NHS winter performance: Government risk complacency

5.15.11pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 24th Mar 2004

Ministers risk being too complacent when reform is still needed, the Liberal Democrats said today in response to reports that the Government is expected to say that the winter performance of the NHS is the best ever.

Paul Burstow MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary said:

"It is a tribute to the hard work of frontline staff that the NHS has had a good record this winter. But there is still much more to do. People still wait too long for their operations, more operations are cancelled now than when Labour came to power, and there are still fewer hospital beds than under the Tories. Ministers risk being too complacent when reform is still needed.

"One of the major causes of problems over winter is flu. Fortunately flu levels were not unusually high this winter so there was not a huge impact on the need for NHS beds. If there were, the Government could have been caught out. This shows the success of the 'prevention is better than cure' approach of vaccinating at risk groups against flu. It is high time that this sort of forward thinking was seen in other areas of public health - to keep people healthy and out of hospital.

"The NHS will not really be able to improve until Ministers stop meddling and let frontline doctors and nurses get on with the job of treating patients."