The Health Service

1.00.00pm GMT Mon 24th Mar 2008

The problem:

Labour inherited from the Tories the lowest spending on health in Europe. It was down to 6.8% of the Gross Domestic Product, (which is a measure of how we measure the country's economy), compared with 9.1% across most of Europe. Liberal Democrats were at the forefront in calling for more spending and the Labour Government now spends 9.4% of the GDP on health. Yet despite this increase in expenditure, we have the extraordinary position of the NHS as a whole being in surplus, while large numbers of primary Care Trusts and Hospitals like the West Suffolk Hospital are in deficit!

The Background:

The Labour Party promised to abolish the 'internal market' within the NHS created by the Tories. Instead they have expanded it. They created Primary Care Groups, abolished Local Health Authorities, and created 330 Primary Care Trusts, which three years later they reduced to 152. Community Health Councils were scrapped, and Patient and Public Forums created which only lasted three years. Local Involvement Networks are now being set up. Each change has led to a loss of morale in the NHS. redundancy and retirement costs, and a destabilised service.

The NHS IT system is behind schedule and billions of 'your' pound over budget. Centralised computer systems for recruitment were introduced without piloting and caused chaos. Doctors contracts were renegotiated without the implications being properly thought through. These 'innovations and improvements' have soaked away money that should have been spent on real care for patients and the elderly.

The common thread behind all these has been the belief that Whitehall knows best. When centralised decisions go wrong the whole country suffers.

The Lib Dem Solution:

Every person must matter. The NHS must deliver high quality health services to all irrespective of income, and the split between the NHS and social are must be removed. We need to empower patients to improve quality of their health care, and citizens should know their entitlements as well as their responsibilities. The post code lottery of care provision must be brought to an end. We must return to local democratic accountability for health care, with locally elected health authorities advised by health professionals, not Whitehall appointees. We need to return to efficient use of taxpayers money focused on the patients needs, rather than managing and organising the latest Whitehall 'bright idea'. At the core of this we need to reassert the Doctor in the decision making process at all levels.

David outside West Suffolk Hospital

Doctors improve health care, and are not the barrier to progress central government seems to believe