Building Britain's future – better healthcare in the North West

LABOUR’S Prime Minister Gordon Brown – together with new Health Secretary Andy Burnham - visited the North West’s Christie Hospital today (Friday).

The Government announced in June that - via NHS North West - The Christie would get back the £6.5m of charity cash it lost in the Icelandic banking collapse.

Lucy Powell, Labour's Manchester Withington candidate, campaigned and backed the huge local campaign to get the money returned.

Lucy will appear on Channel 4’s ‘The Slot’ on Monday evening (July 6) when she will talk about the Prime Minister’s personal intervention and what it means to The Christie.

To view a special preview on YouTube visit….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-TG2ObqJsU

Lucy said: “The Christie is one of Europe’s leading cancer centres and it is vital to the future of healthcare in the UK and in the world that The Christie continues its excellent work.

“During the last General Election campaign the Lib Dems claimed that Christie would close but nothing could be further from the truth.

“The Labour Government has invested millions in Christie, which is under going a huge expansion program to improve the already first class service it provides for people in the North West.”

The Prime Minister this week published a plan for Building Britain's Future including a number of pledges for better healthcare for all.

As a first step, the Government has made a number of commitments to the British people including ensuring patients will get enforceable entitlements to the highest standards of health care.

More power for patients means people have enforceable rights to high standards of care, including access to a cancer specialist within two weeks, hospital treatment within 18 weeks and free health-checks on the NHS for people aged 40-74.

The Labour Government will also look closely at where we can go further to establish new rights, for example to NHS dentistry, to evening and weekend access to GPs, to an individual budget for those with long-term or chronic conditions and whether we can create a right to choose to die at home as further progress is made in implementing the end of life care strategy.