NHS Reorganisation

The treatment centres, which the hon. Gentleman mentions, helped contribute to bringing waiting times down to 18 weeks and helped to say to the British public, ““Whatever treatment you need in hospital, you will not have to wait more than 18 weeks for it.”” That was a consistent universal promise that we were able to make to patients as a guarantee for the future. That has now been ripped up, and we can see the result as waiting times and waiting lists lengthen. As I said at the start of my speech, my fear is that during this period of Tory leadership, we will see the NHS going backwards. As for the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George), I understand his problem. He is a Liberal Democrat and I have to say that this health policy bears very little of the Liberal Democrat imprint. The one part of the Liberal health manifesto that they managed to get into the coalition agreement was this:"““We will ensure there is a stronger voice for patients locally through… elected individuals on the boards of their local primary care trust””." Within two months, of course, that was not even worth the coalition agreement paper it was written on.