Lansley’s health speech ‘avoids hidden agenda’
5th October 2009
Conservative words on the NHS can’t match Labour’s solid
financial investment in the health service over the last 12 years,
Unite, the largest union in the country, said today (Monday, 5th
October).
Unite also said that Conservative health spokesman, Andrew
Lansley, "had failed to come clean on the party’s hidden agenda for
the health service" when he addressed the Conservative party
conference today.
Unite assistant general secretary for the public sector, Gail
Cartmail, said: "The Department of Health’s budget stands at a
record £109 billion for this financial year – eight per cent up on
the previous year.
"Andrew Lansley made great play on cutting waste in the NHS
bureaucracy in his speech. However, he seems to forget that all
organisations need skilled technical and administrative structures
to plan and facilitate services, so that patients and clients
receive first-class treatment in a timely fashion.
"And then there is the right-wing anti-NHS ideology being
peddled by Tory MEP Daniel Hannan and his supporters.
"Andrew Lansley had an excellent opportunity today to repudiate
Daniel Hannan and all his works – but he flunked it big-time.
"The British electorate is still unclear about the
Conservatives’ commitment to a universal NHS, free at the point of
delivery, to all those in need. That’s not something you can say
about the Labour government – which has backed its commitment to
the health service with hard cash year-on-year."
ENDS
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