Building Britain's Future, published on Monday as Mr Brown sought to outline his vision for the country, sets out plans to give patients a series of legal rights.
The document says: ‘We will give patients enforceable rights to high standards of care, including hospital treatment within 18 weeks, access to a cancer specialist within two weeks and free health-checks on the NHS for people aged 40 to 74.’
But it adds that several other areas could also be made subject to legal rights: ‘At the same time we will look closely at where we can go further to establish new rights, for example to NHS dentistry, to evening and weekend access to GPs, to an individual budget for those with long-term or chronic conditions and whether we can create a right to choose to die at home as further progress is made in implementing the end-of-life care strategy.’
nick.bostock@haymarket.com
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Fatehali Hirji - 29 June 2009
Gordon Brown has destroyed Britans future.What future does he want to build. There is no law and order, education sysytem is worse more pupils come out illitrate when they leave school..NHs is on its last legs.Transport system is in chaos.
anthony le Vann - 30 June 2009
We already are supposed to have had the two week wait for a cancer specialist for several years - nothing like repeating a populist policy as if new, in case some people might have missed it first time.
For the rest, there is no money to pay for it, we are already having the NHS carved up with clods with no intelligence and insufficient understanding of medicine doing doctors work, so this extra work is done by them at extra cost, or it is forced upon us without the funding to do it. Does this sound as if it is possible?
Caroline Downes - 30 June 2009
Presumably the lega right to know EXACTLY how members of parliament are spendin our money via thier expenses claims will be introduced at the same time??
Patients in my geographical area already have access to a GP during evening, night time and at weekends. All they are doing is making us spend more time proving what we already know and do thereby allowing less time to actually do it. Please Gordon call a general election now.
Glyn McCrickard - 30 June 2009
Enforceable rights... to evening and weekend access to GPs? Methinks we'll be having our 6% back then, Mr Brown.
Lindy Williams - 30 June 2009
How exactly are these rights going to be enforced and by whom? As usual this does not appear to have been thought through and I become increasingly concerned that politicians have no concept of cause and effect. Furthermore do they not understand that medicine is not just a whole load of tick-boxes where people can be dealt with in a specific length of time? Purely in arithmetical terms such edicts are illogical and meaningless.
Exasperating!
Worth noting too that Brown also said that there will be more use of the private sector in the NHS. Just as PFIs are being re-thought and reported on More 4 news last night was the fact that private prisons are performing less well than state-run ones.
Lessons, Mr Brown, LESSONS.
Suzanne Gower - 30 June 2009
Gordon Brown, in a last-ditch attempt to stay in power, is making promises to the general public and expecting the NHS to keep them. This is just the kind of unrealistic twaddle that we've come to expect from this sick government.
Gary Young - 30 June 2009
What Brown left out his plan was an implicit commitment of how, if we don't deliver, will these 'rights of choice' be 'enforced'? The most likely mechanisms seem to be the Courts or a further increase in alternative \(private) providers. As a life long Labour voter now working in NHS, I find this approach deplorable. The NHS is safe in our hands. BS.
GEORGE CALDWELL - 01 July 2009
You can't "enforce" standards of care.
These should be provided willingly and naturally as a matter of course.
Peter Budden - 01 July 2009
Cracker this one. Lets' come up with a load of cack-handed soundbite initiatives, that we won't have to enforce or pay for, because we're losing next May.
Thought up over a cup of tea, probably with a bit of advice from David Colin-Thome \(Another GP now so far removed from reality, that he'll be given a peerage soon)
Martin Gray - 02 July 2009
Legal right? People already have such an extensive access to medical care with the addition of Darzi 'equal access centres' and Out OF Hours services in addition to their own GP. I also now work in A&E providing cover for 'GP problems' due to the number of patients that turn up there expecting to be seen because they cannot get an appointment with their GP, or just want to be able to access 'supermarket medical care'. There is already a lack of resources in the way of people trained to provide primary health care, and we have the European Working Time Directive that supposedly prohibits peopel working over 48 hours per week - so do we get penalised for going over these hours, and the risk of being accused of providing 'unsafe care' due to tiredness? Where our OUR legal rights??
Michael Barley - 02 July 2009
There they go again - dear old Labour trying to rule every minute of everybody's lives. Patients already have the legal right to medical services 24/7; what's wrong with the existing legal provisions? Doctors are already ethically obliged to provide, or arange to provide, out-of-hours care. Michael Barley
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