Press briefing from the Prime Minister’s Spokesman on: the NHS and Prime Minister’s Questions
NHS
Asked about the problem of public perception of the National Health Service, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that if you looked at the figures, which showed that people’s experience of treatment in the NHS showed high levels of satisfaction, over 70%. These figures were generally accepted as accurate, since there had been a recurring theme across all polls on this issue. We should also acknowledge that people’s overall perception of the NHS was different because of the messages they got about particular problems. That was a perception gap which we had to accept was there, but it was equally legitimate for us to point to the fact that there were more NHS nurses today than this time last year and there were more NHS doctors than ever before. Furthermore if you looked at the outcomes in terms of waiting lists and the number of operations those were at record highs. So in terms of actual performance, which was what it ultimately all came down to, the NHS was performing for the people it was meant to be performing for, the patients.
Asked if it couldn’t be true that people’s individual experience of the NHS was positive whilst the overall performance was poor, the PMOS said no because if you looked objectively at the figures we reached the 6 month target for waiting times in December, we said we would achieve it and we did. If you looked at the figures for cancer treatment and heart disease treatment it was an indisputable fact that those were undeniably much better. The key thing was to get the acceptance that the key measurement was actual performance. That meant making the NHS as effective and as efficient as possible to deliver the outcomes for patients. The problem was that you couldn’t wrap an organisation of 1.4 million people in cotton wool and say it will never change. Change had to take place, and change often resulted in disruption for people and the way they work and can result in local problems. We weren’t denying that but equally we shouldn’t lose sight of the big picture and that big picture was one of vast improvement.
Asked if, given that we were saying that the big picture was one of vast improvement, the Prime Minister agreed with Patricia Hewitt’s comment that this was the best year ever for the NHS, the PMOS said that looking at the figures for this year we could see, that 6 month waiting lists showed the best figure ever, heart operations and reducing coronary problems showed the best year ever, cancer treatment showed the best year ever, the hospital building programme had produced a significant number of new hospitals. So in terms of actually delivering results, that was what we actually meant.
Asked why people seemed to be having trouble accepting the statistics, the PMOS said that in the context of building on years of figures which were going in the opposite direction there was a historical legacy to be dealt with. Put to him that people just didn’t trust the figures, the PMOS said no. The 70% approval figure was based on what people trusted most of all which was their own practical experience, then people believed that the NHS was improving. The performance figures underlined that the reality on which that experience was based was one of improvement. We could have a long and theoretical discussion about why the perception gap existed but the realities were that the figures showed that patient care was improving.
Asked what was going to happen to hospitals which were running up huge debts and what would happen if they didn’t balance their budgets, the PMOS said that he was not going to get in a hypothetical question about what might happen if they didn’t turn they budget around, the important thing was that the turnaround teams were put in place to insure that they did turn around. Of course that meant making hard decisions, but decisions which frankly should, in many cases, have been taken some time ago. This was about matching hospitals performance with the staff, the finances and making sure they balanced. It also meant taking into account the changes in medical practice such as the fact that more and more emphasis was being put on the front line through primary care centres and inevitably in some cases hospitals would end up doing less of some kinds of treatment. That didn’t meant that patients were being neglected, quite the reverse. People would be getting more effective care which was more easily accessible. There was a change process going on and what we had to do was help people manage their way through that change process. The PMOS repeated that there were more NHS nurses in work today than there were this time last year and those levels would be maintained.
Prime Minister’s Questions
Asked by Sky News if it was true that the Prime Minister prepared for Prime Minister’s Questions wearing shorts and a T-shirt, the PMOS said that he didn’t think it would be wise for him to stray into the territory that some former ambassadors had entered by discussing the attire of Prime Ministers. So his answer was that the Prime Minister was suitably attired whenever he appeared in the House of Commons.
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