Mr Blair: Healthcare based on need, not ability to pay

He was speaking in response to a BBC poll for NHS Day which found that people think free long-term care of the elderly should become the government's top priority.

During a special programme on BBC One on 20 February, 2002, Mr Blair restated his belief in a health service based on need, not ability to pay.

But he said "sustained investment" in the NHS would prove costly and the government was prepared to increase taxes in the April Budget to pay for this.

Nearly 150,000 people contributed to the poll voting for their five top NHS priorities.

This list was presented as a pledge card to the prime minister.

Mr Blair said: "We have under funded the NHS for decades and we are paying the price of it."

Alternative

If we want sustained investment in the health service over a period of time we will have to pay for it Tony Blair

The prime minister rejected the idea of providing all care for the elderly free from the NHS as is the case in Scotland.

In contrast in England and Wales personal care has to be paid for.

Mr Blair said about 130,000 people would benefit from �1bn over the next three years to help them stay independent in their own homes rather than this money being spent on free long term care for the elderly.

Meanwhile 40,000 people would benefit from free nursing care.

While praising NHS staff he argued that the system needed to be reformed.

In the BBC's poll the five top priorities were:

• Free long-term care for the elderly - 73,402 votes
• More pay for NHS staff -28,434 votes
• Improve A&E - 15,639 votes
• Reduce waits for heart and cancer treatment -17,292 votes
• Cleaner hospitals -11,064 votes

The list of priorities was reduced from a starting point of 12 options.

Three options which were dropped during the afternoon were: To see a GP within 48 hours; Drugs regardless of cost and Extra funding for mental health.

And the first four priorities to go in the poll were: Free eye care for all; Reducing waits for other treatments; More cancer screening and More medical research.

The initial 12 options were based on the results of a poll of more than 1,000 people conducted for the BBC by the polling company ICM.

Unpopular areas

There was also little support for the idea that the NHS should focus on using spare capacity in private hospitals to carry out NHS work. Some 63% of those surveyed said it should not be a priority.

Two-thirds of people surveyed said that extending the telephone helpline NHS Direct should not be a priority.

The ICM poll also found that eight of ten people questioned did not think that the health service had improved under Labour.

And six out of ten people did not believe that things would improve under Labour.

ICM carried out face-to-face interviews with 1,124 adults between 22 January and 3 February.

The interviews were conducted in 92 randomly selected parliamentary constituencies.