David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, has accused the Labour government of ripping out the heart of the NHS and replacing it with a computer.
Cameron used the controversial multi-billion NHS computer project as a metaphor for his accusation that the government has wasted much of its investment in the health service on “gimmicks” from management consultants and wasteful re-organisations, and lost faith in trusting those working within the service.
"Labour have ripped the heart out of the NHS and replaced it with a computer," Cameron was reported as saying by Associated Press.
Cameron focused heavily on the NHS in his spring conference speech in Nottingham, claiming the government has turned the NHS into "a vast inhuman machine" and a "sort of pen-pusher’s paradise".
He said the Tories would scrap targets and "pointless reorganisations" and "put people back at the heart of the NHS".
Cameron told the conference that the Tories would do everything to "protect and improve" the NHS if they got into power. He said: "The NHS is my passion, our priority – we’ll back it, build it and improve it for everyone. That is my pledge today."
The BBC quoted health secretary Patricia Hewitt as accusing Cameron of "empty rhetoric and glib PR".