David Cameron: The right hon. Gentleman speaks with great knowledge of, and affection for, the NHS, and I, too, am a fan of Ara Darzi and think he has a huge amount to offer. He had a big hand in giving priority to quality at the end of the last Government’s term. Francis is saying that there needs to be a culture change in respect of quality, but we must also look at what we are currently measuring. If...
David Cameron: ...listen to those people who ran the NHS over the last decade, so let me give him a selection of people who ran the NHS in the last decade and see what they think of competition. This is what Lord Darzi said: “The right competition for the right reasons can drive us to achieve more”.—[ Official Report, House of Lords, 11 October 2011; Vol. 730, c. 1492.] This is what John Hutton said....
David Cameron: ...the Bill; the NHS Alliance—supporting the Bill; the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations—supporting the Bill; the Foundation Trust Network—supporting the Bill; Lord Darzi, a Labour Minister—[Interruption.] Who was Lord Darzi? He was the surgeon Labour hired to run the health service. Here we are having had four weeks in a row of NHS questions but not a single...
David Cameron: ...to him that that is why we now see the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Nursing all supporting our health reforms. We even see Lord Darzi, the former Health Minister, supporting our health reforms. Labour has got itself into a position of opposing all reform to the NHS and opposing the extra money into the NHS; that is its...
David Cameron: ...interesting that he does not dare in six questions to mention the economy? On our health reforms, let me quote what the man his Government plucked from the NHS to run the Department of Health, Lord Darzi, says: “The proposals from the NHS Future Forum, and supported by the Government, have recast the reforms in” the right “direction and are to be welcomed.” So now we have the Royal...
David Cameron: What I can tell the right hon. Gentleman is that the health reforms, which now have the support of former health Minister Lord Darzi, will see a reduction in bureaucracy because we are getting rid of strategic health authorities and primary care trusts.
David Cameron: ...is that we are investing in the NHS, putting resources into the NHS, reforming the NHS in a way that is supported by the Royal College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Physicians, Tony Blair, Lord Darzi and most people working in the NHS, but not by the Labour party. [ Interruption. ]
David Cameron: ...this to say: "The trouble with Socialism", he said, having seen it work from the inside, is that pretty soon "you run out of spending other people's money." I could not have put it better myself. Darzi, Carter, Vadera, Malloch-Brown and Digby Jones are all gone. The only jobs that this Prime Minister has created are for his cronies, all of whom have repaid his generosity by leaving his...
David Cameron: The Prime Minister is getting a bit ahead of himself, as the person in question is not even Lord Darzi yet. I asked a simple question. The author of the report says: "The days of the district general hospital... are over", and that we need "fewer, more advanced hospitals". What can that mean if not cuts in departments and closures in existing hospitals?
David Cameron: Let me just remind the Prime Minister of what Sir Ara Darzi says. He says: "the days of the district general hospital...are over" and that we need "fewer, more advanced hospitals". That would mean that maternity units, accident and emergency units and specialist services will go. Is not the truth that his health policy— [Interruption.]
