ON June 23, 2004, the Conservative Party announced key aspects of its health policies.

I thought you might be interested to receive further details of our proposals, which we expect to bring significant benefits to patients, professionals and the NHS as a whole. These benefits are as follows -

Patients requiring inpatient treatment will be able to choose which hospital they go to, and those with a long-term illness will have greater control over the management of their care.

We will get rid of central targets on hospitals, and abolish the star ratings system. By doing so, NHS staff such as those at the Royal Bolton will be freed from red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy.

And the NHS will benefit from our proposals by being able to respond to the needs of patients. It will be incentivised to deliver efficient, high quality services to meet patient demand. This will help us bring an end to waiting lists.

NHS patients will have the choice of whichever hospital in England they wish for their operation. NHS patients will exercise the kind of choice which today only money can buy, and which patients in other countries currently enjoy. The choice will be made with GPs and will be informed by a range of information, including waiting times and access, outcomes data, hospital infection and MRSA rates and patient experience surveys. From December 2005, we intend that patients will be able to choose whichever hospital is convenient to them. Money will follow the patient, based on the NHS tariff for that operation, so hospitals will have a clear incentive to attract patients; successful hospitals will be able to develop and expand services.

The next Conservative Government will back up the Right to Choose with a commitment to invest in the NHS. Our spending plans provide for an extra £34bn a year to be available to the NHS by 2009/10, compared with the spending we will inherit from Labour.

We believe that the combination of the Right to Choose, with freedom for professionals and a right to supply, will mean that we can bring an end to waiting lists.

Philip Allott

Conservative Parliamentary

Candidate

Bolton West