The main features the plan promised were: • more staff: 7,500 more consultants, 2,000 more GPs, 20,000 extra nurses and 6,500 extra therapists • 7,000 extra beds in hospitals and intermediate care • increase in the proportion of
day case surgery to 75% • over 100 new hospitals by 2010 mostly delivered through the
Private Finance Initiative • an unspecified number of fully operational
Treatment centres • all outpatient appointments and inpatient elective admissions, including
day cases, to be pre-booked by the end of 2005 and
electronic patient records in all
primary care trusts by 2008 • around 500 primary care one-stop centres • expanding the capacity of
NHS Direct from 7.5 million callers per year to 30 million callers per year • Waiting times to be reduced from 18 to six months by 2004 and to three months by 2008 • A "concordat" with the private sector to provide extra capacity • £570m more for cancer services by 2003/4 • £230m more for heart disease treatments by 2003/4 • National School Fruit Scheme to provide all four to six-year-olds with a piece of fruit a day to reduce health risks in later life • new National Clinical Assessment Authority to restore public confidence in doctors
Tony Blair in his foreword promised that the March 2000 Budget settlement meant that the NHS would grow by one half in cash terms and by one third in real terms in five years. Other developments flowing from the plan included
care trusts, nurse prescribing, the creation of the
Patient Advice and Liaison Service and the abolition of
community health councils. Patients were promised that letters about an individual patient's care will be copied to the patient, that there would be better information to help patients choose a GP and that there would be proper redress when operations were cancelled on the day they are due to take place. ==Political perspective==