Radical plans for the health service

5.30.00pm GMT Sat 8th Mar 2008

The Liberal Democrat Spring Conference today backed plans to radically transform the NHS into a 'people's health service' by empowering individuals and decentralising control to local communities.

The measures will set the NHS free from central government control, make it accountable to the people it serves through elected health boards and deliver high quality services to all guaranteed in a 'Patient's Contract'.

Plans contained in the policy paper Empowerment, Fairness and Quality in Healthcare include:

· Guaranteeing every citizen access to a high standard of core healthcare entitlements within maximum waiting times in a 'Patient's Contract'. To make sure that the NHS delivers, patients would have the right to receive private treatment, paid for by the NHS, if the waiting time was not met.

· Introducing a 'Care Guarantee' by spending £2 billion on personal care payments for all elderly people requiring care, based on need and not their ability to pay.

· Directly electing the majority of members of local Health Boards instead of unaccountable Primary Care Trusts, putting people in charge of decisions about their local health services.

· Rolling out the use of direct payments and individual budgets for people with chronic, long-term conditions and mental health services.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb said "I am thrilled by this result, it is a very significant vote for the Liberal Democrats. The Government's obsession with targets has distorted clinical priorities without giving specific rights to patients."

"Entitling patients to be treated in a private hospital if their wait breached a defined period would provide a real incentive for local health boards to ensure that hospitals deliver that treatment on time."