Political Comparison Made Easy

REFORMING OUR NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE

Scottish Conservatives are committed to delivering better healthcare for Scotland's communities. We are proud of the excellent service provided by our NHS and those who work within it.

But the NHS can always be improved. We believe that reducing management costs will allow more money to be freed up to invest in front-line services, and protect vital local facilities. We also believe that providing a stronger service on the front line of primary care, through early identification of potential health concerns, will enable the NHS to work with families and individuals more effectively in looking after their own health.

The ultimate responsibility for an individual's good health rests with them personally. It is up to the individual to take an interest in their own healthcare and make appropriate lifestyle choices for their own wellbeing. Government's role is to support individuals in these choices, provide information and support, but also provide a greater degree of assistance for the vulnerable such as children and those from disadvantaged groups.

The NHS under the Scottish Conservatives will be protected from funding cuts, will fill gaps in service which currently exist, such as a lack of health visitors or poor access to vital cancer drugs, and will provide a new focus on improving the nation’s general health and wellbeing.

Because the Scottish Conservatives value the NHS, we will protect health spending, increasing it annually in line with inflation.

However, we still need to use this money efficiently. We start by reducing top-level management costs by 30 per cent in the Scottish NHS over the Parliament. All savings will go direct to frontline NHS services.

We opposed the SNP’s abolition of prescription charges, which took millions of pounds out of the NHS. We would reintroduce prescription charges at the 2009 level of £5 for a single item and £48 for a prepayment certificate - reinjecting £37m into the NHS. At the same time, we will review the list of conditions which are exempt from prescription charges to remove anomalies and widen the range. No individual or group who would have been exempt from charges prior to abolition will pay under our plans.

We also support the further development of the role of pharmacists when it comes to prescribing medication. This will allow more money to be saved through the use of generic drugs.

We propose free universal health checks for those aged between 40 and 74. Working with Community Pharmacy, we will deliver a range of drop-in services catching the early signs of potential problems and saving our NHS substantial sums in the long run.

We have supported moves by the Scottish Government to restrict Distinction Award payments and we will study the proposals from the UK Government when published. Our preference is for a UK wide reform of these payments.

As we have been prepared to make tough decisions elsewhere in the NHS, we will be able to introduce a Cancer Drugs Fund of up to £10m to ensure that Scottish patients have at least the same access to clinically effective drugs as patients in England and establish a new IVF Fund to broaden access to fertility treatment, giving additional funding to those Health Boards providing a minimum standard of IVF access in their area.

We need to remove the inappropriate emphasis on ideology and targets and shift the focus to clinical discretion and what really matters: patient outcomes. With this in mind, we will ensure NHS Boards have the freedom to commission voluntary and private sector care and remove the ban on entities other than GP partnerships providing primary care.

To improve access to healthcare, we will pilot walk-in treatment centres in our major cities, which could be set up either by the NHS or by independent providers using their own capital. We will review the provision of out of hours services, and will seek to amend the contract for Scottish GPs if necessary to ensure adequate services are provided. In return, we will give GPs a greater leadership role in Community Health Partnerships.

We will work with the British Dental Association and local health boards to ensure that every Scot has access to a Dentist, at the same time as pushing for much greater emphasis on the preventative measures needed to improve oral health.

For too long, mental health services have also been given insufficient attention by policymakers. We will promote increased use of talking therapies within the NHS. We will encourage health boards to make greater use of telehealth and telecare to improve access to healthcare for patients, particularly those in remote and rural areas.

To deliver these improvements, it is clear that some structural changes are required. We will review the Scottish NHS structure with a view to reducing the number of health boards and health quangos. Equally, we will look to rationalise the non-geographic NHS boards. While we will allow the pilots for part-elected NHS boards to continue in NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Fife, we will assess their success during the next Parliament before taking a view on the suitability of part-elected boards across the NHS in Scotland.

We also believe that members of the general public need to be given the power to trigger Independent Scrutiny Panels when major service changes are under discussion. We will achieve this my introducing a threshold petition system.

The NHS needs a culture of continuous quality improvement to drive up standards and NHS workers must be confident that they can raise concerns without fear of recrimination. To ensure that this is a reality, we will make it easier for NHS workers to "whistleblow" by requiring all NHS Boards to adhere to a consistent national whistleblowing procedure.

We will take action across all parts of government - the criminal justice system as well as the NHS - to help tackle problem alcohol consumption. To support this, we want to see Scotland follow the UK Government's lead and ban the sale of alcohol below the cost of duty and VAT.

Please see pages 15-18 of the Scottish Conservative Party manifesto for this policy.

Please also see the Scottish Conservative Party spending plans and the Scottish Conservative Party summary budget which relate to their manifesto.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 11/04/11 (2:10pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

Helping our brilliant health service and its staff meet the challenges they face, keeping health and care local, tackling the big killers and preventing ill health

Better Health Action Plan

Our health service has served us brilliantly for more than sixty years. Our plan for health recognises that achievement.

NHS staff are a credit to Scotland's health service, providing dedication and commitment. Substantial progress has been made in the last twelve years in improving health outcomes and patient experience.

The health service faces enormous challenges for the future, most of all from the growing population of elderly people and the extra health care they need.

The majority of spending is currently directed towards acute hospitals and away from primary and community care. That means the current health service can be expensive and inefficient. People are being kept in hospitals, often miles from their homes, when they would receive better, and more cost-effective, care closer to home. A week in an acute hospital waiting for discharge costs thousands, one week of better care at home just a fraction of that.

We will help more people get better care in their home or local community through closer working between health and care staff at a local level.

Our reforms will allow us to make progress on tackling wider health concerns.

Scotland has made good progress on the big three killers - stroke, heart disease and cancer - in the last decade. But cancer detection rates remain low by international standards to detect and treat cancer. Around a quarter of new cancers are only detected for the first time at A&E. We will improve detection and treatment.

We will continue to promote good health with a nationwide plan to tackle obesity. Scotland's obesity crisis comes at a high cost to the individual and the taxpayer, and it is storing up significant health challenges for the future. A quarter of children aged 2-6 already have an unhealthy BMI. We will take forward a wide-ranging obesity strategy, bringing together health, education and care services, to tackle the problem at every stage and prevent it worsening.

One in four adults will experience mental ill-health in their lifetime, and mental health problems place enormous burdens on individuals, their families and the Scottish economy. We will bring forward an ambitious new mental health strategy to tackle the problem across all age groups.

We know that Scotland's health service is about more than targets and statistical inputs. Joined up thinking, cutting out waste, and smart investment in preventative care will improve the long term health of the nation and improve the care that patients need in their community.

Our plan makes sure people can get the services they need in urban or rural communities.

We will deliver our Action Plan for health alongside our plans for drugs and alcohol, carers and the Early Intervention Revolution to secure the best outcomes for Scotland.

The Better Health Action Plan will:
• Set a new national objective on obesity. We will work with schools and community groups to increase access to sports facilities and clubs, increase the availability of dieticians in GP practices and provide better help and information for individuals and parents. We will encourage school nurses and health visitors to use the BMI data currently recorded by schools to engage more proactively with parents about their children's diet and exercise.
• Set a new target for urgent referral for cancer diagnosis. Every patient should expect to see a specialist within two weeks. We will also work to tackle the unacceptably high number of cancer cases that are only detected for the first time during emergency admission to hospital.
• Improve the provision of mental health services, increase access to psychological and emotional support and reduce waiting times for psychological treatments and talking therapies. We will take steps to increase the number of qualified psychologists and psychiatrists and develop more community-based support services.
• Drive forward smart investment in preventative care and health, continuing also to make progress on smoking cessation measures. • Retain NHS 24 but improve out-of-hours care across Scotland, with a particular focus on rural and remote areas, and put GPs back at the centre of the service. We will work closely with the BMA to develop their out-of-hours proposals and establish a challenge fund to allow more areas to take forward the out-of-hours options proving more popular with patients. We will explore the benefits of organising the ambulance service on a Health Board area basis and locating control rooms with other blue light services.
• Expand telemedicine and eHealth to allow easier access for patients, especially in rural areas, and avoid unnecessary outpatient and inpatient activity. This will save money and improve patient care.
• Make Scotland the first country to establish national-scale telehealth services and establish a specific HEAT target for all health boards, to mainstream the use of telehealth in the delivery of patient care.
• Make better use of pharmacy services in the community to provide quick and easy access to healthcare out of office hours and at weekends. We will allow pharmacy applications to be handled more fairly and work towards giving pharmacists more patient information to help them improve medicine management.
• Guarantee access to an NHS dentist for everyone who wants it, after working with the dental profession.
• Learn from innovative international examples of best practice to ensure Scotland's care homes provide world class levels of care and stimulus. We will ensure strict regulation of care home standards with severe penalties for breaches of these standards and explore with the regulators the scrutiny of care home operator finances.
• Drive down rates of healthcare associated infection across the whole of the health service and ensure that all of Scotland's hospitals meet scrupulous standards of cleanliness.

We will bring common sense to the delivery of health and social care by requiring effective working between health boards, local authorities and care services. We support the sharing of staff and premises. Simple steps to improve communication and co-operation can make a huge difference to patient outcomes.

We will:
• Bridge the gap between health and social care, making sure that individuals have the support they need stay in their own homes where possible. We oppose the centralisation of care into a single, national care service, with little accountability and enormous costs and bureaucracy. • Protect free personal care, a proud achievement of our time in government.
• Help individuals with long term conditions or their carers design the best healthcare for their individual needs. We will require local authorities to offer a range of self-directed support options to give people control over their care and provide them with the information they need to make informed choices. We will develop community initiatives which provide information and support for self-management.
• Drive out waste and inefficiency in the health service without impacting on frontline services. We will make health boards more financially transparent, end the system of bonus payments to high-earning consultants and take action to reduce the soaring drugs bill.
• Allow communities to design the health services that best meet their local needs. We will help people bring forward their innovative ideas and solutions to change the way their community health services are delivered.

Please see pages 60-62 of the Scottish Liberal Democrat Party manifesto for this policy.

The party had no previous policy stated on its website for this topic for comparison.

Retrieved on 18/04/11 (3:10am) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

Health

Scotland can be healthier with healthcare that is better, faster and more convenient.

The SNP has a clear vision for the future of our nation's health service. We want to see a health service that delivers faster treatment, close to home. A health service where health inequalities are reduced and patient care and patient wellbeing are the top priority.

Progress Has Been Made

• We have abolished hidden waiting lists and waiting times are at a record low. In March 2007 there were 32,000 outpatients waiting more than 12 weeks -by March 2010 only 150 outpatients waited more than 12 weeks. In March 2007, 10,000 inpatients waited more than 9 weeks -by 2010 this figure had fallen to 300.
• We have met the 62-day cancer waiting time target - a target Labour failed to meet - and have set a new 31 day target which we have met a year ahead of schedule.
• We have introduced the Patients' Rights Act which establishes in law a 12 week treatment time guarantee and a new right to complain.
• We kept open the A&E units at Monklands and Ayr Hospitals.
• We have cut MRSA infection rates by almost two-thirds, and cut C.Diff rates by almost three-quarters, since we came to office.
• We have increased the number of consultants, doctors, nurses, dentists, emergency workers and cleaners in the NHS since 2007.
• We have increased the number of people registered with a dentist by over one million and have opened a new dental school in Aberdeen.
• We have tripled the investment to tackle alcohol abuse and supported the NHS to deliver more than 150,000 alcohol brief interventions.
• We abolished prescription charges, ending the unfair tax on ill health.

In the next Parliament, an SNP Government will ensure that we continue the progress that has been made.

An SNP Government will Protect the Health Budget

We recognise that if we want to have a first-class health service in Scotland the resources need to be there. That is why we have guaranteed that the revenue budget of the Scottish NHS will be protected in real terms. That means that in four years' time the budget of the NHS will be more than £1 billion higher than it is today.

We will also support the NHS to make a further £300 million in efficiency savings in the next year, every penny of which will be retained by NHS Boards for reinvestment.

We will also reduce the number of senior managers working in the NHS by 25 per cent over the next parliament and take forward the recommendations of the Doctors and Dentists Review Body on consultant distinction awards.

It is only by protecting the budget - and ensuring that money is focused as much as possible on point-of-care services - that we can continue to deliver improvements in services, invest in staff and ensure that we keep up with developments in technology and drugs.

An SNP Government will Guarantee No Compulsory Redundancies in the NHS

The Scottish NHS depends on its workforce to deliver the excellent treatment that we all expect. We owe it to that workforce to provide stability and security as a strong foundation for the NHS. So we will guarantee that there will be no compulsory redundancies in the NHS.

Improving the Quality of NHS Care

The SNP will keep waiting times low and we will focus just as hard on improving other aspects of the quality of care. We will drive forward the implementation of the NHS Quality Strategy over the next Parliament.

A New Front in the Battle against Cancer

Over the last four years the SNP government has made real progress in cutting cancer waiting times. We will maintain that progress. However, too often in Scotland cancers are not detected early enough and late detection means poorer survival rates. We will therefore embark on a Detect Cancer Early Initiative with a target of increasing the number of cancers detected at the first stage of the disease by 25%. In the first instance, the Initiative will be directed at lung cancer, breast

No Privatisation of the Scottish NHS

We will continue to reject the Tories and Liberals' privatisation agenda south of the border. We have ended Labour's privatisation experiment by bringing Stracathro Hospital back into the NHS.

The SNP remains 100 per cent committed to the Scottish NHS as a publicly funded and publicly-delivered service.

Investing in NHS Infrastructure

We have invested a record amount in bricks and mortar and new equipment over the past four years. We have laid the groundwork for the new £840 million Southern General Hospital in Glasgow - fully paid for by the public purse. And despite cuts of more than one-third in our capital budget - imposed by the Westminster Government - we will improve services with new hospitals in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and new facilities across the country including in Aberdeen, Highlands, Lanarkshire, Dumfries, Grampian and Dundee.

In communities across Scotland we plan a continued investment in new health centres, and other health and social care facilities. This will mean that more Scots than ever before will have access to the best quality care close to home.

Please see pages 14-15 of the Scottish National Party manifesto for this policy.

Please see this SCREEN GRAB of the previous version of this policy from the party website.

Retrieved on 16/04/11 (12:42pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

A Healthy Society, Not Just One That Picks Up the Pieces

Greens believe in a fully inclusive health service, with no barriers set by low income, prejudice or disability. We believe it is fundamental that Scotland has a National Health Service which is free at the point of use. The NHS currently is under greater threat than ever, as the UK Government's attempts to privatise the NHS in England are showing. We'll oppose that market-driven agenda and we believe that most Scots oppose it too.

And whilst there have been some important steps towards health improvement in Scotland, Greens recognise that there is no room for complacency on preventive health, health promotion and public health. Policies on everything from education and housing, to transport and agriculture can all influence our health. Greens offer a unique blend of healthy policies across all of these areas, because we are the only political party to make those important links between the economy, society and the environment.

A free and locally based public health service

The Scottish Green Party recognises that we must provide health services that are close to our communities and have a caring ethos at their core. Serial reorganisation of the NHS can end up doing more harm than good, both to the cost of running services and to staff morale.

We'll commit to keeping the NHS in public hands. But more than that, we'll ensure our local health services are protected against the current trends of centralisation.

We'll place an emphasis on primary and community care, provided as locally as possible. A well-organised local health service, based on smaller hospitals and services, also provides sustainable local jobs and training. This localised structure of health care would provide better support for paid and unpaid carers.

We'll support local cottage and community hospitals, which provide high quality services with a personal touch, support the wellbeing of a whole community and benefit local health economies by taking pressure off the larger acute hospitals.

We'll also address the current lack of ongoing support for patients with long-term illnesses and conditions, who need information, practical and emotional support and benefits advice as well as day care and specialist care.

Greens see benefits in the integration of health and social care services, but as with other proposals to reform public services, we'll only support change if it benefits the quality of the service. We'll consult on a range of options for delivering integrated health and social care services, with an emphasis on the need to maintain quality, and to protect staff terms and conditions.

We'll provide funding for day-care services for older people at the overlap of health and social care, which will become ever more important given the increasing number of older people in our society.

We'll close the gaps in the provision of advocacy services, which need proper funding so that every vulnerable person in Scotland can have their need for an independent advocate met.

We'll improve the quality of food provided in hospitals and care settings, based on the 'Food for Life' targets on fresh, local and organic food where possible. The standard of hospital food must be improved, for nutritious, healthy food is vital to restoring any patient to full health. We’ll encourage further democracy within the structure of our health services, and involve members of the public and communities as much as possible.

Improving Scotland's health

Prevention is central to the improvements Greens would make to Scotland's health, especially given the continuing shift from acute to chronic conditions. Whether it is dealing with childhood obesity or Scotland's relationship with alcohol, Greens believe we must tackle these issues early before they become even greater problems in the future.

We'll review Health Visitor services, with the aim of ensuring adequate routine child health checks and general levels of contact between families and health visitors. If vulnerable children are not identified, they can miss out on interventions in early years.

We'll take action to prevent obesity by increasing awareness of the problem, promoting health in schools, and ensuring affordable access to physical fitness and recreation, as well as provision for active travel.

We'll develop a national tobacco control strategy, aimed at preventing young people taking up the habit, supporting people to quit smoking, and reducing the exposure of babies, children and young people to cigarette smoke.

We'll continue to support a minimum pricing alcohol policy, which must go beyond the UK Government's "duty + VAT" approach. In addition to this, we'll develop a comprehensive strategic approach to tackling the harm caused by alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.

The structure of the alcohol industry has changed for the worse over recent decades, with ever greater control in the hands of big businesses which have no connection to the communities they operate in.

Politicians have talked about changing Scotland's alcohol culture, but have supported economic policies that allowed this to happen. We'll shift support to independent pubs and retailers, small local producers which make a profit from quality instead of volume, and the positive celebration of a healthier approach to alcohol.

We'll move responsibility for Scottish Government policy on drugs to the Communities Department, as a means of bridging the gap between the health-led and justice-led approaches. While Scotland cannot amend the Misuse of Drugs Act as we would wish, we do have the chance to ensure that the individual and social harm of drugs use is minimised.

We are committed to improving breastfeeding rates, and providing the support for women when they want it to help them breastfeed.

We'll review the Sexual Health Strategy, and commit to developing high quality sexual health services and appropriate sex education.

We'll introduce health impact assessments into the planning system, and ensure that health is taken into account in all other Government policies. Policies which help tackle climate change in particular, like support for active travel, offer opportunities for a healthier society.

Please see pages 20-21 of the Scottish Green Party manifesto for this policy.

Please see this SCREEN GRAB of the previous version of this policy from the party website.

Retrieved on 05/05/11 (12:10am) from: 2011 Party Manifesto

Protecting the NHS

Scottish Labour will support the NHS in the face of unprecedented financial pressures, protecting the NHS budget in Scotland and passing on all Barnett consequentials for health. We will prioritise the protection of NHS jobs, ensuring that there are no compulsory redundancies for staff within the NHS partnership model. We reject the UK government proposals to introduce market values to the NHS and will ensure that in Scotland the NHS remains a public service, publicly delivered.

Whilst protecting NHS spending, we cannot allow a single penny to be spent without achieving maximum efficiency. Our commitment to driving down costs will focus on the elimination of waste, so that we can protect jobs and patient care on the frontline. We will review all NHS bonus schemes, performance-related pay, merit and distinction awards and reduce the number of health boards, immediately cutting the number of special health boards as a first step. We will also look to merge IT systems and drive better asset management, such as the sale of unused land. We believe there are further efficiencies to be made in the prescribing of medicines, including the use of generic medicines and streamlining the system for repeat prescriptions. Every pound of efficiency savings generated by the NHS will stay in the NHS.

Improving delivery

The challenges of a fast-paced 21st century Scotland require a modern, dynamic health service that does not shy away from change. Scottish Labour is committed to shifting the focus of the NHS in Scotland, from being a reactive service for ill health, towards being a local, proactive, patient-centred service for health and well-being.

Too many people enter the healthcare system or are admitted to hospital for medical treatment when we know that the right support, at the right time, would have prevented ill health and enabled them to remain in their own home. Whilst retaining our commitment to free personal care, Scottish Labour will deliver a new National Care Service to provide the right care in the right setting. Not only will this be a first step towards ending the postcode lottery in care, but it will also tackle delayed discharge, which is costing the NHS millions. We will restore dignity in care and end 15 minute home care visits.

We are determined to find new ways of providing health services that are as local as possible and, as a start, will maintain A&E services at Monklands and Ayr hospitals. We will support the use of community hospitals and take steps to ensure that patients have access to treatment as close to their homes as is safely possible. We also believe that, even in a difficult economic climate, it should be possible for people at the end of their lives to be cared for and die in the place of their choice.

We will evaluate the current pilots of public participation and direct elections to health boards, to ensure greater democratic accountability for the health service. Scottish Labour will review and reform Community Health and Care Partnerships, to ensure that they are better placed to act as a democratic delivery model for the new National Care Service and to better involve local authorities, patient groups and voluntary organisations. We will ensure that the NHS has the right mix of skills, including specialist nurses for conditions such as cancer or epilepsy, and a range of allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists, occupational, speech and language therapists.

We will revise health and social care procurement procedures, ending e-auctions for social care contracts and introducing quality standards.

Scottish Labour will review the health service's resilience to winter weather conditions, with a particular focus on capacity in rural areas. We will ensure that the needs of vulnerable people are met, for example, through a national helpline when bad weather strikes.

Better, cleaner hospitals

Patients and their families have a right to know that when they go into hospital, they will be treated in safe conditions. Scottish Labour's priority will be to eliminate superbugs in the NHS and we will work towards implementing a refreshed 15-point plan, drawn-up with two of the UK's leading health experts, Professors Hugh Pennington and Brian Toft.

Scottish Labour will also support research into the causes and treatments of healthcare associated infections, such as C.Diff and MRSA, and will establish a properly resourced reference laboratory to ensure we look ahead to proactively identify and quickly deal with new infections. We further believe that individual rooms should be prioritised during the building of new hospitals, to aid infection control.

We believe that there is a serious gap in care for children and adult sufferers of chronic pain in Scotland and it is wrong to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds sending Scottish patients on journeys of hundreds of miles to seek treatment in England. Scottish Labour will seek to deliver increased action and awareness of chronic pain in primary care and throughout the NHS, look to enhance managed clinical networks for chronic pain and provide the option of residential treatment for sufferers, based on the model of Bronllys in Wales. For those suffering from long-term conditions, we will also retain the Self Management Fund for patients beyond 2011.

A focus on fairness

Scottish Labour's founding vision for the NHS was to establish a service that provides universal care of the highest standards. This principle remains as important today as it was 60 years ago. It is unacceptable that health inequality is still so strongly linked to income levels, poverty and deprivation and that quality of provision varies from one part of Scotland to another. Scottish Labour will work to end the postcode lottery in healthcare, ensuring that our services provide equal treatment, free at the point of need, in every part of Scotland. We will, for example, consider measures to help equalise access to IVF services and expand the provision of insulin pumps for young people.

To ensure equitable access to hospitals, Scottish Labour will seek to complete the abolition of hospital parking charges by investigating if this can also be achieved in PPP-owned and managed car park. With Scottish Labour, there will be no reintroduction of charges for prescriptions in Scotland.

We will continue to invest in NHS dentistry in Scotland and pursue the aspirations for improving patient access and reducing oral health inequalities set out in Labour's Dental Action Plan. We will also maintain free eye and dental checks for patients.

We will ensure fairness for Scotland's veterans and will continue to develop a programme for their health support, including support for those who have been deployed by the Territorial Army.

Tackling waiting times

Despite real progress, cancer still blights the lives of too many Scottish families. Scottish Labour will introduce a new right to see a cancer specialist and get results within two weeks by 2015, halving the current waiting time of one month, where clinically appropriate. We will also pledge support for the programme of financial advice projects for patients at the five main cancer centres across Scotland.

Please see pages 38-41 of the Scottish Labour Party manifesto for this policy.

Please see this SCREEN GRAB of the previous version of this policy from the party website.

Retrieved on 12/04/11 (5:24pm) from: 2011 Party Manifesto