Alan Johnson MP

 

11 November 2009

The NHS has made enormous progress in the last 12 years. Waiting times are the shortest since records began; 3 million more operations are carried out each year; there are over 100 new or refurbished hospitals; and more people are surviving cancer, strokes and heart disease.

 

Now, Labour will introduce three legally enforceable rights:

 

• To a free health check every five years for those aged 40-74.

 

• To see a cancer specialist within 2 weeks.

 

• To treatment within 18 weeks.

 

These are rights that we will put in place as soon as possible in the New Year.

 

If your local NHS Trust cannot meet these guarantees they will - by law - have to find you somewhere which can treat you as soon as possible, even if it is in the private sector.

 

We are also consulting on the new rights which will be our ambition for the health service over the next few years, including:

 

• The right to diagnostic cancer tests and results within a week - our cancer pledge.

 

• The right to see a GP at weekends or in the evening, and to abolish practice boundaries for good.

 

We will put real power into the hands of patients and ensure that under Labour there can be no return to the long waiting lists seen under the Tories.

 

For all their claims to be the party of the NHS, they would tear up the patient guarantee to see a cancer specialist within two weeks. Labour offer guarantees in what care patients get.  The Tories offer a gamble.  Behind David Cameron’s spin, the Conservatives remain anti-reform on the NHS. They oppose Labour’s patient guarantees - including the guarantee to see a specialist within two weeks if your GP suspects you may have cancer - and they would scrap our agreement with GPs, making it harder for you to see your doctor at evenings and weekends.

 

The next election will be a big choice about the change we want for Britain.  Labour offers change for the many.  The Conservatives offer change for the privileged few.