Published 23 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3917
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3917

Editorials

The election debate on the NHS

The future of health spending will be a key battleground

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

If the headlines told the story of patients being offered a wider choice of GP, then the real message of the English health secretary’s recent speech at the King’s Fund was that the election debate on the future of the NHS starts now.

In a wide ranging analysis of the state of the NHS and options for its development, Andy Burnham set out the government’s stall and threw down the gauntlet to his opponents.1

At the heart of his speech was the argument that the performance of the NHS has improved in the past decade and needs to progress further in the next. This means holding on to gains such as shorter waiting times for treatment, and giving more attention to improving the quality of care and prevention.

Echoing his predecessors, the health secretary reiterated that future improvements need to be brought about from the bottom up rather than imposed . . . [Full text of this article]

Chris Ham, professor of health policy and management

1 Policy and Management, Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2RT

c.j.ham@bham.ac.uk


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