Cicero Policy Briefer

Issue 5, October 2006

Alternative medicine: Tory policy and the future of the NHS

By James Allen

As Parliament reconvenes after the long summer break, it looks like the NHS will once again form a key battleground. David Cameron’s soundbite at the Conservative Party conference last week that his priority can be spelled out in three letters—NHS—brought back memories of Blair’s famous ‘Education, education, education’ mantra.

The policy implications of Cameron’s conference speech, and his policies as laid out at a speech to the King’s Fund think tank, will be that the debate will now shift from the old paradigm that NHS spending will rise under Labour, while a Conservative government would cut spending. The debates now needed in health policy are not simply around the level of investment, with all parties now committed to increase spending in real terms, but how that money is spent, and how the service is organised. Cameron has signalled that there will be no further reorganisation of local and regional NHS structures under a Conservative government, and this is likely to win a great deal of support from healthcare professionals.

Furthermore, Cameron is seeking to neutralise Labour’s traditional electoral advantage on the NHS by depoliticising the issue altogether. Cameron has called for a cross party bill to give the NHS more independence, and to make local management more autonomous and less subject to political interference. Labour has hit back at Cameron’s claim that the NHS would be safe in his hands, arguing that Conservative proposals for ‘patient passports’ (part of the 2005 Conservative Party manifesto) would damage the NHS by eroding its key principle of free and accessible provision for all.

Nevertheless, there does appear to have been a real shift in Conservative thinking on the NHS, and the challenge for the Government will be to offer creative solutions to the problems which still exist within the area of healthcare. There are immediate concerns to be addressed in deficits in the NHS, and given that spending has increased substantially since 1997, where and how this additional money has been spent needs to be examined. If the Government is to win a fourth election victory, probably under Gordon Brown, then restoring its advantage in the NHS will be essential.

James Allen can be contacted on +44 (0)20 7665 9530 or click here to email.

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