 A MANCHESTER PARLA GORDON BROWN
L'intervento alla Conference del Labour Party
(pagina 5)
... alf of all of us here, and all the people of the country - thank all the NHS staff - the cooks and cleaners, the paramedics and porters, the doctors and midwives and nurses.You have served our country and served a great ideal - the principle that in a fair society health-care should not be a commodity to be bought by some but a right to be enjoyed by all. Labour is the party of the NHS - we created it, we saved it, we value it and we always will support it. And you know already that for me, this isn't a political agenda but a personal mission. Last year in Bournemouth I told you how when I was 16, I got injured playing rugby and lost the sight forever in my left eye. I knew I couldn't play football or rugby anymore. But I could still read. But what I didn't tell you last year was that then one morning I woke up and realised my sight was going in my good eye. I had another operation and lay in the darkness for days on end. At that point my future was books on tape. But thanks to the NHS, my sight was saved by care my parents could never have afforded. And so it's precisely because I know and have heard from others about the miraculous difference a great surgeon and great nurses and great care can make that I'm so passionate about the values of the NHS and so committed to reforming it to serve these values even better. That's why in just one year in the fight against hospital infections, we have doubled the number of matrons and achieved a 36 percent reduction in MRSA.And let us remember what a Labour government has now achieved: the lowest ever waiting times in the whole history of the NHS.And now to respond to new times and higher aspirations we want to make the National Health Service more personal to people's needs - patients more involved in their own health care with more choice and more control than ever before. And I've always found it unfair that we cannot offer on the NHS the comprehensive services that private patients can afford to buy. And so in April a Labour Britain will become the first country in the whole world to offer free universal check ups for everyone over 40. And I say that there is no vested interest, no matter how powerful, that we are not prepared to take on when change is needed for the sake of the nation's health.We have already made it easier for busy families to go to the doctor. Whilst a year ago only 1 in 10 patients had access to GPs at weekends and in the evening. Now almost half of all practices are open and by the end of next year the majority will be open even longer. And today I want to show how this government will pursue what I believe to be one of the noblest and boldest contributions of this country to our shared human fortunes. Since the war nearly one third of Britain's Nobel prizes have been for our genius in medicine. We should now aspire to stretch the boundaries of human knowledge and human health ever further. I want Britain to lead the world in beating the diseases which cause so much heartbreak for families. Over the last few years we've made major breakthroughs in research relevant to cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and strokes and many more. But these are yet to be turned into treatments from, which we can all benefit from. And so let me tell you today that the unprecedented 15 billion pounds we are investing in medical research will be directed to turning the major advances of the last few years into actual treatments and cures for NHS patients. Over the next decade we can lead the way in beating cancer and other diseases - a great endeavour worthy of a great country: proud because we have a health service focused on 21st century needs. A NHS that is available to all and personal to each means meeting another challenge of the future: offering, for the first time, every patient with a long term condition their own care plan. But alongside new patient responsibilities will be new rights. And because we know that almost every British family has been touched by cancer, Alan Johnson and I know we must do more to relieve the financial worry that so often goes alongside the heartache. And so I can announce today for those in our nation battling cancer from next year you will not pay prescription charges. And this is not the limit of our commitment to a fair NHS in a fair society. As over the next few years the NHS generates cash savings in its drugs budget we will plough savings back into abolishing charges for all patients with long-term conditions. That's the fairness patients want and the fairness every Labour party member will go out and fight for. And in a fair society the fact that older people are living longer should be a blessing for their families not a burden. We are committed to linking pensions to earnings.And I am proud that we will now be implementing for the first time equality for women in their retirement. No-one should live in fear of their old age because they worry their social care will impose financial burdens they c...
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