Conservatives detail NHS IT plans

The Tories plan to let NHS patients control their own data

The Conservative Party has launched its draft manifesto for the NHS, promising to decentralise power and usher in a "new era of transparency".

In a speech launching the health agenda, Tory leader David Cameron labelled the Conservatives as "the party of the NHS", and criticised Labour's reforms which have centered on introducing the Integrated Care Records Service, also known as the NHS Spine.

The NHS Spine is used by clinicians to collect patient data and share it with other healthcare professionals. However, the centralised system has often been seen as a failure owing to continued installation setbacks, rising costs and data management problems.

Chancellor Alistair Darling announced plans last month to cut back spending on the Spine, which was supposed to cost £2.3bn, but has now risen to around £12.4bn.

The Tories argue that the cutbacks are an acknowledgement of the system's failure, and that Labour's reforms had led to a healthcare system that is target driven and bureaucratic.

Cameron claimed that the number of NHS managers had increased three times as fast as the number of nurses, creating a poorer health system than in many other European countries.

"You are more likely to die of cancer in Britain than most other countries in Europe," he said.

Rather than continuing with Labour's centralisation agenda, the Tories will allow NHS patients to control their own data and choose the providers with which they share their health records.

Healthcare providers will become autonomous Foundation trusts under the new Tory proposals. Their performance results will be publically available online, as will data about the performance of their doctors and GPs. Cameron said that this will force providers to compete for patients rather than be motivated by meeting targets.

Patients will also not be assigned doctors but be allowed to choose any healthcare provider that meets NHS standards, including independent and voluntary sector providers.

Additionally, the Tories promised to cut the cost of NHS administration by a third and transfer the savings to support doctors and nurses on the frontline, as well as introduce a localisation agenda that will bring in "maternity networks" and provide separate funding to local authorities.

Local authorities will be accountable for, and paid according to, how successful they are in improving their local community's health, said the Tories.

"Local councils and Directors of Public Health will be able to use these budgets as they see fit, and will get more money if they deliver better results. The health premium will mark a significant shift in the way money is allocated in the public health budget," said Cameron.

Significantly, the Conservative party did not mention previous proposals to replace the NHS Spine with a system that would allow citizens to store their own medical records using online services such as Microsoft HealthVault and Google Health.