Tories set out NHS plans

The Conservatives have set out their plans for the health service, pledging to scrap central targets.

Marking the 60th anniversary of the NHS, the Tories said they will attempt to save 38,000 patients who are dying unnecessarily in hospitals each year.

Party leader David Cameron claimed that while England is now spending as much as comparable countries, average outcomes are behind international standards.

He said in a speech to the Royal College of Surgeons on Tuesday that targets will be replaced with transparent information on survival and recovery rates at individual hospitals.

"Despite all the extra money - all the extra spending - we still have some of the worst health outcomes in the whole of Europe," Cameron argued.

"Right now, England is near the bottom of the table when it comes to five-year cancer survival rates - far below countries like Sweden and Germany, and on a par with Slovenia and Poland.

"We have one of the worst records of diabetic control - especially among children. And it's awful that you're more likely to die from a stroke in England than you are in any other country in western Europe.

"So we've got a situation where we pump the same money into our health system as other countries, but on the thing that actually matters - a patient's health and the results of their actual treatment - we're doing worse."

The plan comes ahead of the government's own blueprint on the NHS, expected to be published by health minister Lord Darzi next week.

And health minister Ann Keen said the Tory plans were "inconsistent".

"David Cameron will tell anyone in the NHS what he thinks they want to hear - whether it is patients, GPs or NHS staff," she said.

"Having opposed extra investment in the NHS, the Tories are now opposing reform that is helping to improve patient care.

"The Tories are proposing an end to longer GP opening hours, scrapping guarantees that have shortened waiting times and cuts on a scale that would put NHS investment at risk."