Health

5.20.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 23rd Apr 2010

The news that NHS executives have received double the pay rises of nurses since 2008 exemplify the failing of a "market" driven health service. The very principle of the NHS is based on fairness for all. Instead, it's been squeezed between the Tory dogma of market efficiency and obsessive central control from Labour. Neither has made our Health Service more healthy; just more expensive.

Of course, we all want to know how the NHS is performing but that shouldn't mean clinicians buried in paperwork and executives "cheating" to meet targets. The Liberal Democrats' solution is local health services governed by locally health boards, elected by you.

Had we had this fifteen years ago, the question of saving Kidderminster Hospital might never have arisen. With that kind of say, we could ensure the Millbrook Suite stays with the people who paid for it. We could improve mental healthcare. We could establish a proper birthing unit, as midwifes and mothers are demanding. We could end the bed blocking that keeps elderly patients in Kidderminster hospital beds at great expense for lack of care home space. We could ensure full-time GP care in Kidderminster's minor injuries unit. It would be Wyre Forest's choice.

Crucially, we will re-connect the community and its healthcare services so that management recognises its duty to the public who pay their wages; not Whitehall. Two years ago, when I asked our NHS Trust Chief Executive if Wyre Forest's elected Foundation Trust governors would be empowered to persuade him to return A&E Services to Kidderminster, I was rebutted with a swift "If you think you can go back in time, you can forget it." Clearly, we need better accountability than that.

This doesn't mean giving up on all government legislation, however. The Liberal Democrats would ensure that all doctors coming to work here from abroad can speak English and have the level of skills we would expect of a British GP. Hospital management would have a legal duty to inform the public when something does go wrong and would be prevented from bullying staff into silence. We would restructure the procurement process at the DoH, so we are not held to ransom by pharmaceutical companies. We would increase the subsidies to GPs who operate in deprived areas, so everyone gets the level of care they need, rather than what they can afford. After all, isn't that what the NHS is for?

Neville Farmer

Parliamentary Candidate