Conservative Party Chair says local investment into NHS is essential, on visit to Stevenage
Richard Holden said his party is pumping huge sums of money into the NHS
Last updated 15th Mar 2024
The government is committed to improving the health service, and that's according to the Chair of the Conservative Party.
On a visit to Stevenage, Greatest Hits Radio asked Richard Holden whether investment into medical research would be a priority for his party, especially with a general election coming up.
He said: "You can see the local MP here in Stevenage has already delivered huge amounts of extra cash, I think it's over £70 million to hospitals here, it's absolutely fundamental to this area."
"What do we do for the future as well, and how do we harness some of those technological changes that are happening, especially deliver better healthcare for people?"
"Well we're putting in record sums into the NHS, I think it's now well over £120 billion a year is going into our national health service, that's huge sums of money."
Two months ago (January 30), Labour MPs visited the Bioscience Catalyst in Stevenage, a leading medical research centre, to set out their plans for the future of the NHS.
At the time, Wes Streeting, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said: "I want to make sure that the UK is the best place in the world to do ground-breaking science and that it is a genuine partnership with the NHS so that we get the latest treatments and technologies to patients as quickly as possible."
When asked whether investment into medical research and treatments for patients would be a priority for Conservatives looking into the future, Mr Holden said: "For new treatments which can really help people with diseases and illnesses, and which could never have been cured before, it's really important that funding goes into research as well."
"One of the big things we're also doing is earlier diagnostics, which is why we're getting diagnostics centres right across the country."
"We saw during the pandemic that people weren't getting diagnosed quickly enough because everybody was told to stay away from hospitals, and we now want to get these people diagnosed as quickly as possible."
A general election is due later this year, with all parties setting out their plans.