Addressing the annual British Medical Association (BMA) conference in Edinburgh yesterday the Health Secretary received two standing ovations for her sentiments.

Sturgeon announced to delegates that the Scottish Government will close a ‘legal loophole’ which could lead to the commercialisation of GP services ‘by the back door’. 

The Health Secretary also told doctors that the Scottish Government will launch a consultation next month on the possible contents of a new Patients’ Rights Bill covering issues like dignity in healthcare and the right to a legally binding individual waiting time guarantee. 
 
She said: "I think there is a battle of ideas going on about the future direction of healthcare. A battle between the values of the market, of internal competition and contestability and the values of public service, of cooperation and collaboration.

"We have set out our stall with absolute clarity. NHS Scotland is, and always will be, a service that is owned by the people of this country.

"We will continue to ensure that our policies reflect the ethos and the principles upon which the NHS was founded back in 1948.

"I am firmly opposed to the commercialisation of healthcare and to this end, the Scottish Government will legislate to make sure there is no privatisation of GP services by the back door."

The Tories however hit back at the Health Secretary’s comments which strongly opposed market forces and competition in healthcare.  The party claimed that ‘Scottish patients are being sacrificed on the alter of her outdated political ideology’.

Conservatives Spokesperson for Public Health, Jackson Carlaw MSP said:

“Nicola Sturgeon has made clear time and again that she remains wedded to the outdated notion that the NHS must be a centrally planned nationalised monopoly. In other words, Scotland’s Health Secretary seems more concerned about ideological purity than she does about what delivers the best care for Scottish patients.  Scottish Conservatives take a different view. For us, what matters is what works.

“The Stracathro pilot is a case in point. At Stracathro the independent sector was invited to treat NHS patients at an NHS hospital in the evening and over weekends. An independent analysis of the scheme showed that it saved taxpayers’ millions of pounds, reduced waiting lists and waiting times, eliminated Hospital Acquired Infection and was rated as ‘excellent’ by the majority of patients. Despite all this Nicola Sturgeon stubbornly refuses to roll the scheme out across Scotland. Why should Scottish patients continue to be sacrificed on the alter of the SNP’s political ideology in this way?

“If Nicola Sturgeon is serious about improving our health service she should stop seeking to curry favour with NHS trade unions and start doing what’s best for Scottish patients. Scotland needs an open-minded Health Secretary who's determined to build a more flexible and pluralistic health service, not one with an unthinking opposition to all health care unless it's run by committees of state-employed bureaucrats.”

One person has commented on this article.

1. Sturgeon says NHS must stay true to founding principles
Graham Campbell, Unregistered

At last we have some clarity and certainty from government that change and updating in the NHS Scotland will not be based on outdated Thatcherite obsessions with market mechanisms where they are not needed and are proven to be less efficient and more expensive for tax payers. Doctors, nurses, hospital workers and above all patients can rest assured that control of the NHS will remain politically accountable - through a government minister you can fire at the next election if you don't like how they run the health services.

Posted 2008-07-09 15:20:42

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