I welcome Andy Burnham and his health team to Reading today, I even invited him to come and have a cup of tea with me. I'm not surprised he turned me down, he'd have had to deal with a few awkward truths.
Andy knows that Labour is being totally dishonest about the changes to the NHS and he needs to be honest with the public. How does he think he will improve a service already under pressure from an ageing population and rising cost of drugs by cutting its budget. The Government is raising funding in real terms each year whilst Labour wants to cut it like it has in Wales.
Labour has no answer because it has no reform plans of its own on how to deal with these pressures on the service.
He also needs to tell us how exactly he has worked out his figures for the cost of reform. Labour seems to believe the reforms are costing £3 billion, but this is not the case. The impact assessment that accompanies the Bill tells us the one off cost is approx £1.2 billion but that by making the reform it will save £4.5 billion by 2015 and a further £1.5 billion thereafter to 2020.
All this money is going back into front line services. How is Burnham and Labour going to find this money to support services without making the reforms?
I hope the Labour health team find time to meet with the GPs leading our Care Commissioning Groups (CCGs). I have had several recent meeting with them and their enthusiasm is huge for the changes and the power it puts in their hands to make decisions for their patients. Why would Labour not want clinical professionals taking decisions about treatment, but instead put it in the hands of the faceless bureaucrats at the PCTs?
The CCG leaders have told me they are making savings and improving both quality and services already. The change is coming from an evolution not a revolution they tell me and it's working well.
Burnham and his team often talk about creeping privatisation. But he needs to answer the question as to why Labour made the biggest shift to the private sector of any Government. In Reading patients are often given the choice of private hospitals to receive their NHS treatment. Patients like it and I support it and I thank the Labour Government for making it possible. Patients want the best care a system can offer when they are ill, they don't care whether the NHS provides it by a private supplier or a public one. But why does Andy Burnham?
The Government has listened carefully to health professionals and the Prime Minister came to the Royal Berks Hospital for a private meeting last summer to listen to concerns. We made significant changes to address those concerns and we have a good bill that will improve the NHS. Labour needs to stop its misinformation campaign and start thinking about what is best for patients rather than what is best for the Labour Party.