What are the early election promises on health?

The early promises on health in the election campaign head in different directions. The Conservatives are focusing on community services, Labour aims to slash the elective care backlog, and the Liberal Democrats want to strengthen prevention. All the plans are built on financial quicksand.The Conservative offer revolves around moving care “closer to home” by building 100 general practice surgeries, modernising 150 more, shifting some primary care work to pharmacies to free up general practice appointments and building more community diagnostic centres.1Just as the party’s increase in defence spending is, implausibly, to be funded by cutting civil servants,2 the £1.2 billion annual cost would be funded by cutting 5,500 NHS managers and halving government consultancy spending.3The pledge to build surgeries would have more credibility if tangible progress had been made on the 2019 manifesto pledge to build 40 new hospitals, now mired in design and funding problems.4Promising to move care closer…
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