Conservative Party Conference: Andrew Lansley speech

Conservative Party Conference: Andrew Lansley speech; Lansley speech SOT - I saw a premature baby earlier this year, at Southampton General, in an incubator, being fed her mother's milk through a tube. She had a better chance of surviving, thanks to the expert care and professionals on hand. I met a teenage cancer patient in Leeds in May, receiving specialist care in a cancer ward that, with the help of a charity, had been designed with flair to make teenagers feel at home. And a man I met in Basingstoke in July who had had a frightening and rare cancer. He told me his story. A decade ago, he would have died but the innovation and professional care he received gave him hope for his future. Just a handful of the millions of people whom the NHS takes care of every week. We should thank those who work in the NHS for the care they give all of us every day, every week, every month of every year. None of us have to feel insecure because the treatment cannot be afforded for us, we as a party have always supported the NHS, free at the point of use, based on need, not ability to pay. And we do so again today. Committed to the NHS. An historic commitment to increase NHS resources in real terms each year, despite the dreadful debts we inherited from Labour. We will not make the sick pay for Labour's debt crisis. Because we have made our commitment to the NHS, it doesn't mean we sit back and put more of taxpayers money into an unreformed system. Labour's debt crisis means we must look carefully at all our public services and how they work. To ensure they are delivering value for money; to give the public what they expect from the services they pay for; and to equip Britain for the challenges we will face in the future. Labour claimed to modernise the NHS. They said they'd get rid of mixed-sex accommodation. But they didn't. This year alone, tens of thousands of patients denied this basic dignity. They said everyone should get NHS dentistry. Didn't happen. A million lost acc...