Putting the NHS First

"We will never change the idea at the heart of our NHS: that healthcare in this country is free at the point of use, and available to everyone based on need, not ability to pay."

There is much to celebrate about our NHS, and I know first-hand what great care cancer and cardiac patients receive. I know how important the NHS is to you because at the times my family and I have needed it, it has been there. For the record I have never had private health treatment, my NHS GP is in Heanor and I use an NHS dentist in Ripley.

But, despite the increases in spending, the gap in outcomes between the UK and the rest of Europe has widened - we're still more likely to die of cancer than the French or Germans.

Labour's obsession with targets and bureaucracy has led to hospitals focussing on ticking boxes - not giving patients the treatment they need.

We understand the pressures the NHS faces - that is why we are committed to protecting NHS funding. But that doesn't mean the NHS doesn't need to change to give us all the service we deserve.

You can read the details of our plan to reform the NHS on the party's main website but the plans can be summarised as follows:

A PATIENT-CENTRED NHS

We will scrap all politically-motivated targets that stop health professionals doing their job properly and focus instead on the results that really matter like cancer and stroke survival rates.

We will cut NHS bureaucracy by a third and spend the money on doctors and nurses instead. To make sure the NHS is funded on the basis of clinical need and to allocate resources more evenly across the country, we will create an independent NHS board.

A MORE ACCESSIBLE & ACCOUNTABLE NHS

We will put patients in charge of their own records and publish detailed data about the performance of hospitals, GPs and doctors. Patients can then make informed choices about their care and when and where they receive it - this will drive up quality and drive down waiting lists.

We will increase the number of single rooms in hospitals.

IMPROVING THE NATION'S PUBLIC HEALTH

We will focus on public health and preventable disease, the surest route to improving the nation's health. We will weight funding to give extra resources to the poorer areas that need them most.

We will preserve disability living and attendance allowances and give patients with chronic illnesses a single budget that combines health and social care funding which they can tailor to their needs.

We will allow everyone on retirement to protect their homes being sold to fund residential care by paying a one-off 8,000 pounds insurance premium.

We'll cut the deficit, not the NHS - we won't make the sick pay for Labour's debt crisis.