14.04.15
Labour health manifesto criticised over ‘detail’ and ‘funding’
Labour’s health manifesto has outlined a positive vision for a modern health and care system based on much greater integration, but falls short on detail in key areas, according to influential think tanks.
Yesterday, Ed Miliband and his shadow heath ministers Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall launched the party’s health document, a cornerstone of the party’s manifesto.
Miliband said: “Nothing is more dangerous to our NHS than pretending you will protect it without being able to say where the money is coming from.
“You can’t fund the NHS with an IOU.”
The document confirms a number of flagship NHS commitments, which the party has set out previously. These include:
- Recruit 20,000 more nurses and 8,000 more GPs, paid for through a £2.5bn Time to Care Fund, funded by a mansion tax on properties worth over £2m, tackling tax avoidance and a levy on tobacco firms
- Guarantee a GP appointment within 48 hours and on the same day for those who need it
- Guarantee a maximum one-week wait for cancer tests and create a new Cancer Treatments Fund to improve access to drugs, radiotherapy and surgery
- Join up services from home to hospital with a single point of contact for those who need it – bringing together physical health, mental health and social care
- Improve access to mental health support, with a new right to talking therapies enshrined in the NHS Constitution – just as people currently have a right to drugs and medical treatments
- Tackle the scandal of 15 minute care slots, recruit 5,000 new care workers to help provide care for those with the greatest needs at home, and introduce a new system of safety checks for vulnerable older people
- Ensure that when changes are proposed to local hospital services, patients and the public have a seat around the table from the very start, helping design and decide on plans for change
- Repeal the Health and Social Care Act to scrap David Cameron’s privatisation plans and put the right values back at the heart of the NHS
However, Labour are the only main party that has not pledged to provide a “minimum real terms increase in NHS funding of £8bn” by 2020, which the NHS Five Year Forward View has implied is needed. The Conservatives have committed to this pledge, but Labour has called on the Tories to explain where the cash will come from.
In fact, NHS England’s Forward View was not even mentioned in Labour’s mini-health manifesto.
Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, said: “There can be no doubting the Labour party’s commitment to the NHS. The health and care manifesto contains a plethora of proposals in response to some of the most significant challenges facing the health service.
“Many of the principles behind these proposals are entirely sensible and are to be welcomed, such as improving mental health, dealing with the fragmentation of health and social care, and boosting the morale of the NHS workforce.
“But the level of detail set out in this document is somewhat concerning. The NHS is complex and often responds best to locally driven initiatives. There is a risk that elements of this detailed approach could trigger further reorganisation within the health service.”
He added that the NHS already has a plan setting out how it needs to reform over the next five years, which has been endorsed by all leading organisations in the sector.
“The Forward View clearly implies that a minimum of £8bn extra money is needed, along with significant and stretching efficiency savings, to enable the NHS to break even by 2020. Anything less than this amount is likely to have serious consequences for the viability of the service in future,” said Edwards.
“Labour are now the only of the three main parties not to have committed to this £8bn and yet their proposals are likely to require more, not less, spending on the NHS. It would be greatly welcomed if all major parties could reach a consensus on this required funding so that the NHS can go into the next Parliament with certainty about its future.”
Chris Ham, chief executive of The King’s Fund, added that it is hard to see how Labour’s plans to dismantle the Health and Social Care Act could be achieved without disruptive structural changes to the NHS.
He added that the failure to commit to the £8bn pledge, which is a minimum requirement if the NHS is to continue to meet patient needs and maintain standards of care, leaves a “significant gap at the heart of its plans”.
“Labour is also the only one of the main parties not to have endorsed the programme for change outlined in the Forward View,” said Ham. “Pledges to improve the quality of home care and implement the cap on the costs of social care first proposed by the Dilnot Commission are welcome. However, although a growing social care crisis is identified as one of the biggest challenges facing the next government, there is no commitment to increase social care funding.”
(Photo credit: Chris Radburn / PA Wire)
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