BBC News | UK POLITICS | Hague sets out NHS revival plan

Conservative leader William Hague has set out his vision for the NHS - involving expanding private healthcare and giving patients more choice.

Mr Hague pledged to give GPs the right to decide which hospitals to use to refer their patients.

The crisis in our National Health Service will not be solved by more national plans, more gimmicks, more spin and more interference

William Hague
And he outlined "a wholly new approach to the treatment of patients" that would mean treating people with the most serious illnesses first.

The Tory leader was setting out his healthcare vision only two days before Tony Blair unveils his national plan for the NHS, billed as "the most fundamental change" to the service since it was formed.

In a speech titled "Common Sense on Health", based on a theme of "Patients' Choice", Mr Hague fiercely condemned the government's record on the NHS.

The service was now in permanent crisis, letting down patients and leading to high rates of death from disease.

'Doctors, not spindoctors'

"When are Labour going to learn that you cannot solve the crisis in the NHS with new slogans, and that what we need is more doctors not more spindoctors?" he asked.

"We need to get more money in the NHS, but we also need to spend that money far better if we are to create the first class health service that Britain deserves," he said.

Under Mr Hague's plans:

The Waiting List Initiative introduced by Labour would be scrapped, as he said it "distorts clinical priorities", denying care to people in acute need.

Patients and family doctors would have free access to information on things like waiting times and treatment success rates in different hospitals.

A Patient's Guarantee would give NHS patients a maximum waiting time based exclusively on their medical need.

GPs would have the right to refer patients to the hospital of their choice and hospitals should be paid for the operations they carry out.

Special dedicated surgical units to treat patients with more routine conditions, such as hip replacements, would be created.

An Exceptional Medicines Fund would "end the scandal of post code rationing".

"Party politics" would be taken out of the management of NHS trusts and health authorities.

A larger private and independent health sector would be encouraged.

Mr Hague acknowledged the NHS's problems did not begin when Labour took power, but said they had worsened under the government.

And he quoted a letter from a consultant at Guy's Hospital in London who said setting waiting list targets was contrary to the practice of clinical need and condemned it as a waste of tax-payers' money.

consultant and nurse
Patients should be treated on clinical need, says Mr Hague
The Tory leader said: "The crisis in our National Health Service will not be solved by more national plans, more gimmicks, more spin and more interference.

"It will be solved by giving patients real choice and guaranteed waiting times; it will be solved by trusting health service professionals and taking the politicians out of the health service; it will be solved by working with the private sector and encouraging greater personal provision, as a supplement to an expanded and comprehensive National Health Service.

"Patient Choice. Trusting the NHS Professionals. Partnership with the Private Sector. Getting rid of political interference. That is what the National Plan should be all about."


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