NHS (60th Anniversary)

It is a genuine pleasure to wind up this debate to mark the 60th anniversary of our national health service. The debate has allowed contributions from all parts of the House expressing both personal and national gratitude for the unparalleled institution that we call our national health service, and above all for its staff. The NHS is the Conservative party's No. 1 priority. We are not unique in that—it is the No. 1 priority of the people of this country. We have committed ourselves to it financially, and have laid out foundational policy to preserve and enhance its strength. We have the determination to trust front-line staff with decisions, and to set our NHS free from politically inspired micro-management. We have brought forward this motion to celebrate our NHS, and we are glad to use our Opposition time in that way. As is the case with Members on both sides of the House, Conservative Members are unequivocal advocates for and supporters of the NHS. I am proud that my mother was an NHS nurse who started her training in the late 1940s, shortly after the founding of the NHS, and retired in the late 1980s. I am also married to a nurse; by that stage, the qualification was no longer as a state enrolled nurse, but as a registered general nurse. My family also uses the NHS, and I am glad that we have had excellent treatment and outcomes. In this 60th anniversary year, I pay tribute to the hard-working front-line staff in the NHS, and the volunteers who, together with the many charitable organisations, support and care for patients, day in and day out. As my hon. Friend the Member for West Chelmsford (Mr. Burns) said in a powerful and impassioned speech—I am sure that the House will turn to it, and that his constituents will be proud—the Conservative party, among many others, has supported the principles of the NHS from its outset. There is a strong national consensus on the values of the NHS. The British people are rightly proud of it as an institution of whose values we can be proud internationally. We are rightly proud that everyone has access to high-quality care on the basis of need, regardless of their ability to pay. We all have stories of the hard work of front-line professionals when both we and our families have been under the care of the NHS, and will have heard similar stories from our constituents. We also take up those times when the NHS, for all its great benefits and values that we are keen to celebrate, occasionally fails to meet its own standards. The debate has been interesting and wide-ranging. My hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley) set the tone in a way that accorded with how the House sees the NHS. He sought to ensure that we celebrated an NHS that is and should be, in many respects, above party politics. In a relatively short debate, he did not necessarily delve down into the policy and detail, but painted a clear, optimistic, enthusiastic vision for the future. It was heartening to note that the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb), whose opening remarks also celebrated the staff of the NHS, largely supported my hon. Friend. [Interruption.] Indeed he did. I am glad that we had the chance to put him right on the question of national targets, and that he can now enter that debate in the right spirit. The Secretary of State, who has not been able to return to the Chamber, observed that he agreed with every single word of the Opposition motion. Indeed, all that the Government chose to do in their amendment was add to the motion. That set a tone that I think we all hoped could be sustained, but to everyone's surprise it took the Secretary of State a further 15 minutes to deal with an historical obsession with 1948, and perhaps with 1946 as well. If we are honest, all of us—Members throughout the House—will admit that when we talk to our constituents, it is clear that one thing that does not concern them is what took place in this Chamber in 1948. What does concern them is what will happen to their health service in years to come. That is why it is so important for us to demonstrate our ability to criticise what is happening, and to ensure that we are committed to the future. Despite what struck me as unnecessary, somewhat inappropriate and disappointing partisanship on that score, one certainty emerged from all the speeches. It was articulated by the Secretary of State, and again by Conservative Members. What is clear is that there is no dispute but a total, not even qualified, consensus among Members throughout the House, on behalf of all the people of this nation, that we are committed to the operation and values of the NHS. I was delighted that a former Secretary of State—my right hon. Friend the Member for Charnwood (Mr. Dorrell), who spoke with great authority and knowledge—was able to confirm the existence of that total consensus, and the adherence to those principles by all who represent the people of this country in the House. He rightly urged us to move on from what has, at times, been a sterile debate that has not resonated with what people think about the real issues, and to deal with the true debate on who is best placed to deliver what everyone wants to achieve: improving health outcomes in a way commensurate with the huge resources that the country is willing to commit to the NHS in which we all believe. My right hon. Friend was also able to demonstrate that we have come full circle. He gave the example of the introduction by the current Government of commissioning, which had remarkable resonances with procedures and challenges that he and his immediate predecessor had experienced. There have been some wasted years, but we can move on. What my right hon. Friend urged the House to do, above all, was ensure that we retain our confidence in the NHS and learn to let go so that we—the politicians who are accountable in the House for the resources that are committed—can feel confident that the NHS, clinical and non-clinical, can deliver the outcomes that we want.