Better Health

[andrewducker]

I'm totally fed up with people who say that Labour have made no difference and have done exactly what the Conservatives would have done.

The introduction of a minimum wage, the removal of hereditary membership of the house of lords, vastly increased spending on the NHS and dozens of other projects have all come through.

Aha, they say, but despite the claims of increased NHS funding, it's still no good.

Wrong! You can read about the improvements here.

New premises, technology, and modern equipment mean much better care for patients than 10 years ago, it says.

But improvements remain "patchy", with continuing staff shortages and some dirty premises.

CHI's chair Dame Deirdre Hine told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there had been "tremendous advances" in many areas.

She said: "People are getting treated faster, getting treated with very up-to-date methods of treatment and, in particular, they're being given a lot more information."

Comments

[davecleghorn.livejournal.com]

OK, that *is* good news but I suspect that if any party had flooded the money Labour has into the NHS the results would be much the same. The Conservatives are somewhat to blame as without any clear opposition policy on the NHS I expect no immanent changes, like root and branch restructuring of the service, which is surely is the way to go. Decentralisation would help in getting the hospitals what they actually need.

As a whole I think Labours handling of the NHS has been poor.

[andrewducker]

Labour is trying to decentralise, but there's lots of opposition. And you have to be careful with your decentralisation or you find that different hospitals provide different standards of care.

Oh, and centralisation is good in some ways - if the whole of the NHS used the same computer systems they'd save a fortune.

And of course flooding it with money is helping - but the Conservatives cut the money back, while Labour increased it. That's a plus point for Labour...

Re:

[davecleghorn.livejournal.com]

I agree but was talking more about the politics and funding being decentralised. I didnt know they were trying to do this.

The NHS has been a lose - lose situation for Labour. Im still annoyed at theyre manifesto claims, god was it 6 years ago?