Government Targets

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 4:29 pm on 7 July 2003.

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Photo of Gordon Brown Gordon Brown The Chancellor of the Exchequer 4:29, 7 July 2003

The national health service—the right hon. Gentleman will agree with me on this—is absolutely right to buy operations in the private sector where there is spare capacity and everybody receives their operations free of charge in a national health service that is free at the point of need. The policy question that the Opposition have not worked through is why it is in the interests of the country to invest substantial additional amounts on building up capacity in the private sector when the cost per operation in the private sector, on the basis of the figures that he has not denied, is twice as great as in the public sector.