Charles Kennedy outlines Liberal Democrat health policy
January 20, 2005 4:39 PM
Charles Kennedy has today outlined the broad framework for Liberal Democrat health policy. He unveiled new thinking on diagnostics, following research undertaken by the Lib Dem Health team. Mr. Kennedy established a new priority to get rid of 'hidden' waiting lists for patient diagnosis.
Other health policies Mr. Kennedy outlined include:
Free personal care for the elderly
Boosting recruitment and improving retention of doctors, nurses and clinical staff.
A wide preventative health agenda including free eye and dental checks for all and targeted health 'MOTs' that expand screening to catch diseases early.
Integrating NHS and social care at local level with individual 'Personal Care Plans' for those with long-term illnesses.
Mr. Kennedy said "The big problem with centrally imposed political targets is that what gets measured gets done. But as hospitals are forced to meet a target to reduce maximum waiting times, the result is other patients wait longer. We would make sure the NHS starts treating you as soon as possible by pledging the swiftest diagnosis that can be sensibly, efficiently and affordably introduced. The Government must retain overall responsibility for setting the broad framework for the NHS - for performance measures, collecting data, auditing and minimum standards of care. But we would slim down the central government functions. We will abolish Strategic Health Authorities and reduce the number of arms' length bodies which inspect and monitor NHS organisations. We will plough the resultant savings back into frontline care. It is this commitment to accountability in healthcare that marks Liberal Democrats out from our opponents."
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