21.04.15
English parties debate healthcare live at 11am
The health leaders of the four main English political parties are set to debate each other this morning in an event streamed live online.
The health secretary Jeremy Hunt will represent the Conservatives and go head-to-head with shadow health minister Andy Burnham for Labour, care minister Norman Lamb of the Liberal Democrats and Julia Reid MEP of UKIP.
Following opening statements from the parties’ spokespeople, it will follow a ‘Question Time’ format, chaired by Sarah Montague of the BBC.
This debate is being organised by the BMA, The Health Foundation, The King's Fund, National Voices, NHS Confederation and Nuffield Trust.
It starts at 11am and can be watched at www.healthdebate.net.
One of the top issues likely to be debated is Labour’s newly announced plan to ‘save the NHS’ in the first 100 days of government.
Ed Miliband has pledged to recruit 1,000 new nurses in his first year as PM should he win on election day. He is also expected to say he will ask universities to reopen admissions for highly-oversubscribed nursing courses to help meet his promises of 20,000 new nurses.
Other emergency measures will see the introduction of the mansion tax and the tobacco levy in the first budget to raise £1.2bn for the health service.
Miliband also announced action to avoid a winter hospital crisis by having more trained 111 staff, GPs stationed in all A&E departments and ensuring high-risk patients can get more support at home rather than having to go to hospital. But Labour, unlike the Conservatives and Lib Dems, has not pledged to fully fund the £8bn a year that NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens says is required to avoid a financial shortfall.
Labour says the Conservatives are making unfunded promises that they will not be able to keep.
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