NHS (60th Anniversary)

I will not give way, because there is not much time. We have differed in our approaches over the way in which we believe the health service should operate. There has been too much of a propensity—certainly under this Government, but also under Conservative Governments in the past—for politicians to interfere when they come into office, and to feel that they have to prove their stamina and machismo by making changes, sometimes, it seems, just for the sake of it. The national health service has had too many changes and reorganisations under successive Governments. It is suffering from a surfeit of change and from fatigue. It needs to be able to settle in with what it has, and to get on with the job that it is meant to be doing—providing first class health care for all. That is the challenge to politicians of all political parties. The reorganisations and changes have inevitably led to money being wasted and, certainly over the past 11 years, in certain areas, to almost going full circle and coming back to square one, with upheaval and waste of resources in between. That, too, has to stop. We need a health system in which the medical practitioners, who are the best qualified to make the judgments, make those judgments for the furtherance of patient care, rather than one in which politicians dictate from Whitehall what they believe should be happening. To give the health service that freedom, within its existing principles, would be a tremendous step forward that would benefit patient care and the working of the health service, as well as saving money from waste that could then be reinvested in patient care, which is the most important thing. We can all find problems in the health service in our constituencies, but this debate is not an appropriate time to express those criticisms. There are other opportunities to make those speeches in the House. Today, we are celebrating the health service. We must celebrate the tremendous people who work day and night to look after patients and to provide patient care: the nurses, the doctors, the consultants and the often-forgotten ancillary workers who are so crucial to the delivery of health care and the working of our hospitals. They are the unsung heroes of the national health service; they are the people at the front line of patient care and health care, who do so much that is too often unrecognised—not through ingratitude, but because they do their job so well that they become seamless in the whole provision of health care. To them, we owe our thanks and a debt of gratitude for all they do; we should not forget that. We must also ensure that our local communities have the best facilities and the finest equipment that money can buy to provide health care within the budgets that Governments provide. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Charnwood said, it is no secret that this Government have substantially and significantly increased health spending over the last eight years. I, of course, welcome that. I have to say, however, that they have been in an extremely fortunate position because the strength of the economy over the last 15 years has enabled them to generate the revenue to invest in health care. That is a benefit for all of us. The sadness has been that not enough of it has gone to front-line services. That is why it is crucial that we have mechanisms in an ever-evolving health care system to ensure that we get the maximum amount of money that the state makes available to the health service to front-line services in order to continue to improve and advance the treatment of our patients. I conclude—I know that others want to participate in the debate—by saying that we should stop the nonsense of Labour Members trying to accuse Conservative Members of not believing in the health service. Government Members may not like it, but we do believe in it. There is no monopoly of caring and belief in the health service on the Government side: we all share an affection, a loyalty and a devotion to the health service. What we all want to do is ensure that it works at its finest, providing the greatest health care. We may have differences, which we can argue about until the cows come home, but no one should question the motives or the honourable intentions of Conservative Members just because it suits the political agenda of Government Members at election time.