Health Secretary John Reid used his Labour Party annual conference speech to highlight recent NHS successes and attack Tory leader Michael Howard’s plans for the NHS.

In the speech (‘Providing a faster, better NHS’), John Reid listed a range of achievements since Labour took power, including:

• death rates from cancer down by over 10 per cent
• heart disease death rates down by over 23 per cent
• NHS investment will reach £110bn across the UK by 2008 (£65bn more than when Labour came to power)
• £500m is being saved by reducing the number of health quangos
• the number of DH staff has been cut by 38 per cent this year
• 224,000 extra doctors, nurses and ancillary staff have been trained and employed in the NHS

Speaking about public concerns for hospital cleanliness and the superbug MRSA, Mr Reid reiterated his policies of putting matrons in charge of hospital housekeeping and the recent launch of the wash your hands campaign.

The Health Secretary did make one new announcement:

‘And today I'll go further. As we go forward with that massive programme of reform called agenda for change, there is one more reform I intend to bring in as a priority. There will be no more cut-price, two-tier cleaning contracts signed in the NHS — and that policy will start within weeks not months.’

The speech ended with a list of promises:

• ‘we will continue to increase capacity by recruiting still more doctors, nurses and healthcare staff and by building more hospitals’
• ‘we will enable people to book appointments at times that fit into their busy lives, in places that are convenient to them like train stations for commuters, with services tailored around their needs: for all patients in the NHS, not just a few’
• ‘we will give more power to the families of the 18 million people who live with a long-term condition in this country with more local support, including 3000 more community matrons to help them’
• ‘we will provide faster, better quality services. By the end of 2008 no-one in England will be waiting longer than 18 weeks from seeing their GP to having their operation’

The official consultation on smoking has ended in Scotland.

Dr Peter Terry, chairman of Scotland’s British Medical Association, marked the occasion by delivering more than 1,000 GP letters supporting a ban on smoking in public places to Tom McCabe, the deputy Health Minister. Dr Terry said:

‘Smoking remains the biggest single cause of preventable death in Scotland and if the Scottish Executive introduced smoke-free enclosed public places, it would be the single most effective piece of public health legislation to be passed in the UK.’

The campaign for a national ban has already won the backing of Edinburgh City Council.

The Scottish Executive has revealed that the response to the consultation was 20 times higher than that received by any other consultation. Over 27,000 people responded to the Scottish survey.

An official announcement on any changes to current policy is expected before Christmas.

The Republic of Ireland has already introduced a ban on workplace smoking. Since April, proprietors of pubs, restaurants and other enclosed workplaces face fines of up to £2,000 if customers are caught smoking.

The country’s most problematic drug users are to be targeted by an extra £219m (over two years) for drug treatment services. Health Secretary John Reid has set out the details that will see the budgets of drug action teams increase by around 55 per cent by 2008.

£179m of the money will go directly to drug action teams to double the amount spent on treating the most seriously affected drug users (ie, persistent offenders and drug users with associated alcohol and mental health problems, who frequently fail to complete courses of treatment).

The extra investment will be used to:

• increase the number of specialist drugs workers dealing with the most problematic clients
• create more residential rehabilitation and inpatient detox centres (which have a better record of success for some drug users)
• improve management of cases to adapt treatment to individual circumstances
• allow an extra 40,000 clients to be treated across the country
• expand treatment for under 18s with drug problems
• improve drug treatment within prisons to ensure that an estimated 78,000 prisoners receive effective treatment services by 2008.

Paul Hayes from the National Treatment Agency for substance misuse (NTA) said:

‘The significant increases in government investment over recent years, has enabled more drug misusers to access treatment more quickly than ever before. Today’s announcement will ensure that each local community has the capacity to improve the quality and effectiveness of treatment, whilst at the same time, continuing to treat even more clients, more quickly. The NTA will continue to performance manage improvements in both the quantity and quality of community based and residential treatment for drug misusers.’