Labour Conference: Dobson sells his tonic for a better health service
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Your support makes all the difference.The Secretary of State for Health will today give nurses, doctors and NHS staff the most powerful message of praise from a government in a generation. Colin Brown thinks it will sugar the pill of pay restraint.
Health workers facing a tough pay squeeze will be told by Frank Dobson that the nation owes them "a debt of gratitude" for their dedication to the NHS.
The Secretary of State for Health will not offer any promises about their pay rises next year, which the Treasury is determined to hold down as part of the squeeze on public sector pay for 1.3 million workers, including nurses, teachers, doctors and teachers. But he will praise the NHS staff in the most fulsome terms heard from a government minister for more than 18 years. He will say that the NHS staff were disparaged by Lady Thatcher, insulted by Kenneth Clarke, and patronised by Virginia Bottomley.
"The NHS staff kept the faith," Mr Dobson will say, by treating the sick, tending the dying and counselling the bereaved. "That is why we are so proud of them. We owe them all a great debt for keeping the NHS going." He will say that the whole country depends on their dedication, and "we will never forget it".
It is unlikely Mr Dobson will tackle the pay squeeze, but he will answer criticism that the incoming Labour Government failed to provide enough extra money for the NHS. He will say Labour promised to put more into the NHS at the election, and it allocated pounds 1.2bn extra in the Budget for next year. And in a sideswipe at the Liberal Democrats, he will say "That is pounds 3m extra every single day. Let's get one thing straight. That is double what the Liberals promised in their manifesto."
Promising an end to two-tier services, Mr Dobson will confirm that family doctors who control their own budgets will be stopped from 1 April next year from gaining advantage to queue jump for their patients in contracts with hospitals.
He will reinforce Labour's commitment to bring down waiting lists, in spite of the rise to record levels. He will tell Labour's conference in Brighton: "We promised to bring the waiting list down and we will. It cannot be done overnight. The rising list is like a super tanker. It takes time to slow it down but we will do it."
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