The big health debate - Reading East
Newsdesk • Published 15 Apr 2010 09:00
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Here the candidates running in Reading East give their views on health issues in the town and what their party plans to do.
Anneliese Dodds (Labour)
Labour founded the NHS, and is determined to ensure that it provides an excellent, universal service- not a second-rate safety net. Much has been achieved over the last 13 years, with many services now much faster, more convenient and safer than in the past. A generation of new hospitals has been built - including in Reading - and waiting times driven down. But more can and should be done to provide patients with the care they need.
Labour's priorities for the NHS are simple: high-quality, effective and accessible healthcare. To achieve this, Labour will introduce legally binding guarantees for patients, including the right to cancer test results within one week of referral. The Conservatives have criticised this, suggesting that time is not important. Anyone who has seen a friend or relative decline through cancer will know that time is of the essence in diagnosing and treating this cruel disease.
Labour has also committed to a greater emphasis on prevention, with routine check-ups for the over-forties, and more diagnostic testing. And Labour will continue to make healthcare more accessible, with new services like the drop-in primary care centre in the Broad Street Mall. Labour will protect the NHS we all rely on.
Gareth Epps (Lib Dem)
Liberal Democrats want to make health care flexible, so it suits what patients need, not what managers want.
We have the Royal Berkshire Hospital, one of the very best in the country. But - scandalously - those born in one part of Reading East are statistically likely to die seven years earlier than if they were born in another.
Liberal Democrats want to protect frontline health care. In this financial climate, that means axing centralised targets and bureaucracy, replacing them with entitlements so patients get diagnosis and treatment on time. We want front-line staff put in charge of their ward or unit budgets, and allow staff to establish employee trusts.
Some people still struggle to get convenient access to GP services. We will empower communities through elected local Health Boards, taking over the commissioning role of PCT boards, working in closer co-operation with councils. That arrangement would expose councils like Tory Wokingham with some of the worst standards of care in the country. We'll give patients the right to register with the GP they want, and ensure GPs are again involved in out-of-hours care.
In hospitals, we will introduce a requirement of openness about any mistakes. We'll make it illegal for doctors to work without robust language and competence tests. And we'll encourage closer working with the police to make A&E safer.
Michael Turberville (Independent)
Why does our Government, in the socio-economic structure that we have, give the doctors, hospitals, and NHS trusts, x y and z amounts of money each year and then instruct each of them to treat everyone and anyone who shows up at the door?
This is deciding amounts and paying for treatments before any patients have actually been ill. We have sufficient equipment, hospitals, and staff but all are limited by centrally-allocated funding.
Let us simply turn it around and only pay for the services and treatments that are actually performed!
We know how much it costs to do each treatment and service and paying for each post-treatment, the incentive to perform more would be returned to the NHS.
At the moment - a doctor could do say three hip replacements in a day whereas now he might only do one or two and then off to 18 holes of golf because that is all he was paid for up front. The return of incentive to the NHS would give us a better service as we would all be seen sooner, faster, and more efficiently - and most importantly it would end waiting lists and GPs and consultants fobbing off patients by saying come back in three months or six months when it would have been quicker and easier to have performed whatever was necessary at the onset.
Rob White (Green Party)
IT'S unfair that public money is wasted on botched privatisation schemes. The yearly cost is over £1bn and we are the ones left to foot the bill.
The Government says the schemes will provide us with choice. In reality it does nothing to ensure efficient and effective health care is provided and it actually reduces some of the many health benefits we currently enjoy. It's unfair that quality of care suffers when hospitals and surgeries are treated like profit-driven businesses rather than public services.
We will fight for a fair deal for those needing healthcare by opposing cuts, closures - unfortunately Labour succeeded in shutting Battle Hospital down - and privatisation.
We will maintain the principle of a free NHS by implementing in England and Wales the scheme that provides free social care to the elderly in Scotland.
We would abolish prescription charges, re-introduce free eye tests and ensure NHS chiropody is widely available. We will also fight to restore free dental care. A problem in Reading is finding a local NHS dentist which is taking on patients.
Rob Wilson (Conservatives)
Alok Sharma and I back the NHS and our party will increase health spending each year. We have surveyed thousands of local people about their concerns and we are closely in touch with what local people currently think.
Local patients want more choice about their doctor and consultant, and better access to treatments, services and information that improve and extend their lives. In particular, many patients want better access to life-saving cancer drugs that they are currently denied. They also want access to dental care.
We have listened and will give you the right to choose your GP, hospital and even the consultant responsible for your care. We will make sure the NHS focuses on the things that matter to patients - such as whether you survive killers like cancer - rather than targets and box-ticking. We will make sure patients get all the best new drugs they need - free.
We will make sure people have access to a GP in their area from 8am- 8pm, seven days a week. We will fight hospital infections by providing more single rooms. We will provide an NHS dentist for a million more people. We will introduce a voluntary insurance scheme so that people are no longer forced to sell their homes if they need residential care. The Conservatives will improve the NHS because it will have MPs who understand local concerns.
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James
Unregistered User
Apr 17, 09:36
Report commentMy wife was fobbed off by the NHS for cancer treatment. There seemed to be no incentive for them to treat her until she was in the later stages of cancer. Luckily, my health insurance covered her and she had all the necessary treatments done within the timeframe of when the NHS suggested she should come back for another smear test! So in that respect, Mr. Turberville's suggestion of bringing into line the NHS with how the private sector operate is spot on.
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