sure there is no hiding place for failure. If patients don’t like what they are offered, they will be able to find something better. This will drive up standards by allowing people to choose the best providers and by encouraging hospitals to compete for patients. Making doctors and nurses accountable to patients, not to endless layers of bureaucracy, will also save billions that are currently spent on needless bureaucratic checks – meaning we can spend more on the frontline services that make a real difference.

Hospitals and GPs that don’t provide good care will have to raise their game.

We are the party of the NHS today because we not only back the values of the NHS, we back its funding and we have a vision for its future.