Cameron: NHS is my top priority

David Cameron today promised to make the NHS his top priority and insisted he would not cut its funding.

Likening his pledge to Tony Blair's famous announcement that "education, education, education" would be his top three priorities in government, the Conservative leader said: "I can do it in three letters – NHS."

However, his comments were met with scepticism by unions and opposition parties, who noted that healthcare spending fell in the last year the Tories were in power.

Mr Cameron told the party conference in Bournemouth: "We will never jeopardise the NHS by cutting its funding. But we will make sure the money is well spent."

He tied this emphasis in with his determination to put the family at the heart of his party's policies, something members of his shadow cabinet have been stressing throughout the past week.

"The NHS is vitally important to every family in this country. It certainly is to mine," he said.

Referring to the care needed for his disabled son, Ivan, Mr Cameron stressed: "When your family relies on the NHS all the time – day after day, night after night – you know how precious it is.

"So for me it's not just a question of saying the NHS is safe in my hands. My family is so often in the hands of the NHS. So I want them to be safe there."

He promised to end "pointless and disruptive organisations" introduced by the Labour government and also attacked the target culture, building on comments made on Sunday that ministers must "trust professionals" to do their jobs.

"Change is necessary in the NHS. But the change must come from the bottom up, driven by the wishes and needs of NHS professionals and patients," he said.

The government is currently facing a barrage of opposition to its NHS reforms, from professionals and from within the Labour party. Last week, NHS staff went on strike for the first time in 18 years in protest at plans to sell off the service's supply arm.

Mr Cameron might therefore expect his comments to be welcomed – but Unison, the largest union representing public sector workers, was sceptical.
"Isn't it great that even the Conservatives recognise the value of the NHS and the excellent service delivered by its staff," said general secretary Dave Prentis.

"However, the public and staff working in the NHS are entitled to be very sceptical about the fate of the NHS under the Tories. Experience has shown us that we have never been able to trust them to invest and build up our NHS.

"In fact when the Tories were in power the NHS was under-funded, nursing numbers were down and hundreds and thousands of patients were at the bottom of a very long queue for treatment – unless, of course, you had the money to jump it."

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb, chief of staff to leader Menzies Campbell, had similar concerns, saying: "We need to remember that health spending actually fell in the last year the Tories were in power.

"And that at the general election, David Cameron supported the introduction of a 'patient passport' to encourage people to opt out of the NHS."