Lansley promises to protect the NHS
Monday, 2 October 2006 12:00 AM
Conservatives "must deliver for the NHS", the shadow health secretary has insisted, amid a row about the party's plans for privatising the service.
Andrew Lansley told the party conference in Bournemouth that the Tories "will ensure the NHS provides healthcare for all, free at the point of use, based on need".
His comments come after Conservative policy director Oliver Letwin was yesterday forced to deny that he had said there were "no limits" on privatisation in the NHS during an interview with the Sunday Times.
Tory party officials issued a statement insisting at no point had he used this phrase, and Mr Letwin himself told BBC One's The Politics Show yesterday that it was "not anything that I said as a matter of fact".
However, he refused to say whether he would put limits on the involvement of the private sector in healthcare delivery.
"What we will have as a limit is a very clear limit which is that we are not going to be paying people taxpayers' money to let them out, help them get out of the NHS," he said.
The question of privatisation in the health service is currently at the top of the political agenda - last week NHS staff went on strike for the first time in 18 years over the decision to sell off the service's supply firm to a private German company.
Gordon Brown tried to reassure the Labour party conference that there were limits to the involvement of private firms in delivering NHS services - they currently provide about one per cent of work - and health secretary Patricia Hewitt backed this.
Tory officials were consequently quick to reject the Sunday Times story about Mr Letwin yesterday, releasing their transcript of the interview which included no mention of the phrase "no limits".
There was confusion about the phrase last night, with some reporters suggesting they could hear the phrase and others admitting they could not.
But Mr Letwin did say: "If people can provide services under the NHS.if they can satisfy the commissioners within the NHS, that the best way to buy the best services for their patients is them, then they should have the chance to be part of the show."
Addressing the party conference today, Mr Lansley promised to protect the NHS against the government's cuts "and to show that we support the NHS and support the doctors and nurses in the tremendous work they do".
He also accused ministers of "plotting how they can minimise the political damage to them of NHS cut backs", referring to recent allegations that Labour was trying to avoid closing wards where their MPs had only a slim majority.
In line with this morning's debate about childhood, Mr Lansley promised to reform services in the NHS to help families, including improving maternity services, reversing the decline in health visitors and district nurses, and employing more school nurses.
"We have to deliver for the NHS.stop the centralisation, bureaucracy and top-down targets, deliver resources to the frontline, work with NHS professionals not against them," he said.
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