Blair legacy: Health

ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on Tony Blair's record on health issues.

Stakeholder Response: MS Society

To send a comment to MS Society click here

The MS Society told ePolitix: "The last ten years have seen a welcome investment in health care services and a growth in the therapies available to the approximately 85,000 people with MS in the UK.

"The development of the National Standards Framework for long term conditions was a very useful step forward in neurological care.

"However, there are still significant variations in how effectively it is applied across the country and many people with MS are still experiencing long delays for essential services or not receiving them at all.

"There has been progress in the move towards disability equality in some areas, particularly through the Disability Discrimination Act. The majority of people with MS develop the condition in between the ages of 20 and 40.

"Therefore, moves to support them in employment are very welcome.

"The failure, however, of government to invest in social care sufficiently means that many local authorities are unable to provide the services needed to enable independent living for people living with long term conditions such as MS and disabled people.

"The MS Society urges Mr Blair’s successor to tackle social care provision as a matter of urgency."

Stakeholder Response: NHS Confederation

To send a comment to NHS Confederation click here

Nigel Edwards, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said: "The NHS is undoubtedly in a very much better state than it was in 1997. 

"There has been notable progress, much more emphasis on quality and standards, reductions in waiting times that would have been unthinkable in 1997. 

"We have learnt that targets can work but only for a limited range of things and that they can have major adverse consequences. 

"The debate on whether the NHS can continue to be tax funded has been dealt with for the moment. 

"There is a long list of positive innovations and achievements including NSFs, NICE, the development of regulation, the NHS Plan and the major investment from 2000.

"With hindsight there was a lost opportunity between 1997 and 2000 and then the money probably arrived too fast. There have been far too many reorganisations producing disruption and little benefit. 

"There has not really been a theory about how to achieve change, a good way of explaining it to the service or the public or an understanding of how difficult and time consuming change is. 

"As a result, implementation has been rushed, top down and with insufficient room for local interpretation. 

There are a number of areas where his legacy will persist. Perhaps the most significant will be the shift to a mix of health policy using market mechanisms, plurality of provision, regulation, incentives, increased transparency and the change in status of trusts which brings the English NHS in line with other European systems.

"There are significant challenges for his successor, not least the fall in the level of growth, the need for a more effective approach to health improvement and inequalities and poor relationships with professionals.

"Creating the patient focussed system we want will require local leadership – particularly by clinicians, but the system has a habit of relying on hierarchy and the DH has not fully made the transition to understanding how to make the new system work. A key lesson is not to revert to command and control just because things are getting tough."

 

Dr Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: "Tony Blair will leave a lasting and positive legacy on the NHS. There is no doubt that the NHS is in a very much better state and is continuously improving.

"There has been significant progress in improving standards and quality of healthcare and reductions in waiting times that would have been unthinkable a generation ago.

"Perhaps the greatest achievement is the consensus that has been created on a tax funded NHS based on need not ability to pay. This argument has been won – at least for the time-being.

"Looking to the future, Blair’s successor will need to tackle the perception gap between patients, who are generally satisfied with the care they receive from the NHS, and the public who are much more negative.

"We also need a better narrative of NHS reforms that all staff, including clinicians and managers, buy into. Finally, it is time to see a shift in the balance of power from central government to local trusts where decisions are best made."

 

Stakeholder Response: Motor Neurone Disease Association

To send a comment to MND Association click here

Kirstine Knox, chief executive of the Association, said: "Mr Blair has expressed a strong personal interest in Motor Neurone Disease through meetings with people with MND and the Association during his tenure as PM.

"By endorsing our campaign to raise £15m for research funding, Mr Blair has helped us open doors to talks with the Medical Research Council, and contributed to us receiving a private donation pledge of £1m – the highest single donation the Association has ever received.

"Dr Knox said the Association’s campaign for greater government funding for MND research would continue, and called on Gordon Brown, as the likeliest candidate to enter Number 10, not to forget people with MND."

"Any leader of this country should be committed to eradicating a disease that the government’s own figures shows kills four people every day in the UK, and devastates thousands of families.

"As well as this moral obligation, there is also a clear financial argument for funding research into MND, with the public services bill for caring for people with MND running to at least £270 million a year."

 

Stakeholder Response: Disabilities Trust

To send a comment to Disabilities Trust click here

The Disabilities Trust said: "One of the most important legacies of Tony Blair's years in power has been the relentless and ongoing drive to reform public services.

"As well as spending record amounts on public services, Tony Blair’s government has been relentless in its apparent determination to reform education, health and welfare services.

"This process has led to an increasing role for the third sector in public service provision and is reflected in policies such as the Compact, which set out for the first time the contractual basis of relations between government.

"Blair’s legacy can also be seen in the growing cross-party consensus over the importance of investment in public services before seeking to reduce taxation. While this shift is perhaps partly the inevitable result of a long period of uninterrupted economic growth, it also reflects the influence of Blair's belief that you can have both increased prosperity and greater fairness and that in fact the two things are integral to one another.

"Regarding specific policy for people with disabilities there have been some tangible gains under his government.

"For example the setting up of the Disability Rights Commission, which has since proven to be a very effective champion of disabled people’s rights and the passing of the Disability Discrimination Act in 2005, an Act that extended disability discrimination law to cover groups that had previously been excluded and set out final deadlines for all public transport to be fully accessible.

"In addition Tony Blair was also the first prime minister to explicitly recognise the need for improvement in services for people with autism. The Disabilities Trust welcomes all these positive contributions to improving the civil rights of people with disabilities.

"There remain however significant issues that we hope Tony Blair’s successor will seek to address. Despite the very significant increases in public spending over the past few years, there are signs that many local authorities seem to be facing increasing pressures on their finances and are, as a result, seeking both to reassess levels of user need and to revaluate whether to continue funding certain services. With the current pressures on NHS finances and uncertainty over longer-term economic growth, this situation is only likely to get more difficult.

"Furthermore there remain some problems in accessing appropriate types of service provision, particularly for people with what might be termed ‘hidden disabilities’ such as autism and brain injury. While there continues to be no statutory obligation on authorities to fund services for people with such conditions, individuals maybe placed in services (such as learning disability services) that might not be appropriate."