Labour
On preventive care:
- Legally binding guarantees for patients including the right to cancer test results within one week of referral, and a maximum 18 weeks’ wait for treatment or the offer of going private.
- Preventative healthcare through routine check-ups for the over-40s and a major expansion of diagnostic testing.
On the patient choice and personal care:
- More personal care, with the right in law to choose from any provider who meets NHS standards of quality at NHS costs when booking a hospital appointment, one-to-one dedicated nursing for all cancer patients, and more care at home.
- The right to choose a GP in your area open at evenings and weekends, with more services available on the high-street, personal care plans and rights to individual budgets.
On psychological care:
- Access to psychological therapy for those who need it.
Conservative
On supporting the National Health Service and health spending:
- We will back the NHS. We will increase health spending every year. We will give patients more choice and free health professionals from the tangle of politically-motivated targets that get in the way of providing the best care. We will give patients better access to the treatments, services and information that improve and extend lives, boost the nation’s health, and reform social care.
On cancer care:
- Give thousands more people — especially young people — access to effective drugs to treat rare cancers by changing the way these drugs are commissioned
- Encourage clinical trials of innovative techniques to diagnose and treat cancer
- Support the roll out of screening programmes for common cancers.
On public health:
- We will turn the Department of Health into a Department for Public Health so that the promotion of good health and prevention of illness get the attention they need.
On mental health:
- Enable welfare-to-work providers and employers to purchase services from Mental Health Trust
- Increase access to effective ‘talking’ therapies.
Liberal Democrat
On the National Health Service:
- Make the NHS work better by extending best practice on improving hospital discharge, maximising the number of day case operations, reducing delays prior to operations, and where possible moving consultations into the community.
- Cut the size of the Department of Health by half, abolish unnecessary quangos such as Connecting for Health and cut the budgets of the rest, scrap Strategic Health Authorities and seek to limit the pay and bonuses of top NHS managers so that none are paid more than the Prime Minister.
On patient choice and care:
- Giving every patient the right to choose to register with the GP they want, without being restricted by where they live, and the right to access their GP by email.
- Ensuring that local GPs are directly involved in providing out-of-hours care.
- Reforming payments to GPs so that those who accept patients from areas with the worst health and deprivation scores receive an extra payment for each one they take.
On regulation and quality:
- Require hospitals to be open about mistakes, and always tell patients if something has gone wrong.
- Make it illegal for a Local Health Board to allow a doctor to work in the UK without passing robust language and competence tests.
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