Double whammy for Cameron on NHS

The National Health Service is now the top concern of voters and Labour is more trusted on the health service than the Tories by a huge margin, according to two separate polls. The public put Labour 18 points ahead on the NHS and believe ConDem top down health reforms were a smokescreen for privatisation.

 
And as if these weren’t enough bombshells for David Cameron, the public now think he is dodger Dave for refusing to take part in televised election TV debates. The polls follow shocking moves by the Tories who launched their six priority themes for the general election, with the NHS not finding its way into their top six.

 
A poll for ITV news by pollsters ComRes, showed voters concerns about the NHS had overtaken immigration as their main concern. The poll comes in the wake of public concerns after the near meltdown of ambulance services and A&E departments and the Hinchingbrooke hospital privatisation disaster.

Half of those polled by ComRes – a sample of over 20,000 people – said the NHS was their top concern – up 11 per cent since last month. And the public blames the ConDems for the current state of the NHS.

In a personal blow to Cameron, most people see him cowardly for dodging televised election debates.

 
Labour poll lead

 
Another poll funded by Lord Ashcroft, a former deputy chair of the Tory Party, surveyed 20,000 people and found Labour had shot to an 18 point poll lead over the Tories on the NHS. Nearly half of those polled (47 per cent) said Labour’s approach to the NHS is better than the Tory approach.

 
More than half (51 per cent) thought the NHS had got worse during the ConDem coalition, 34 per cent saw no change and 15 per cent thought the NHS had got better. Labour’s shadow health secretary Andy Burnham was found to be far more trusted on health issues than his opposite number Jeremy Hunt and premier David Cameron.

 
In detailed research using small groups of people, those surveyed blamed the ConDem top down NHS re-organisation, believing it was just to save money, not to make the NHS better. People also thought the moves were part of a plan to privatise the NHS.

 
Rachael Maskell, Unite head of health said, “The problems with the NHS are being driven by coalition policy and in particular the health and social care act. The NHS is being fragmented and that has put lives at risk as the Care Quality Commission’s report into the Hinchingbrooke privatisation fiasco has shown.

 
“The attack on social care shows the lack of joined up thinking about how we look after people. That means people are not being helped before problems become too acute and that is forcing them into A&E and placing huge pressure on hospitals.
“Vicious cuts to the social care base do not address people’s health and social care needs. It is a self-defeating approach.”

 
Jennie Formby, Unite political director said the polling showed how out of touch Cameron and the Tories had become. “The Tories are out of touch with the problems faced by ordinary people who have said their number one concern is the NHS. But the Tories have decided that is not even in their top six priorities.

 
“The fact the Tories have so many rich donors and cabinet members with ties to private health care may explain why the NHS is not a priority for them. The public have twigged that NHS privatisation is a top Tory priority, but not the NHS itself.

 
“It is no surprise the public trust Labour. They have a more credible approach and have promised to repeal the health and social care act, a Trojan horse for NHS privatisation.”