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The prime minister is continuing to rally support for planned changes in the NHS, warning the health service faces a fundamental crisis in the future if reforms are blocked.
In a keynote speech, David Cameron highlighted the need for "deep change" in the health service and hinted at some of the amendments that will be made as the result of a government consultation.
The speech comes as the issue of the NHS reform threatens to cause deep divisions within the coalition, with strong opposition to the changes drawn up by health secretary Andrew Lansley.
Ministers have been forced to delay plans after calling a "pause" to the progress of the Health and Social Care Bill pending the results of a "listening exercise" involving patients and health professionals.
The bill allows for the transfer of around £80bn of the NHS budget from local boards to groups of GPs and for the extension of a competitive market in health-care provision.
In his a speech to health staff Cameron said: "We save the NHS by changing it. We risk its long-term future by resisting change now.
"I know that some people still have concerns. They might be listening to this and thinking: 'OK, but if you love the NHS so much, if you don't want to take any risks with it, why do you want to change it?
"But this is the point: it's because I love the NHS so much that I want to change it. It needs to change to make it work better today and it needs to change to avoid a crisis tomorrow."
Speaking at a West London hospital, the prime minister said that the "resounding message" from the patients, doctors and nurses he had met during the listening exercise was: "Yes, we love the NHS but yes, there are some real problems."
Cameron also said the NHS is providing the best service it ever has but there is waste and inefficiency and wide disparities of quality of service and of health outcomes in different parts of the country.
Article Comments
This NHS reform is applicable to ENGLAND only...When will the government at Westminster stop misleading the public and actually stae that these reforms do not apply across the UK, but in England ONLY. We have had DEVOLUTION in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales....since 1998...
Amy Davies
16th May 2011 at 5:03 pm
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