Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)
Does my right hon. Friend agree that a more substantial private sector would help the NHS, because at times of great busyness in the NHS, it is to the private sector that the NHS looks to do the necessary operations? That happens right across the country, and it is one reason why it has been possible to bear down on waiting times.
John Redwood (Wokingham, Conservative)
That is exactly what successive Ministers and Secretaries of State for Health in the Labour Government concluded, with the honourable exception of Frank Dobson. After him came the modernising Secretaries of State and Ministers who felt that they had to turn to the private sector to achieve better standards-in terms of offering people treatment in a timely way-and to expand the total capacity of the system.