NHS patients to be given greater rights, pledges Andy Burnham

By Alastair Jamieson Published: 5:14PM GMT 07 March 2010

From 1 Apr 2010, patients will have the right to surgery inside of eighteen weeks

Free health checks for those majority at risk from heart disease, cadence and diabetes will additionally be enshrined in the constitution.

Mr Burnham additionally affianced to work with Marie Curie Cancer Care on building a right for people to die at home if they wished.

Andy Burnham: Tories would spin NHS in to worlds greatest quango Dentists paid additional for treating some-more NHS patients, underneath new proposals Hospital pays for criminialized drug out of own slot Quarter of a million people watchful some-more than eighteen weeks for NHS diagnosis New exploration in to Mid-Staffs liaison

The Patients Association welcomed the preference but pronounced it would have small disproportion as the new rights already exist as NHS pledges.

However, it is thought the move would have it some-more formidable for antithesis parties to set opposite targets.

Mr Burnham said: "Average watchful times, from mention to treatment, are around eight weeks and fast entrance to cancer specialists is saving lives opposite the country. Now we are going to set up on this clever foundation.

"By branch targets in to rights, we are giving patients the energy to direct the services to that they are entitled.

"In particular, we instruct to press brazen with larger preference around end-of-life caring and in the subsequent Parliament we will move brazen proposals on a right for people to select to die at home if they wish."

From 1 Apr 2010, patients will have the right to surgery inside of eighteen weeks and free health checks and obligatory cancer referrals inside of dual weeks. Free in isolation health caring contingency be supposing if the NHS cannot encounter these requirements.

From 1 Apr 2012, authorised patients elderly 40-74 will have the right to an NHS Health Check each five years to consider either they are at risk from heart disease, stroke, diabetes or kidney disease.

The NHS Constitution, published last year, forces NHS trusts and hospitals to "pay regard" to standards specified.

Katherine Murphy, executive of the Patients Association, said: "We broadly acquire these commitments to the NHS, in sold the oath on the right to die at home, that is prolonged overdue.

"However, we would be discreet about any proclamation brazen of an choosing campaign. These rights do not give patients authorised desert to the diagnosis betrothed in the NHS Constitution."

Figures expelled last month show NHS patients wait for five weeks on normal for cancer diagnosis from the time the seizure is initial suspected.