Health Service (Private Sector Involvement)

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Health – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 25 October 2005.

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Photo of Patricia Hewitt Patricia Hewitt Secretary of State, Department of Health 2:30, 25 October 2005

I think that "contestability" implies something considerably wider: the challenge that we need in the system so that where parts of the NHS are underperforming, patients will have a wider choice of providers who can help to raise even further the level of innovation that already exists in the NHS. I hope that the hon. Gentleman supports that. As a result of the changes that we have made—the granting of more freedom to foundation trusts, for instance, and the selective use of the private and independent sector—waiting lists are falling faster, and services are improving faster, than many people thought possible three or four years ago.