Alan Johnson insists that Labour, which created the NHS, is the party best placed to nurture it
AS WE look back at 60 years of the National Health, the overwhelming feeling is one of grateful thanks to the legions of clinicians, nurses, porters and cleaners responsible for making it such a huge success over the years. I believe their dedication is inspired by the fundamental principles on which the NHS was established: universal healthcare, free at the point of need and funded from general taxation. It is hard to envisage such dedication existing in health systems that run primarily on the ability of the patient to pay. I want to restate those founding values of the NHS to commemorate the 60th anniversary.
The Tories now profess devotion to the NHS. They recently attempted to re-write history by suggesting that it emerged from a deep political consensus. They did, of course, oppose the creation of the NHS – voting against it en bloc at the second and third reading in Parliament. As the NHS historian Rudolf Klein points out, they seriously considered switching to an insurance-based scheme in 1982 and we know every MP on the Tory benches won their seat on a manifesto that demonstrated their support of the NHS by paying people to leave its care through the patient passport scheme. So I welcome the Damascene conversation of the Conservatives to the core principles of the NHS, but I doubt if it is deep enough to prevent the suppressed Tory hostility to a tax funded system from emerging again.
While 1948 was the founding year of the NHS, 1997 may be equally defining. Following years of neglect, the Labour Government embarked on a massive programme of expansion – investing in staff, building and services. The NHS Plan in 2000 set a tough course to follow, but the direction has been maintained. It is impossible to manage an entity of this size and scope and please everyone. Yet we have made deep and meaningful improvements across primary and secondary care, as well as in social care and mental health provision. That’s partly why the NHS remains such a cherished institution.
David Cameron realises that, for the Tories to regain public support, they must erase their handling of the NHS in the 1980s and ’90s from the collective memory. If Labour is to continue to be seen as the party best placed to support the NHS, it won’t be because the service is so much better now than it was in 1997. It will be because we have convinced voters about our plans for the future.
That is why 2008 will be another defining year with the Next Stage Review, headed by my ministerial colleague Professor Lord Darzi, setting the course for the next 60 years in a report emerging from months of work by thousands of clinicians, nurses and staff across this country. It will also see those founding principles and values enshrined in an NHS constitution. What will be different about the health service as we move forward will be the patient experience. The Next Stage Review will challenge a locally-led NHS to focus on the provision of world-class quality healthcare, a service that is highly personalised with staff and clinicians who have real control over what they do, in an environment that is truly innovative in its approach to healthcare provision.
So as we look forward to the next 60 years, Labour’s ideals for our NHS remain undiminished while our stewardship of the service is still motivated by achieving world-class care. I am confident Labour will always remain true to Nye Bevan’s founding principles, while at the same time freeing up the NHS and the people it employs to be innovative and take decisions so that the service is clinically led and locally driven. Labour’s greatest achievement remains its greatest political asset.
Alan Johnson is Secretary of State for Health and Labour MP for Kingston Upon Hull West and Hessle
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