David Cameron will rename the Department of Health to ensure that it is committed to improving the health of the entire nation.
In a speech setting out his five priorities for the NHS, the Tory leader said the DoH would become the “Department of Public Health” and that a Conservative government would publish a white paper on public health.
Stepping up his bid to make the Tories the party of the NHS, he also promised reforms to cut costs and extend “patient power”. The Conservative leader repeated his pledge to ring-fence the health budget, but insisted that money would be better spent.
The £4.5bn annual bill for administering the NHS was “astonishing”, and must be slashed by a third over the next four years, he said.
In a speech in London setting out Tory priorities for the NHS, Cameron insisted: “Spending on the NHS cannot stand still. But that does not mean we are simply going to pour money in as Labour have done. If we change nothing, and if productivity keeps falling at the rate it is today, then even with real-terms increases in spending we couldn’t hope to cope with the pressures on the NHS.
“That’s why, as well as those increases, we urgently need reform to make our whole health service more efficient. We are determined that a Conservative pound will go much further than a Labour pound.”
Cameron said that five priorities would determine his approach to health policy: making the NHS patient-led, measuring health outcomes, putting healthcare professionals in charge, getting the government to focus on improving public health, and reforming long-term care.
Read more at The Guardian.
Tags: Bureaucracy, Cameron
