The Government’s response to the tragedy of Mid Staffs has been widely welcomed, which is why the Opposition’s stance today is so disappointing. Robert Francis welcomed our measures as a
“carefully considered and thorough response”
to his recommendations that will
“contribute greatly towards a new culture of caring and making our hospitals safer places for their patients.”
The BMA said that it supports
“the Government’s commitment to put patient care first and foremost”.
The Patients Association said that it believes that this
“is a move towards restoring the faith patients have in the NHS.”
This Government would prefer to proceed on vital matters such as this with cross-party support, but I must warn the Opposition that we will do what is right for patients, whether or not we have their support. If they are today refusing to learn those lessons by not supporting this Bill, the country will draw its own conclusions about their fitness to run the NHS. They will know that for Labour it is all about politics, and it is politics before patients every time. We, on the other hand, profoundly believe that if we focus on patients, our NHS can be the safest, highest quality, most compassionate and fairest health care system in the world, and we will stop at nothing to make that happen. I commend this Bill to the House.