2010 General Election: promises, promises…

Healthcare delivery could either be facing a farreaching shake-up (if whichever party wins the election sticks to its promises) or not (if the winning party discovers it cannot fund its manifesto). But what impact could the General Election on 6 May 2010 have for cancer services in particular?

The 2010 General Election campaign kicked off in April with the usual fanfares and media hullabaloo, and the main political parties have all launched their election manifestos (Table 1). One thing is clear—every party in principle supports the NHS, i.e. comprehensive healthcare for everybody, provided on the basis of clinical need, not ability to pay, and free at the point of delivery. The differences lie in how the parties think the service needs to be improved and how any changes can be funded.

	UK Lab	UK Con	UK LD	UK Green	UK BNP	UK UKIP	Wales Plaid Cymru	Scotland SNP	N. Ireland DUP/SDLP/Sinn Fein/UCU
Does the manifesto make claims about health services?	Yes1	Yes2	Yes3	Yes4	NA5	Yes6	Yes7	NA8	NA9-12
Does the party have a health policy?	Yes13	Yes14	Yes15	Yes16	Yes17	Yes18	Yes19	No	Yes-DUP20  Yes-Sinn Fein21
Is health a key election priority?	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes-DUP20
Does the party set out specific plans for cancer services?	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

Lab=Labour; Con=Conservative; LD=Liberal Democrat; BNP=British National Party; UKIP=UK Independence Party; SNP=Scottish National Party; DUP=Democratic Unionist Party; SDLP=Social Democratic and Labour Party; UCU=Ulster Unionist Party and Conservative Union; NA=not available at time of writing.

Table 1: Gearing up for the 2010 General Election: key political parties with manifesto statements and policies on health

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