Healthcare choice is a Labour value, says Reid

Wednesday, 29 September 2004 12:00 AM

The Health Secretary John Reid has pledged to push ahead with choice in the NHS, saying that it is essential to Labour's values.

In his keynote speech to the Labour Party conference, Dr Reid said: "The Labour Party was founded to raise people's expectations - especially the poor and the disadvantaged who have been told for so long not to expect anything.

"For twenty years the Conservative government encouraged hard working families to demand little and expect less. It's about time we extended to everyone the fast, high-quality health care that has always been available to the rich and the well-connected."

He told delegates that investment is working, and that there are "thousands of real people walking the street who would not have survived under the last Tory government".

Dr Reid said that he recognised there is public concern about cleanliness and MRSA, and stated: "Cleanliness is not an optional extra in hospitals. It's the foundation on which everything else is built.

"That's why I am insisting on the seemingly small things- like the wash your hands campaign. - or putting matrons in charge of house-keeping in NHS hospitals, ensuring that standards of basic care stay high."

Also on cleanliness, he also promised to end the two-tier cleaning contacts in the NHS, and that as part of the agenda for change the minimum rate of pay in the NHS will be set at £5.69 an hour - significantly higher than the current minimum wage.

In a pledge on waiting times, Dr Reid said that there would be "no hidden waits under Labour" and promised that there would be an 18 weeks maximum wait in between the GP's diagnosis and the operation, he compared this to "18 months to three years under the Tories".

The Health Secretary also said he would act on the health inequalities in the UK related to accident of birth and promised that the neediest areas will see the biggest allocation of resources.

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