Healey sets 5 tests for Cameron on the NHS

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Appearing at a party press conference this morning alongside Ed Miliband, John Healey set out his five tests (or perhaps more accurately, demands) for David Cameron on NHS reform. This forms the clearest and most succinct Labour critique yet of Cameron’s reforms, and will no doubt form the basis of Labour’s line of attack during the government’s “consultation” on the health service.

The tests are:

– Keep NHS protections against the full force of UK and EU competition law, drop the plan for a free market NHS and delete part 3 of the Bill
– Keep the waiting time guarantees for patients so they’re seen and treated quickly
– Drop plans to break up commissioning into son many small GP consortia
– Ban GP bonuses, stop conflicts of interest where they can commission themselves and prevent them from outsourcing the commissioning job to the private sector
– Keep the cap on NHS hospitals treating private patients so NHS patients don’t lose out, and strengthen the safeguards on closing down hospital services