"Rogue" consultants and rebellious Labour MPs beware - the modernising revolution is set to continue in the NHS, according to the new health secretary, John Reid.
Claiming he was a "Blairite before Blair", Mr Reid promised this morning to continue "driving forward the reform of the NHS", and force controversial proposals to create semi-autonomous foundation hospitals through the Commons.
Mr Reid said: "Alan Milburn did a tremendous job as health secretary and it is an honour to take over the task of driving forward the reform of the NHS after Alan."
"If I may say so with great respect to our prime minister, I was a Blairite before Blair was ever heard of. People like Gordon Brown, myself and others have been arch-modernisers for 20 years," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Mr Reid was one of Neil Kinnock's lieutenants along with the education secretary, Charles Clarke, when the former Labour leader was struggling to reform the party.
He also trumpeted his commitment to welfare reform. "That applies equally to the public services, because the way to maintain support for the public services is to make sure that they represent the ambitions and expectations of today's people, today's electorate."
"Those of us who support the NHS want to make sure that it is a health service that gives the choice and diversity and evokes the support from today's spectrum of working people that the NHS did when it came in 40 or 50 years ago, when people's expectations were lower," he added.
Mr Reid pledged to uphold the traditional Labour principle of providing "service free at the time of need", and claimed it as the dividing line between the government and the opposition on health, with the Conservatives having abandoned the principle with their new "patient's passport" policy.
Under the proposals, unveiled recently by the shadow health secretary, Liam Fox, patients would be provided with a voucher to purchase treatment in the NHS. Patients willing to top up the value of the voucher could also buy private sector care.
"The bottom line for the kind of service I want is that I want a service free at the time of need," Mr Reid said. "That is the essential principle of the NHS and it is the dividing line between us and those who would go down the road that Liam Fox and the Conservative party are now tragically falling back into with a voucher system."
Mr Fox suggested Mr Reid's appointment was a sign of crisis. "John Reid is normally brought in when there is a real crisis for New Labour, so clearly Tony Blair has put out a 999 call," he said.
"Here we have an NHS where Labour is clearly failing, where waiting lists are going back up, where lots of money has gone in, taxes are going up, but nobody is noticing any difference, the consultants and GPs are both unhappy and the Labour MPs and trade unions are rebelling over foundation hospitals. It's easy to understand why Alan Milburn wanted to get out."
