Letter to David Cameron
David Cameron is reported to be coming to Reading on Friday 8th January to talk about the NHS. We all know there are clear differences between Labour and the Tories on the NHS. They are shown in the letter below which I and the candidate for Reading East Anneliese Dodds have written to Mr Cameron. The difference that is most personal to me is the one week cancer screening guarantee. In 2007 I had a suspected melanoma and was seen very quickly by a specialist under the NHS. Thankfully I got the all clear but the wait for the results was short and for those who are diagnosed with cancer a quick diagnosis could mean the difference between life and death. The Tories are not prepared to endorse Labour’s target of bringing down the wait to see a specialist to one week. When David Cameron comes to Reading on Friday I urge Reading West constituents to ask him why.
Dear Mr Cameron,
We were pleased to learn that you are coming to Reading to talk about the NHS. We may not be allowed to come to your meeting. So, we thought it would be helpful to set down the questions that we would like you to answer.
Local people well remember the NHS under the Conservatives as subject to a permanent financial squeeze. Berkshire was appallingly funded for its population relative to the rest of the country. Facilities were crumbling with the lack of investment, and staff wages and conditions were constantly under threat.
The last twelve years of Labour Government have seen massive modernisation of our Royal Berkshire Hospital, making it one of the top hospitals in the region. The dismal old mental health hospital at Fairmile has been replaced with an excellent new hospital at Prospect Park. The quality of community services has greatly improved, waiting times for hospital treatment have dropped dramatically, many more people are involved in hospital governance though the Foundation Trusts, and while there are always still improvements to be made, peoples’ experience of the NHS is generally good.
So Question 1 is: What should the last thirty years in the life of the NHS locally tell us about the approaches of the Conservative and Labour Parties to running our health services?
And Question 2 is: Labour has guaranteed that nobody should have to wait more than 18 weeks for an operation. Under the Conservatives, waiting times in some specialties were 18 months or more. Will you retain this guarantee or is it one of the targets you want to scrap?
Every cancer specialist will tell you that the sooner a cancer is diagnosed and treatment started the better. So the next question is:
Question 3: Why will you not endorse Labour’s target that the wait to see a specialist should be brought down from two weeks, which this Government has achieved, to one week in the next Parliament?
On this and other such questions, please don’t say that you want to leave it to the professionals. A consultant can only see so many patients a day. So the next question is:
Question 4: Is the real reason you want to scrap targets, because you are not prepared to fund the number of doctors, staff and equipment that are required? And do you endorse the present target that nobody should have to wait more than four hours in Accident and Emergency, or would this also be scrapped?
Question 5: Do you agree with your party’s shadow minister for Health, Andrew Lansley, who has made it clear that if the Conservatives got into power, they would cut the pay of nurses and other health workers?
And finally, given the close link between social and health care:
Question 6: Will you denounce or endorse the decision of West Berkshire’s Conservative Council no longer to guarantee care in the community even for those in critical need, your Cabinet member saying that in future people will have to have greater need even than that?
We are in no sense complacent about the NHS. Medical advances continue to be made and we must always strive to improve quality and safety in our comprehensive health service, so that it provides the best possible care which is freely available at the point of need. We want to hear your answers to our questions because given your party’s history and the policies in successive Conservative manifestos, including that for 2005 which you helped draft, that you share Labour’s vision and Labour’s commitment.
