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Health and Care

Chapters

  1. Salaries and Taxation
  2. Pensions
  3. Benefits
  4. Health and Care
  5. Education
  6. Housing
  7. Employment
  8. Trades Unions and Labour Laws
  9. Trade and Industry
  10. Transport
  11. Energy
  12. Environment
  13. Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Rural Life
  14. Crime
  15. Legal System
  16. Immigration and Asylum
  17. Local Government
  18. Devolution and Regional Government
  19. Parliament and Democracy
  20. Media
  21. Freedom of Information and Privacy
  22. Northern Ireland
  23. European Union
  24. Foreign Policy
  25. Defence and Disarmament
  26. Conclusions
 Preamble

Chapters

  1. Salaries and Taxation
  2. Pensions
  3. Benefits
  4. Health and Care
  5. Education
  6. Housing
  7. Employment
  8. Trades Unions and Labour Laws
  9. Trade and Industry
  10. Transport
  11. Energy
  12. Environment
  13. Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Rural Life
  14. Crime
  15. Legal System
  16. Immigration and Asylum
  17. Local Government
  18. Devolution and Regional Government
  19. Parliament and Democracy
  20. Media
  21. Freedom of Information and Privacy
  22. Northern Ireland
  23. European Union
  24. Foreign Policy
  25. Defence and Disarmament
  26. Conclusions
Under the Tories, the NHS was commercialised by the separation of purchasers and providers linked by contracts in an internal market. Fund-holding for some GPs made this a 2-tier system. The private health sector was subsidised via NHS training, facilities, etc. and by tax reliefs on private health insurance. Local health policy was passed to unelected Trust boards dominated by business representatives, which were encouraged to contract out services to private providers. Most dentistry left the NHS, charges were introduced for eye tests, and bed numbers in the NHS fell.
Labour policy was:
1To end the internal market 
2To end GP-fundholding and the 2-tier system 
3To bring the health service under local democratic control 
4To recoup NHS costs from the private sector 
5To stop the creeping privatisation of the NHS 
6To restore the NHS as a service free at the point of use 
7To stop the loss of hospital beds (?) 
8To ban all tobacco advertising 
In fact under New Labour:
1In effect the internal market was first ended then reinstatedLeft as under the Conservatives
2GP fundholding was also ended then reinstated [?] and foundation hospitals threaten the reintroduction of a 2-tier systemLeft as under the Conservatives
3Unaccountable trusts have taken even more powers, e.g. over care homesPolicy shift to right of old Conservatives
4Nothing has been done to recoup NHS costs from the private sector, though some limits are to be set on private work by NHS doctorsLeft as under the Conservatives
5Privatisation has speeded up, with NHS patients treated privately for profit, NHS hospitals built and run by private companies, private sector management brought in and trusts forced to place contracts privately. Meanwhile NHS equipment lies idle and units which can't compete will be allowed to closePolicy shift to right of old Conservatives
6Previous charges remain and are being uprated, and there are new charges, e.g.for most children's orthodontic work and pensioners' foot carePolicy shift to right of old Conservatives
7Bed numbers continued to fall until 2000 and are falling again because of budget deficitsLeft as under the Conservatives
8After early fudging tobacco advertising was finally bannedPledge carried out
In addition:
Bullet pointCommunity Health Councils were abolished, though praised only a few years earlier 
Bullet pointThe elderly in residential care homes will have to pay for their personal care despite the recommendations of a royal commission 
Bullet pointAll patients are to be offered the choice of state-paid private treatment 
Bullet pointHealth spending is to rise at 6% above inflation until 2008 
Bullet pointWe have had the largest ever hospital building programme 
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