This article in the Daily Mail picks up some very interesting points from David Cameron’s speech about the NHS last week. Of course there was the inevitable waffle about NHS spending, that did not tell us very much at all, but for me the crucial sentence was:
The Tories would allow “any willing provider” – including more private firms – to supply quality care to NHS patients.
Regular readers of this blog will know that I do not think this goes nearly far enough. As I have written here, I believe that all NHS hospitals and care facilities must be put in to the independent sector and that the NHS should become a funder of care and a minimum standard setting institution.
However, as we get closer to the next general election I will look forward to what else Mr Cameron has to say about the use of the independent sector in UK healthcare. I know that he has a copy of the Institute of Economic Affairs book ‘Towards a Liberal Utopia’, in which I co-wrote the chapter on health, so maybe he does consider that NFR has some good ideas!
