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Listen to key speeches from Wednesday 10 June by visiting our audio and video section
Andrew Lansley:
Addressing the NHS Confederation’s 2009 annual conference on 10 June, shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley set out his vision for a health service under a Conservative government based on equity, efficiency and excellence. Referring to the NHS Confederation’s Dealing with the downturn report, Lansley said that his party is committed to real terms growth in the NHS and that the health service needs to rebuild public trust that public money is being well spent.
The shadow health secretary talked about the importance of leadership in the NHS. He said that leadership should not be about “command and control” and that some of the best led organisations are ones where the people working inside have real freedoms to deliver results and the services. On targets, he expressed his commitment to removing process driven targets and instead focus on health outcomes. A Conservative government would also give greater freedoms to GPs to control their own budgets and an independent board will prevent political interference in the day to day running of the NHS.
David Nicholson:
NHS chief executive David Nicholson told the NHS Confederation’s 2009 annual conference on 10 June that now is the time to prepare for the expected reduction in NHS funding from 2011.
He said: “The NHS and Department of 
Health have been built for growth but that’s not what we need to do now," he continued. “We need to look at each system and process to see if it is capable of taking us through this big challenge. We’ve got time to plan, organise and invest in people and services now. The worst thing would be to hide in our bunkers and stop driving reform. Now is the time to be innovative and adopt and diffuse the well-evidenced things we should all be doing."
He also told delegates they should be proud of their achievements, saying: “You’ve done everything you’ve been asked to do. You’ve met the18 week target, reduced healthcare associated infections and improved GP access. We’ve also changed the nature of the system, significantly increasing the number of foundation trusts and the nature of choice for patients, and we’ve relaunched practice based commissioning."
He was clear that NHS managers need to get better at managing how we look after vulnerable people, at dealing with criticism and at asking for help. And talking about central control, he said: "I don’t want to see any new national targets or lots of new policies. What we need is the consistency of purpose we've seen in the NHS Constitution.”