Labour Provide A Fairer Safer NHS

02/02/2009

Mary Creagh today welcomed super-bug screening, health checks, and free prescriptions for cancer patients as the start of a new era of preventative medicine.  

The free Health Checks  are an ambitious and innovative national programme that will help prevent coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease which currently affects the lives of four million people and cause 170,000 deaths a year.   Health Secretary Alan Johnson has announced a number of measures, which will come into force across the NHS this week.  The new measures also include the abolition of prescription charges for cancer patients and MRSA screening.  

Health Secretary Alan Johnson, said: "There are a number of different NHS commitments which will start from this April.  The national programme of Health Checks could save 650 lives a year and reduce the health inequalities that blight the lives of the country's most deprived families."

Mary Creagh MP for Wakefield, said: "These new measures will turn the NHS from a national sickness service into a true service which promotes health.  The health checks provide early diagnosis for heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and kidney disease which are such killers here in Wakefield.  I know that a cancer diagnosis and treatment is a stressful and expensive time for patients. Ending prescription charges for those with cancer is the Labour government giving real help where it is needed most."  

There have been 100 new hospitals built since 1997 and the new Pinderfields is progressing well.  Compared to four years ago, the number of MRSA infections has more than halved but we cannot be complacent.  Screening for MRSA in patients having elective surgery will continue to drive down infection rates.