91热爆

Campaigning about local hospital closures in places like Worthing, is going to win a few seats off the LibDems but it isn't a strategy for winning seats in the Midlands or the North from Labour.

Cameron claims he wants to maintain the Blairite reforms of the health service then launches a campaign to stop the closure of general hospitals. He wants to be all things to all men. The provision of healthcare through out-moded general hospitals needs to be addressed, it seems Cameron does not have any courage or any consistency on the health service.

This is important stuff that politicians love to squabble over but tiresome. Instead of coming to a positive consensus on hospital provision with the government the Conservative Party is getting close to the constituents and capitalising on their fears. This isn't about right and wrong, it's all about desire. By leveraging constituents desires the Conservatives hope to fulfil their own for winning.

This is exactly the sort of old and tired approach I wish politicians would drop. It dismisses serious critical thinking for selfishness. Don't analyse, don't evaluate, don't test. Just whip up fear and greed. Stop thinking of the long-term benefit and grab what you can now. With feral youth, greedy banks, and failed states to be dealt with, this is hardly a sound leadership example.

The best thing the Conservative Party could do is shut up and go home. They are adding nothing to the discussion and taking all they can. This isn't the politics a country like Britain should be aspiring to, it's the politics of the gutter. The quality of social, economic, and specific medical care strategic thinking is very poor. It's moral equivalent dimension is equally unhealthy.

A tad of 91热爆 bias creeping in here.

Government ministers have been campaigning to prevent hospital department closures.

Truth training for you I think.

Ms. Kuenssberg, while you at Wothing Hospital please find out what the true situation is, and who the local grassroots activists are. They wouldn't by chance be local conservatives would they, the David Cameron Consrvative Party wouldn't be spreading mis-information would they.

David Cameron must realise that it was the torries that started all the rot in the NHS and Labour had to try to pick up the pieces. If Thatchers government hadn't starved the NHS of funds (NHS administrative staff increased 50 percent) in her reign, there wouldnt be a need to close any hospitals. He is trying to appease both sides, the Left with NHS promises and the Right with tax releif for the well off, unfortunately he is so predictable its pathetic and i fear another clown will be put to the Sword by his own party in the not too distant future.

There WAS a hospital campaigning MSP in the Scottish Parliament. Jean Turner lost her seat at the last election.
This article seems quite biased and suspicious of the Conservative's intentions. 'The experts are all in favour of hospital cuts, but Mr Cameron wants to tap into strong local support on the matter.' Could it possibly be that the Conservatives actually believe in more local services instead perhaps?

It is misleading to simply state that this has refocussed the Tory Party on the political centerground- rather that is what Cameron hopes it will do. He wants to move the discussion hastily on from tax cuts to the NHS, as though there is no contradiction in making plans which will inevitably result in less money for public spending, while simultaneously claiming to provide better services. The focus of the Conservative party is on the internal issue of policy direction; this sudden "fist-fight" over the NHS is all designed to distract attention to take the heat off of the Tory leadership while it takes those decisions.

Cameron is right to point out that Labour's mis-management of the NHS is now resulting in spending cuts and service cuts. Labour failed to match the increases in expenditure with the required reform to structures and finaicial management.

The idea of centralising hospitals might sound a good theory, but the practicality in this area is ridiculous. The proposal That Watford General can pick up the workload from Hemel Hempsted and that St Albans is also destined for closure defies any sense. The size and condition of the hospital, its lack of accessibility, especially during busy periods ( the roads and grid-locked every day ) and the total lack of car parking will make for chaos.
This is a relatively affluent area with substantial tax contributions. Where is all the money going ? I think we have paid for more.

Cameron is right to campaign on the NHS and on Broken Britain. Anyone involved in the Criminal Justice System as I am knows that there are many problems out there and that the government does not have all the answers.

As a nation we need to trust people more. I mean this in the general sense of allowing people to determine their own lives and, also, the professionals and voluntary groups who handle the problems day to day unlike politicians and civil servants who monitor forms and the data recorded on them.

Is this the Tory Party that complained that extra money spent on the NHS was not yielding proportionate gains in productivity? They were wrong then and wrong now.

As productivity rises there will always be consolidation and change. Moreover, technology changes mean that treatments that can be delivered more effectively by GP surgeries will move (with staff) from A&E to surgeries.

As NHS productivity rises, extra funds are becoming available for new and better health services elsewhere.

The NHS in Scotland is the reponsibility of the Scottish Government and in Wales the Welsh Government. Therefore, when DC talks about the NHS he is talking about the English NHS, not the Scottish or Welsh.
I wish he would have the courtesy to say the NHS in England or English NHS!

Rich, is it not that the very Party that caused the run-down of the National Health Service to fund Tax-Cuts for the ultra rich, is now champing at the bit to highlight closure that have not yet happened,
may not happen, or definitely will not happen.
Cameron is a pure and utter Con-Man, playing on the fears of the ill informed and the gullible.
I whole heartily agree with Howard Vaughan's at #5
Howard has hit the nail well and truly on the head, every single word the plain un-varnished truth, how refreshing to read facts for a change instead of Tory fiction.

Interesting how little comment any article about the Conservatives receives.

Are there only a few Conservatives left out there in the wilderness, or no sensible responses from the left as the policies are so obviously correct!

Oh yes Laura, now Cameron is talking NHS. The issue about these local hospitals and clinics is about streamlining the NHS in certain places in England because after massive investment in the NHS there are some duplication of services and the NHS was getting rather too fat in certain places. One minute Cameron or rather Redwood talks of tax cuts in the region of 21 billion, while at the same time they want, not only to keep the present expenditure in the NHS but even increase it!

Now where did I hear the words 鈥淭HE NHS IS SAFE IN OUR HANDS鈥�

Oh yes! Oh yes, now I remember, it was Thatcher that uttered these words with her hand on her heart, and what did we get after 17 years of extreme right wing Redwood style policies? Cuts in the NHS in the region of more then 500 Hospitals closing all over the U.K. with our doctors and nurses leaving for the US of A and Australia because of miserable salaries. Laura, for these reasons ex Tories like myself cannot get back to vote Tories again until Cameron and Co. admit to the good policies like massive investment in the NHS by Labour. And also admit to the gross mistakes and damage to the NHS by the Tories under Thatcher!

Once upon a time, the Conservatives believed in the need to reform our public services. Now they pretend they want to set them in stone. The NHS has to change because medical knowledge changes as do health threats and the needs of the public. If it didn't, we would still have isolation hospitals across the country to deal with polio etc. I am afraid it is another example of Cameron wanting to have it both ways and ducking every tough decision. I am, anyway, a bit puzzled after the Tory promises last week to scrap or cut a whole range of taxes how they think they are going to get the money to fund the NHS at all....

As an employee of Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust in a middle management position I would like to answer a few of the points made on this thread.

Naturally these views are my own and do not necessarily represent those of the Trust, its employees or patients.

1) The Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals Campaign (www.kwash.org.uk) is cross party and non-partisan. Naturally there is involvement from our local MPs but many of the key people involved are drawn from the Hospital膹偶藵s Consultants and Senior Doctors. The concerns of KWASH are to primarily protect the interests of the community we serve by ensuring the best clinical care is provided by those in the best place to undertake it.

2) If this is merely a question of Conservative opportunism how would some of the other contributors account for the following facts 膹偶藵

a) That the publication of the public consultation document detailing the proposed changes to healthcare provision in West Sussex was delayed until after the Local Elections in May?

b) That the proposed savings in West Sussex will in part go to subsidise healthcare in East Sussex where there are, surprisingly enough, several Labour held marginal constituencies? And yet the Worthing District has some of the worse areas of deprivation on the South East Coast.

c) The published accounts of meetings held in Downing Street by the then Sec of State for Health Pasty Hewitt and Hazel Blears along with No.10 staffers discussing the use of 膹偶藵heatmaps膹偶藵 to determine where Health Service reforms would have the most political impact?

d) The fact that Health Secretary Alan Johnson has turned down a meeting with West Sussex County Council and West Sussex MPs over concerns about the West Sussex PCT膹偶藵s hospital reconfiguration proposals and the public consultation process which has been found under independent review to be flawed in its methodology.

As Rolf Harris would say 膹偶藵Can you see what it is yet?膹偶藵

I think the NHS can no longer survive. In a country where the government are allowing hundreds of illegal immigrants to enter the borders each day, how can the welfare state manage the demands of an ever growing population, with an ever decresing number of people paying into it.

The US system will have to be introduced to ensure our hospitals are resourced and cleaned properly.

The NHS is a product of a bygone era where people left their doors unlocked and used public transport, and people were proud to be Brittish

David Cameron should stop the rebranding exercise that is creating a lot of confusion and have a clearer message without mentioning Labour. Bring back the torch that a torch we need in these times of darkness. Avoid gimmicks and let's get down to the real business. We have too much speculation already. If you are serious about taxes, say it loud and clear and stop the soundbites. Give us something to look forward to.

#12 Derek complains that Cameroon does not clearly say 'English NHS'.

There is a very good reason for that.

'Dave' (and Gordon Brown) are in denial about the imminent breakup of the UK.

They simply cannot get their heads around it and don't have a clue what to do.

I'm not sure where Charles has spent his life, but he aspires to a higher level of political debate that is somewhere north of nowhere. Opposition politicians are there to hold the Government to account. Labour did this to splendid effect prior to the 1997 election, and proceeded to complain about everything, even those things which they subsequently adopted, and some of which which in today's political landscape wouldn't even register a mention. Maybe closing a maternity facility in one town and for the patients to be rushed to another is a good idea, I don't know. But let's have a proper debate - and not the one-sided coverage we are used to. As for references back to what the Tories apparently once did - starting 28 years ago and ending 10 years ago - it might be an idea for some people to remember that Labour changed somewhere between Michael Foot and Tony Blair. No-one now refers to what Michael Foot used to do or believe in when criticising Gordon Brown, and this continual harping back to earlier Tory administrations is - whilst politically sensible - unhelful to a proper debate.

Thanks CDA (no: 17) for the real information.

I noticed the initial reaction to this article was all anti Conservative. Was that a worried group who responded to any policy that might interest the electorate or was there a 91热爆 filter on the responses?

Wow! Am I cynical.

Did Cameron actually use the term bare knuckle fight? If so he is a walking liability.

when is Nick back from his holidays?

It is becoming harder to discern the extent to which some contributors are adding anything of value to these individual debates. It seems that some are simply full of anti-Conservative bile, with little attempt at putting forward a logical, rational or coherent argument. I will leave it up to the reader to decide which posts fall into one or more categories.

Suffice to say, that when the Conservatives were in power,Labour sought to oppose 'cuts' as they saw them. Many people agreed and campaigned alongside them. In power, Labour appear to be applying similar arguments as used by the Conservatives in proposing cuts in services. In this case the public appear happier to oppose opposition to the cuts, at least in part because otherwise they might be seen to be agreeing with the hated Conservatives.

Isn't it about time that the electorate took a broader view. Perhaps the Conservatives are putting forward coherent proposals that some or all of us could agree with, if only we would stop the past infantile behaviour. I am not holding out much hope, but it would be a welcome relief if they did.

For the record, I neither reject closures nor agree with them, until I know all of the facts. When the decision to close some of our local schools was being taken, I agreed with the proposal because it was the best for the community as a whole, even although there were likely to be 4-5 years of disruption to my son's education, and even although the party in power represented much of what I oppose. Unselfish behaviour from a 'Conservative'? Surely not!!!

Terry (#22) and Stephen (#26), a key problem with British politics is debate. It's a black and white, winners and losers approach. More thesis, or discussion, would improve quality, unity, and policy making for the long-haul. In simple terms, it's the difference between a classroom full of screaming children and the teachers staff room.

Given a choice, a more open, relaxed, and mature approach tends to generate the better result. Indeed, the example of American versus Japanese car manufacturers demonstrates this point with ease. A better sense of individual competency, teamwork, and patience is worth focusing on as it achieves much more for no additional effort.

So now Davy Cam's got his own Dodgy Dossier... what a surprise...

...It's true that Labour have been in power for 10 years, but they had promised at the 1997 election to stick to Tory spending plans for the first 2 years - and they kept that promise.

There have been spending increases since then, but UK health spending is still behind most of Europe and it takes about 8 years to train a doctor so we shouldn't expect miracles, even after 10 years.

David Cameron is now a desperate man. He needs to be like Margaret Thatcher and find a 'big' idea and stick with it. His marketing technique of jumping on band-wagons only goes to show that you should check whether the band-wagon has any wheels first before jumping on.

I would suggest that his'big idea' is to be found in John Redwood's recent deliberations because they are right-wing and this is where the Tories belong.

MacCamaroon's NHS Cuts list was falsified, like the thirteenth sound of the cuckoo clock at noon . . .

And then we had the whirring and clanking of Andrew Landsley, a Shadow of a Health Sec, racing round the nation's studios, trying to stand up to those nasty imaginary lefties at the 91热爆 etc.

Perhaps they left vital parts at the horologist?

Or didn't the Tory team get back off their hols on time?

Pretty poor show, chaps and chappesses . . ( well chaps, anyway . . .)

I think you need to check facts locally before swallowing hospital denials. For example Hemel Hempstead hospital say maternity moved 5 years ago. Actually they publically announced the move was temporary when in fact it was planned to be a permanent move from the start. Saying it was temporary enabled them to avoid a full consultation which has never taken place (about maternity services). There is an acute services review with the possibility of all emergency services going to Watford.

You must realise that NHS management will resist attempts to retain appropriate local services and not be so naive in your reporting

why don't some of you do a bit of research yourselves and you will find out that the closure of hospitals has been in the media for some time . In Surrey there was a so called consultation about closures and each area was pitted against each other. You can hardly accuse D Cameron for jumping on a bandwagon, the cart is already out of control. So he was wrong about one area? surely you are missing the point? how many are threatened with closure? The NHS is so overstretched, any one who has worked in the NHS will tell you that money should be spent on the front line and then the service will improve. Those who have paid for it should have a right to the service, we have medical cards, that should be our passport to our rights.

Bang for buck? (10pm 91热爆 news - Sept 11)

Bang for buck!!

What's wrong with Punch per Pound?