Judy Viitanen closely follows Conservative health policies - and keeps her fingers crossed that we will have a Tory Government after the Spring General Election!  So, Judy and the PRimage team were interested that in keynote speech this morning, David Cameron has stepped up his bid to make the Tories the party of the NHS by promising reforms to cut costs and extend “patient power”. He also pledged he would rename the Department of Health to ensure that it is committed to improving the health of the entire nation.

The Tory leader set out his vision for the health service, as the party published its five key priorities.  He’s said that a  Conservative Government would overhaul the controversial Choose and Book system to include new providers and allow GPs to refer patients to named consultants, it emerged today, as the Conservative party published its plans for the NHS.

These pledges are the Tories most detailed summary yet of what its policies will mean for the health service – and they have also reiterated their promise to renegotiate the GP contract and ‘propel forward’ GP commissioning.

In brief, the Conservatives promised to ramp up patients’ ‘freedom to choose’ as part of its first pledge, creating a ‘patient-led NHS’, and said it would ‘restructure’ Choose and Book to give patients greater choice, ‘for example over which consultant a patients wants to be referred to.’

But the five pledges – which also include measuring health outcomes, putting healthcare professionals in charge of delivering care, focusing Government action on improving public health and reforming long-term care – also draw together a series of radical proposals to shake-up primary care, which have been previously been only hinted at.

These include a firm commitment to renegotiate the GP contract, open up the primary care sector to ‘new providers’ and give real budgets and commissioning powers to GPs.

Cameron said: ‘The Conservatives understand that competition isn’t a dirty word – in fact, it is the key to better healthcare for everyone, To make this competition really mean something, commissioning by GPs won’t be stalled – it will be propelled forward. A good GP is more than a doctor – they are someone you trust to guide you through some of the most difficult decisions of your life. We will give GPs real control over their budgets, lettering them negotiate contracts with service providers so they get the best deal for their patients and allowing them to reinvest any savings they make.’

Other key pledges included slashing NHS bureaucracy by a third in four years – equivalent to £1.5bn savings – and introducing an autonomy and accountability bill to establish an independent NHS board.