Better Healthcare and Cleaner HospitalsI mean, how hard is it to keep a hospital clean? |
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| We believe that everyone has the right to high quality healthcare, free at the point of use, delivered when and where they need it. | |
| Record amounts of taxpayers’ money have been spent on the NHS. Yet over a million people are still waiting for treatment, and average waiting times have gone up. More people die each year from infections they pick up in hospitals than on Britain’s roads. | |
| Taxpayers have not received value for money because the NHS has not been reformed. It is too impersonal, too inflexible, too centralised and too bureaucratic to respond to the needs of patients. | |
| We have a clear plan of action to cut waiting times and clean up hospitals. We will increase funding, reduce bureaucracy, empower local professionals to operate local services and give greater choice to patients. | |
The NHS has been too centralised. We should trust local professionals – doctors and nurses |
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| We will give power and responsibility to local professionals. All hospitals will have the freedom to hire staff, specialise and borrow to invest. In response to local demand, hospitals will have the flexibility to increase the number of individual rooms and invest in infection control teams. We will bring back matron, who will have the power to close wards for cleaning. | |
| We will give patients and local GPs the right to choose the hospital or care provider that is right for them. | |
| Funding will follow the patient and go directly to front-line care. Hospitals will be paid according to the treatments they deliver, rather than by Whitehall budgets. Small community hospitals which have the support of local patients and GPs will not be closed by bureaucrats. | |
| Each year around 220,000 people without health insurance pay for important operations. We believe that providing a contribution based on the cost of half the NHS operation when people make these choices both recognises the tax they have paid towards the NHS and will help further reduce waiting lists. | |
| Choice gives people power, a sense of purpose and control. It makes those who offer a service accountable to those who use it. It will give patients the clean hospitals and the shorter waiting times they want. Our policies will give everyone the kind of choice in healthcare that today only money can buy. | |
| We believe that increased choice, combined with extra resources and freedom for local professionals, will end waiting lists as we know them during the life of the next Parliament. | |
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As we live longer and expect more treatment and care to be |
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| Carers who look after elderly or disabled relatives, including those suffering from long-term conditions, deserve more support. We will boost respite for carers and give them more choice and information about the support available. | |
| We will ensure greater access to NHS dentistry by changing the way in which dentists are paid and offering patients a low monthly payment system to cover against large and unplanned bills. | |
| We will introduce health checks for immigrants in order to curb the spread of diseases such as TB and to protect access to our NHS. It is, after all, a national health service not a world health service. People coming to Britain for over 12 months from outside the EU will be required to undergo a full medical test. And anyone settling permanently here from outside the EU will have to demonstrate that they have an acceptable standard of health and that they are unlikely to impose significant costs or demands on Britain’s health system. | |
| Public health is important – it affects every family in our country. That is why a Conservative Government will take action to tackle sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In Britain today we face an STI epidemic. Today’s sexually transmitted infections are tomorrow’s NHS bills. It’s time for a clear, bold and very public health TV campaign – young people need to know the risks involved and the precautions they can take. | |
Cleaner Hospitals
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