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Westminster Life by Stewart Jackson MP: on the Health and Social Care Bill
The Coalition Government’s Health and Social Care Bill has attracted a great deal of criticism in recent months and again this week by Ed Miliband at PMQs.
Labour is being totally dishonest about the changes to the NHS and they need to be straight with the public. How do we improve a service already under pressure from an ageing population and rising cost of drugs by cutting its budget? That’s why we’re increasing the NHS budget as we said we would at the General Election.
Labour has no answer because they have no reform plans of their own on how to deal with these pressures on the service.
Mr Milband also needs to tell us how exactly he has worked out his figures for the cost of reform, believing the reforms are costing £3 billion, but this is not the case.
The one off cost is about £1.2 billion but by making the reform it will save £4.5 billion by 2015 and a further £1.5 billion thereafter to 2020.
All this money is going back into front line services. How are we going to find this money to support services without making the reforms?
Cambridgeshire has been a pathfinder in GPs leading our Care Commissioning Groups (CCGs). I know that locally GPs have great enthusiasm for the changes and the power it puts in their hands to make decisions for their patients. Why would we not want clinical professionals taking decisions about treatment, but instead put it in the hands of health bureaucrats?
It is possible to both make savings and improve quality and services already. The change is coming from an evolution not a revolution.
People complain about creeping privatisation. But Labour needs to answer the question as to why they made the biggest shift to the private sector of any government. In Peterborough, patients are often given the choice of private hospitals to receive their NHS treatment.
Patients like it and I support it and I thank the Labour Government for making it possible. Patients want the best care a system can offer when they are ill - they don’t care whether the NHS provides it by a private supplier or a public one.
The Government has listened carefully to health professionals and we made significant changes to address concerns and we have a good Bill that will improve the NHS.
Labour and the trades unions need to stop their misinformation campaign and start thinking about what is best for patients.
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
