NHS managers praise Blair’s record
pharmafile | May 10, 2007 | News story | |Â Â Â
News of Tony Blair's resignation as Prime Minister has been greeted with a tribute from NHS managers.
Blair has announced he is to step down on 27 June after ten years as PM, and his record on the health service will be central to his legacy.
The NHS Confederation has been quick to respond to the announcement, and praised Blair's record on the health service since taking office in 1997.
"Tony Blair will leave a lasting and positive legacy on the NHS. There is no doubt that the NHS is in a very much better state and is continuously improving," said Dr Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation which represents over 90% of NHS organisations.
"There has been significant progress in improving standards and quality of healthcare and reductions in waiting times that would have been unthinkable a generation ago.
"Perhaps the greatest achievement is the consensus that has been created on a tax funded NHS based on need not ability to pay. This argument has been won – at least for the time-being.
"Looking to the future, Blair's successor will need to tackle the perception gap between patients, who are generally satisfied with the care they receive from the NHS, and the public who are much more negative."
Morgan concluded that there needed to be a "better narrative of NHS reforms" in order to win over staff, patients and public groups, many of whom have become discontent with the changes.
Many groups are now calling for the NHS to have greater independence from central control, which the NHS Confederation has also endorsed.
Blair recently defended his record on public sector reform, including the NHS, but admitted that he regretted time lost, and said Labour's most radical reforms had had the most impact.
"Every time I've introduced a reform in government, I wish in retrospect that I had gone further," he told the last party conference.
"I believe we're at our best when at our boldest," he said the following year. "So far, we've made a good start but we've not been bold enough."
Blair has endorsed Gordon Brown to succeed him, and the Chancellor looks set to be elected Labour leader and become PM in June.
Opinion polls, however, do not bode well for Brown, with many showing a resurgent Conservative party and an electorate which has lost faith in Labour and its record on public services in particular.
