Cameron: Tories are ‘the party of the NHS’
pharmafile | September 4, 2009 | News story | |Â Â NHS, USÂ
David Cameron has called the Conservatives the "party of the NHS," in an attempt to reassure voters the service is safe in their hands.
The Conservative leader has been keen to re-state his support for the NHS following the embarrassing remarks by MEP Daniel Hannan's on US TV.
In a debate about the merits of the NHS versus the US healthcare system Hannan called the NHS a '60-year mistake,' and said he "would not wish it on anybody."
Cameron dismissed MEP Daniel Hannan's comments as "eccentric," but it is received opinion that the Conservative party's ambiguous or even hostile attiutude to the NHS had cost it the last election.
David Cameron therefore set out once again his policies, with a 'free at the point of need' health service remaining a key policy. He also set out other health policies, including the promotion of personal and social responsibility for health, and increased patient choice. He also vowed to open up the NHS to private sector health providers, a policy already used by Labour, and deeply unpopular with some, as it is seen as a dismantling of the NHS.
Cameron is keen to re-assert the party's support for the health service ahead of next year's general election, which the party is currently expected to win.
End of the line
In his speech Cameron said Labour's NHS reforms have come to the 'end of the line' and said the health service was 'crying out' for the next stage of change.
"I believe we have shown that we are the ones to bring about that change, and that we have earned the right to call ourselves the party of the NHS today" he said.
He criticised Labour's approach to health reform, saying people must be allowed to do more to help themselves.
"Bureaucratic methods are increasingly ineffective today because the public health problems of today are increasingly the consequence of perfectly legal personal decisions, made in private spaces.
"Instead of blaming external factors for everything, it's time we recognised that there is a moral choice that personal responsibility cannot be shirked," he said.
He said the party's planned increases in spending would be accompanied by reform, opening up the NHS to new providers and giving people greater choice over services.
Labour said David Cameron "could not be trusted to keep his promises" on the NHS and claimed the comments by MEP Daniel Hannan in the US revealed "deep ambivalence" in the Conservative party about the health service.
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