The Conservative's approach to cancer guarantees appeared to be in confusion today. Andrew Lansley said that patients would see a specialist within two weeks.
The Conservative’s approach to cancer guarantees appeared to be in confusion today after Andrew Lansley said that patients would see a specialist within two weeks despite his party pledging to scrap the NHS guarantee that would do precisely that.
Answering a question on the BBC’s Daily Politics Election Debate from Branwen Jeffreys, Andrew Lansley put his party’s policy in confusion:
JEFFREYS: “If you have a suspected cancer, will you be see someone within two weeks?”
LANSLEY: “Yes you will”
NEIL: “But you told me in another interview, Andrew Lansley, that that wasn’t a commitment any more.”
The Tory manifesto says, “We will give patients more choice and free health professionals from the tangle of politically-motivated targets that get in the way of providing the best care.” More recently, William Hague said on the Campaign Show:
“We are not going to have a whole lot great system of guarantees and targets, we are going to have a system that performs … rather than dictating what everybody will do
The Labour government is committed to guarantees to see a cancer specialist within two weeks while the manifesto promises, “Legally binding guarantees for patients including the right to cancer test results within one week of referral, and a maximum 18 weeks’ wait for treatment or the offer of going private.”
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7 Responses to “Lansley’s cancer policy in confusion”
JC
So the taxpayer pays for NHS incompetance and the available budget is decreased. Doesn’t sound fair to me. How about jail for the people responsible, otherwise it’s just spending someone else’s money with no consequences.
Anon E Mouse
Will – Is this the best your site can offer as criticism of the Tories?
It is so over for the Labour party you can smell it. Watching Mandelson last night was truly nauseating – it was awful. Can you not come up with a single positive pro Labour message at all?
It’s not just Gordon Brown with his head in his hands dude…