I have had two emails about LibDem support for the Coalition’s Health Policy, here is my response:

Thank you for your observations, you will be aware that your concerns were addressed at our Spring Conference in Sheffield.

The robust debate has made the Party’s position absolutely clear. We will not support the ‘privatisation’ of the National Health Service.

However you should take a few things into account. Tony Blair’s Labour Government presided over the largest ‘privatisation’ of health care since the formation of the NHS. Even Lansley’s plans, which we do not support in full, do not go so far.

Secondly a doubling of NHS expenditure has not coincided with a concomitant improvement in the outcomes delivered or the quality of service. It has not been cost effective, and, even worse, with health expenditure growth halted (in real terms, allowing for inflation) the massive centralised bureaucracy is not delivering. PFI funded hospital building is going to be a drain on NHS resources for the next 30 years and some PCTs and NHS Trusts are already in financial trouble without the budgets available to dig them out. So, no change is not an option.

By making Public Health locally accountable through Local Authorities, and giving GPs a much bigger say in how services are delivered at what cost, there is scope to improve both the quality of the health care provided and health outcomes within existing budgets. I have heard at least one Labour supporting Chairman of a Primary Care Trust expressing the same views.

What the LibDem conference made clear is that WE DO NOT SUPPORT PRIVATISATION or DISMANTLING of the Health Service. However we accept that change is necessary and that it must be carried out with due diligence to ensure it does not have adverse unforeseen outcomes.

Labour piled massive management costs on to the Health Service, made it less democratically accountable and landed it with 30 years of debts. They wasted billions on private providers and management consultants. They left a Health Service which is unsustainable with protected budgets, yet they refused to promise to protect the Health Service from cuts. You may choose to listen to Labour propaganda, that is up to you.

As a Liberal Democrat I want to see a Health Service which is guaranteed to be free at the point of use and need, which is locally accountable, which is more cost effective and which concentrates on prevention rather than picking up the pieces once people fall ill. I want a service which is driven by a passion for better outcomes and better quality, not the pursuit of profit. I, and my LibDem colleagues in Parliament will fight for that.