Nick Clegg speech on NHS reforms

Nick Clegg speech on NHS reforms; Clegg speech SOT - First: peace of mind. The comfort of knowing that the NHS will always be there for you. If you'’re in an accident, if you get ill, if your family need treatment. And it will always be free. No bills, no credit cards, no worries about money when you're worrying about your health. That's why I have been absolutely clear: there will be no privatisation of the NHS. The NHS has always benefited from a mix of providers, from the private sector, charities and social enterprises, and that should continue. People want choice: over their GP, where to give birth, which hospital to use. But providing that choice isn't the same as allowing private companies to cherry-pick NHS services. It's not the same as turning this treasured public service into a competition-driven, dog-eat-dog market where the NHS is flogged off to the highest bidder. Competition can help drive up standards but it is not an end in itself. That's why, as Andrew Lansley confirmed earlier this week, the main duty of Monitor, the health regulator, will not be to push competition above all else. Especially not at the expense of integrated services and collaborative practices like clinical networks. Monitor's main duty will be to protect and promote the needs of patients instead using collaboration and competition as means to that end. Two: patients want to know that they'll get the best care available. Good advice, swift referrals, effective treatments, access to some of the best doctors and nurses in the world. With all the different parts of the system working together so your experience is as comfortable and successful as possible. I hear time and time again how frustrated people get when it feels like the different bits of the NHS aren't talking to each other. Different appointments, with different people, in different places, all about the same condition, while no one seems to have a grip on the whole thing. And I've heard the, understandable, conc...