Labour Party 14/05/2014 Party Election Broadcasts for the English Local Elections

BABY CRIES

Hello.

'There's a reason why people in this country love the NHS

'because of the values, the people who work in it and the job they do.'

Have we got any patient safety

and patient experience issues we want to raise today?

'I don't think politicians can get the right solutions

'to the health service

'without seeing exactly what is really going on.'

-Hello again.

-Nice to meet you again.

-How are you?

'So I spent two days'

going round different parts of the hospital.

It wasn't about putting things on show,

'it was about seeing through the eyes of the nurses, the doctors,

'the patients and to try and learn from that.'

-I'm Ed. What's your name?

-I'm Greta.

'Too often politicians come along and say,'

"We're going to propose this big change to the health service."

It looks good on paper in Whitehall or Westminster,

'then, in practice, it causes chaos.

'How can you run the health service just from the top down

'without drawing on that incredible expertise

'of the people who are actually'

doing the work?

'You've got to start from what's actually happening

'at the grass roots and that's why I did it.'

Good luck and I hope you feel better.

And I'm glad that you're getting good care here.

The pressures are growing,

the pressures of a growing elderly population,

the pressures of medical technology -

'all of those things are making

'the job of the NHS harder, not easier.

'There's a sense of deep anxiety.

'The head nurse in A&E said to me on the first day I was there,'

"When people can't get

"to see their GP for a week or two weeks, and they end up in A&E."

'There's just too many people ending up in A&E

'because the services elsewhere just aren't there.'

As a basic thing,

everyone should have the right to expect they can see a GP within

48 hours and that is a promise a Labour government will deliver.

-How are you feeling?

-OK, a bit of pain, but OK.

'This hospital is really desperately in need of modernisation.

'There was a plan under the last Labour government,

'it was got rid of by this government,

'to modernise the hospital.

'It was really interesting going to the maternity ward

'because there's one bit that's new, the birthing centre,

'and there's quite a lot of it, the old bit,

'that's got peeling paint and, you know,'

if you're giving birth, it really matters

'whether the facilities are good enough or not good enough.'

MONITOR BEEPS

'And then you've got a young man like Trevais.'

-How long has he been in for?

-He came in ten o'clock yesterday morning.

'The challenge for me is to make sure I do my bit

'so that, when he gets to my age, the NHS is still there for him.'

It made made me impatient to be prime minister

and to get on with improving the NHS

and stop it falling backwards, as it is under this government.

'One junior doctor, who had just qualified, said to me,

"I'll vote for you if you give me

"a clear plan for the NHS's future, cos I've just started out

' "and you need to show me that my faith in the NHS is justified."

'He said, "That's not up to me as a junior doctor,

' "that's up to you as a politician."

'The next five years is a crunch moment for the NHS.'

I dread to think what another five years of the Tories

would mean for the National Health Service.

'David Cameron made all these promises before the last election

'about how he'd protect the NHS, you know,

'he wouldn't allow it to slip backwards.

'He'd have no more of these top-down reorganisations.

'He's broken that promise, he's broken that bond of trust.

'I'm not going to make that mistake.'

It should be easier to see your GP.

We've got to make sure that the NHS

and social services work much more closely together

'and we've got to put the right principles

'back at the heart of the NHS - care and cooperation and compassion,

'not privatisation and competition.

'That's why I'm determined to win the election and show that'

I did listen and I can lead the NHS to a better future.