Shock Tory plans for Royal Surrey Expose

4.11.43pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 29th Apr 2005

Sue Doughty, Lib Dem Candidate for Guildford has exposed new figures which show that although the Tories have claimed that they will not reduce spending on health, they will cut the money for the Royal Surrey County Hospital by at least 10% and that at least £3m a year will come out of their budget and reallocated to non NHS patients.

Under Tory plans to pay the half of the cost of operations done in the private sector, money would go to private patients who have already chosen not to use the NHS.

Sue said "This is one of the meanest plans for all - taking away money to treat people who can only use the NHS and giving it to people who are already using private facilities. It will undermine the work of the Royal Surrey, extend waiting lists and undermine the stability of the service.