NHS (60th Anniversary)

No. International benchmarking is absolutely critical. Let us look at a simple example. The Government rightly say that, over the past decade, we have seen reductions in premature mortality from cardiovascular disease and stroke. However, they never go on to say that that has been true not for 10 years but for 20 years. They never go on to say that, when we compare our data with those of other countries, we see that we have not narrowed the gap. They do not go on to say that studies suggest that we have the worst outcomes for stroke among the European countries. They do not go on to say that there are routine procedures in other countries for stroke services and heart care services—for people having a heart attack—under which people are treated as an emergency when they have a stroke or when they are taken for primary angioplasty when they have a heart attack. Those services have routinely been offered for years in those other countries but they are not being offered here. International comparison is essential in this regard. How can we know how well the NHS is performing unless we look at countries with equally developed health economies to see how well they are doing by comparison?