NHS charges for rich, says Tory

The well-off could pay for some services

A former Conservative Health Secretary has said more well-off patients should pay for some NHS services, including a visit to the GP.

Stephen Dorrell, MP for Charnwood in Leicestershire, said Britain should learn from its leading European neighbours and impose a selective charge.

His comments come as shadow chancellor Michael Howard told the BBC that private money was required to overhaul the NHS and rescue it from crisis.

Better funded health care systems, including carefully targeted charging regimes, actually deliver health care more effectively

Stephen Dorrell
Former Health Secretary

Chancellor Gordon Brown will be announcing his pre-budget spending plans to the Commons on Tuesday.

Mr Howard suggested it was the level of private sector investment, not the amount of tax spent, that made the difference to health services in other European countries.

Mr Dorrell took that idea one step further on Sunday, when he raised the issue of paying for NHS services, such as a visit to the GP.

Dorrell wants Britain to learn from abroad

He said: "The lesson of other countries such as France, such as Holland, such as Germany, is that better-funded health care systems, including carefully targeted charging regimes, actually deliver health care more effectively, more reliably, to ill people, regardless of income, at a time when they need it."

Top priority

Mr Howard told BBC's Breakfast With Frost: "Our public services are in a state of crisis and we've got to put them first."

He cited an 83-year-old sufferer of Parkinson's disease in his constituency who was told he had to wait more than 18 months to see a neurologist about a vital operation.

Howard: NHS a top priority

The shadow chancellor said: "We cannot any longer put up with this situation in which people in this country die from diseases and illnesses from which they wouldn't die if they lived in France, Germany or Australia or other countries in the world."

Mr Howard said it did not necessarily require more government money because £10bn of NHS cash was wasted each year.

Monolithic

And the main difference with other countries was the level of private money they introduced.

"We cannot any longer provide the health care our people need and deserve, despite the Herculean attempts of doctors and nurses, with a monolithic, centralised, bureaucratic NHS that was designed and put in place 50 years ago.

"We need a different approach, we need more choice for people, we need more private sector involvement in the provision of health care and we need to look at more ways we can bring resources to bear on this problem."