1 January 2008
Gordon Brown has promised to keep the National Health Service at the top of the Government’s agenda as the organisation enters its 60th year.
In a New Year’s message to the NHS, the PM praised staff for their achievements and for delivering "improved care" and a "higher standard of service". He said that wherever he travelled in the UK, people spoke of their "huge admiration" for doctors, nurses and other workers.
The PM said:
"2008 marks the year of the sixtieth anniversary of the NHS. At the start of this sixtieth anniversary year, I want to pay tribute to you - the staff of the NHS.
"And in 2008 the NHS is as relevant as it was in 1948. For sixty years now Britain has shown the way to health care not as a privilege to be paid for but as a fundamental human right. The NHS remains our priority not just because it has been fundamental to our past, but because a renewed NHS will be even more important to our future and that of our children."
In 2008 the Government will focus on reducing infections and improving access to care, the PM said. Work will also continue into a wholesale review of the NHS and how it should meet people’s expectations for 21st century healthcare.
Mr Brown said that reform would include looking at building an NHS constitution outlining the rights and responsibilities of those entitled to care.
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