Liberal Democrats criticise ‘permanent NHS revolution’

The Liberal Democrats have accused the government of “squandering” large amounts of cash because of a culture of “permanent revolution”.

Steve Webb, the health spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said that too much centralised government and over-reliance on targets had muted the benefits brought by extra health service investment in recent years.

He said: “Patients feel let down that despite vastly increased investment, productivity has stagnated and financial volatility is affecting services.”

“A period of stability is now needed to allow planning on the basis of long-term improvements in efficiency and not short-term crisis management,” he added.

The Conservatives said that NHS deficits had “crippled” the NHS. Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said that the situation is unlikely to improve as NHS trusts are struggling to reach financial balance by the year’s end.

Last week, Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, spoke of her support for an additional 12 NHS trusts to apply for foundation status. She said that these trusts would be given a greater role in how they manage their own services.

Ms Hewitt has also recently rejected claims that the NHS is slowly being privatised.

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