Last week, the NHS Confederation, along with the BMA, RCN and King’s Fund held a hustings event with all three main health spokespeople in central London to discuss differing approaches to health policy in the run up to the election on 6 May.
Among a wide ranging debate, taking in questions on NHS finance, workforce, public health and social care, came a question from Shaun Clee, Chief Executive of 2gether and representing the MHN on offender mental health, asking what the three parties would do to tackle this issue and whether they were committed to implementation of the Bradley Review.
Andrew Lansley said he believed there needed to be a shift of resources, to enable treatment within secure settings rather than in prison, and that has held talks with his shadow colleagues Alan Duncan and Dominic Grieve about what action should be taken should the Conservatives form the next government.
Norman Lamb, for the Liberal Democrats, said that the mental health of prisoners needed to be much better addressed, and that drug and alcohol policy is an important part of that.
Andy Burnham talked of Labour’s commitment to improve the alcohol treatment of offenders and that they wanted to drive forward the work around Lord Bradley’s recommendations as set out in the recent government delivery plan.
To view the event on line and for more in depth information on the main parties manifesto’s visit our general election web pages