| "I am Labour and NHS to the core and as long as I'm doing this job I will defend it with everything I've got," shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said to the Unison health delegates when he spoke to the union's health conference in Brighton this afternoon. He said: "If I am health secretary after the next election I will repeal the government's health act and I will restore the N in the NHS." Andy Burnham said that he wanted to set out what he sees as the next three parts of this campaign. “I want to take you through them to see any thoughts or feed back you have. The first is the responsibility I have to you is to limit the damage. The argument may be over in Westminster but I am not going to sit on the sidelines waiting for things to go wrong. I want Labour at a local level to show it can be a last line of defence. On the ground in every community influencing decisions and fighting the advance of Mr Cameron free market.” He said that a universal free service is already under threat with charges being introduced for minor operations previously provided for free and unacceptable restrictions. "Our job is to keep the NHS coalition together and build it into a formidable defence force for the NHS on the ground," he said. This included pay and Agenda for Change, he said, adding in response to a question from Linda Hobson of the Northern region: "Agenda for Change is the glue of our NHS." Turning to government plans for regional pay, he noted that: "It can be harder working in the NHS in deprived areas, yet Cameron wants to pay them less while taxing their pasties. Regional pay is all about creating conditions for private companies and Cameron's free market in health." Calling Mr Cameron a "conman" on the NHS, the shadow health secretary added: "For his duplicity on the NHS alone, this man does not deserve a second term as prime minister." But Labour needs an alternative vision, he said, and that would be integrated health and social care, particularly at the end-of-life. Stating that market-based health systems are more expensive, Mr Burnham said: "The NHS is not a problem in an ageing society: it is the answer. There is still real strength in this labour movement when it puts its differences aside and fights as one unions and party together for the things that we believe in. Not defending vested interests as they like to sneer but standing up for patients and speaking for the country. We built a new coalition for the NHS patients, professionals and the public from all walks of life and across the political spectrum who value the service and what it represents the one part of our national life that you can still say the people come before profits. Our job in going forward is to keep this NHS Coalition together. We need to build it into a formidable defence force for the NHS on the ground drawing on what all those people who offered their support during the campaign. We also must do something else give them an opportunity to shape a genuine alternative for the next Labour government and feel a real sense of ownership of what emerges and that is the best way and that is the way, in my view to secure the NHS for the rest of this century.” (WDNF, Unison) |