Press release: Lib-Dem health spokesman urges NHS to avoid supermarket model

08 Nov 2005

Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Health, will warn that subjecting the NHS to the same forces of competition and choice as supermarkets won't deliver better healthcare when he speaks at an NHS Confederation lecture tonight.

He will make his comments during the second in a series of three Westminster lectures by key players from the main political parties setting out their case for the future of health and public services.

The lectures have been organised by the NHS Confederation which represents more than 90 per cent of the organisations that make up the NHS throughout the UK.

Mr Webb says: "The government's current approach appears to be that , if a competitive market delivers choice and innovation when it comes to supermarkets, the same must be true in public services.

"But in fact markets tend to reinforce existing inequalities. Well-educated and articulate patients will secure the best NHS services for themselves, as already happens in our education system, while the vulnerable and marginalised will be left with the dregs."

However, Mr Webb agrees that other ways of delivering better healthcare services should be explored and warns against "a nostalgic yearning for a mythical golden era" of the NHS.

He says: "The way to reinvent the NHS is to make it more accountable to the people who rely on it. We need to learn from the example of Denmark whose healthcare system is run as a dozen smaller local units, each serving a population of approximately 340,000 people, which makes it one of the most popular with its citizens in the whole of Europe."

Steve Webb's lecture starts at 6pm at 1 Birdcage Walk, Westminster, SW1H 9JJ - if you would like to attend please e-mail matthew.akid@nhsconfed.org or call 020 7074 3306 or 07887 633344.
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ENDS
  

Notes for editors

The NHS Confederation represents more than 90% of the organisations that make up the NHS throughout the UK. Its members include the majority of NHS trusts including acute trusts, ambulance services, foundation trusts, mental health and learning disability trusts, primary care trusts, special health authorities and strategic health authorities in England; trusts and local health boards in Wales; NHS boards and special boards in Scotland; and health and social service trusts and boards in Northern Ireland.

Contact details

1. Contact Media Relations Manager Matt Akid on 020 7074 3306 or 07887 633344 or Media Officer Amy Darlington on 020 7074 3304 or 07767 770309 - out of hours please contact the on-call press officer on 07880 500726.
2. Steve Webb MP can be contacted via Pager 07699 739934.

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