Clause 2 - Primary care trusts
NHS Reform and Health Care
9:30 am
Mr John Hutton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Barrow and Furness, Labour)
That is correct. The Audit Commission has not looked into the matter, as I said. We are confident that savings in the NHS will be made as a result of the proposed reforms. The money saved by the reforms will be reinvested in front-line health services, which is an important principle.
There was some discussion about whether the reforms have a different motive. The Government consider the reforms to be about empowering, and devolving power to, front-line health services. That is the most sensible way for any large organisation to conduct itself. Some Opposition Members attribute another motive to the reforms. The hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon described that motive in a nutshell when he said that the reforms sought to shift blame, not redistribute the balance of power, in the NHS. The Liberal Democrats are making a false, but predictable, argument. They are the real conservatives on the subject of reform in the NHS: they oppose change, resist reforms that will empower the front line, and stick their heads firmly in the sand. We have always made it clear when we talk about the future of the NHS that there are two processes that need to go hand in hand. One is investment, and we are making sure that that the NHS has access to record amounts of new investment which will allow us to close the gap between public expectation and capacity in the NHS. That investment needs to go alongside reform; the money itself will not be sufficient. It is depressing that the Liberal Democrats, who would like to present themselves as a party with radical new ideas, are so deeply entrenched in their conservatism about the future of the NHS.