Millions of patients will have access to a full range of hospital services seven days a week by 2020, David Cameron will pledge today . Millions of patients will have access to a full range of hospital services seven days a week by 2020, David Cameron will pledge today. Consultant-level care and scans will be offered every day to end the scandal of poor out-of-hours treatment. The Prime Minister will admit that Britons are ‘more likely to die’ if they turn up at weekends and outline plans to use £2billion to fund the move in England. His announcement ensures that the two main parties will now go head-to-head on the NHS at the start of the general election campaign. But Labour said the Conservatives had promised a seven-day NHS before the last election and failed to deliver it. And there were doubts about whether the commitment could be met without injecting billions of pounds or higher bills for agency staff and locums. The Prime Minister will insist that maintaining funding for public services is only possible with a strong economy, urging voters to stick to the Tories’ ‘long-term economic plan’. His reforms would be rolled out step by step, starting with emergency and urgent care and support services such as scans. Some hospitals are already providing services at the weekend. Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, rated outstanding by watchdogs, offers consultant-led emergency care from 8am to midnight, seven days a week. Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Trust offers services such as CT scans on weekday evenings and from 9am to 5pm at the weekend. At Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, an increase in consultants on weekend duty saw a 34 per cent rise in patients being discharged the same or the following day. In his speech at the Conservative spring conference in Manchester today, the Prime Minister will say: ‘For years it’s been too hard to access the NHS out of hours. ‘But illness doesn’t respect working hours. Heart attacks, major accidents, babies – these things don’t just come from 9 to 5. ‘And the truth is that you are actually more likely to die if you turn up at the hospital at the weekend. Some of the resources are not up and running. The key decision-makers aren’t always there. ‘With a future Conservative government, we would have a truly seven-day NHS.’ Scroll down for video . Consultant-level care and scans will be offered every day to end the scandal of poor out-of-hours treatment . Experts say weekend services are vital to cope with an ageing society. Studies also show that death rates among patients admitted on a Sunday are 16 per cent higher than for those admitted on a Wednesday. Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS Medical Director, said it was ‘inefficient’ for diagnostic machines and pathology laboratories to lie dormant at weekends while access is ‘dogged by waiting lists’. Professor Sir Norman Williams, former president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said the planned reform could ‘transform the quality of care’ at the weekend. But Labour health spokesman Andy Burnham said Mr Cameron was making the same promise he did five years ago. ‘It is typical of the brass neck of a man who thinks he can take the public for mugs,’ he added. And Dr Mark Porter, of the British Medical Association, called it ‘shameless political game-playing’ ahead of the election. He added: ‘It will, for example, take much longer than five years to train the extra doctors needed, and without a considerable increase in staff and resources, weekday services might face being scaled back, affecting patient care.’ Ed Miliband yesterday pledged to cap the profits of private firms providing NHS care. Kicking off his election campaign at the site of the 2012 London Olympics, he said Labour would halt what he called a ‘tide of privatisation’ in the NHS. Firms brought in to provide free treatment to patients would be hit with a five per cent profit cap, he said. But last night a former Labour health minister accused his party leadership of scaremongering and risking patient care. Ed Miliband yesterday pledged to cap the profits of private firms providing NHS care, bringing in a five per cent profit cap . Mr Miliband said yesterday that another five years of Conservative government would mean ‘the disintegration of our public services’. ‘We’ll scrap David Cameron’s market framework for the NHS and stop the tide of privatisation,’ he said. ‘The NHS will be the preferred provider. No company working with the NHS will be able to profit by cherry-picking: rejecting patients with the more complex and expensive needs. ‘We will cap the profits that private health companies can make from our NHS. ‘The standard rule will be a five per cent cap. The money we pay for our health care should be invested for patient care, not for excess profits for private firms.’ Labour said the profit cap would apply to all NHS contracts worth £500,000 or more. Any company that made more than five per cent from the contract would be forced to reimburse the NHS for any returns above that level. Local NHS commissioners would have the power to allow higher profits in exceptional circumstances and the cap would not apply to GPs, pharmacies or dentists. Critics accuse Labour of hypocrisy, since expenditure on NHS services provided free of charge by private providers has risen at a slower rate since 2010 than in the four years before, when the party was in power. Lord Warner, a Labour health minister between 2003 and 2007, said the NHS could not survive without private sector providers, particularly during spikes in demand, which occur most winters. He warned that Mr Miliband’s profit cap ran the risk of being a pre-election promise ‘which doesn’t stand up when confronted with the reality of government’. ‘It’s far from clear how you would implement it,’ he said. ‘A lot of the private sector is currently providing services to the NHS at standard NHS tariffs. Is that a profit? ‘If you want to scare people, you can scare people. But all the work that was done in the Blair government on choice and competition showed that people didn’t have concerns on whether work was done by the private or public sector. What they were concerned with was whether they would have to pay and was their care safe.’ Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: ‘We all know Labour want to “weaponise” the NHS but this is another policy from Ed Miliband that looks ill-thought through.’ Score of viewers complained of bias against Ed Miliband in Thursday’s TV election interviews. Regulator Ofcom received 250 gripes about his treatment at the hands of hosts Kay Burley and Jeremy Paxman. Channel 4, which hosted the show with Sky, said it received around 300 complaints, while Labour insiders said Miss Burley was too ‘aggressive’.
Hospital services will be available seven days a week under new plans .
David Cameron will admit that patients are 'more likely to die' at weekends .
Consultant-level care and scans will be offered every day of the week .
The Prime Minister will today pledge £2billion to fund the move in England .
Millions of patients will have access to a full range of hospital services seven days a week by 2020, David Cameron will pledge today . Millions of patients will have access to a full range of hospital services seven days a week by 2020, David Cameron will pledge today. Consultant-level care and scans will be offered every day to end the scandal of poor out-of-hours treatment. The Prime Minister will admit that Britons are ‘more likely to die’ if they turn up at weekends and outline plans to use £2billion to fund the move in England. His announcement ensures that the two main parties will now go head-to-head on the NHS at the start of the general election campaign. But Labour said the Conservatives had promised a seven-day NHS before the last election and failed to deliver it. And there were doubts about whether the commitment could be met without injecting billions of pounds or higher bills for agency staff and locums. The Prime Minister will insist that maintaining funding for public services is only possible with a strong economy, urging voters to stick to the Tories’ ‘long-term economic plan’. His reforms would be rolled out step by step, starting with emergency and urgent care and support services such as scans. Some hospitals are already providing services at the weekend. Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, rated outstanding by watchdogs, offers consultant-led emergency care from 8am to midnight, seven days a week. Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Trust offers services such as CT scans on weekday evenings and from 9am to 5pm at the weekend. At Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, an increase in consultants on weekend duty saw a 34 per cent rise in patients being discharged the same or the following day. In his speech at the Conservative spring conference in Manchester today, the Prime Minister will say: ‘For years it’s been too hard to access the NHS out of hours. ‘But illness doesn’t respect working hours. Heart attacks, major accidents, babies – these things don’t just come from 9 to 5. ‘And the truth is that you are actually more likely to die if you turn up at the hospital at the weekend. Some of the resources are not up and running. The key decision-makers aren’t always there. ‘With a future Conservative government, we would have a truly seven-day NHS.’ Scroll down for video . Consultant-level care and scans will be offered every day to end the scandal of poor out-of-hours treatment . Experts say weekend services are vital to cope with an ageing society. Studies also show that death rates among patients admitted on a Sunday are 16 per cent higher than for those admitted on a Wednesday. Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS Medical Director, said it was ‘inefficient’ for diagnostic machines and pathology laboratories to lie dormant at weekends while access is ‘dogged by waiting lists’. Professor Sir Norman Williams, former president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said the planned reform could ‘transform the quality of care’ at the weekend. But Labour health spokesman Andy Burnham said Mr Cameron was making the same promise he did five years ago. ‘It is typical of the brass neck of a man who thinks he can take the public for mugs,’ he added. And Dr Mark Porter, of the British Medical Association, called it ‘shameless political game-playing’ ahead of the election. He added: ‘It will, for example, take much longer than five years to train the extra doctors needed, and without a considerable increase in staff and resources, weekday services might face being scaled back, affecting patient care.’ Ed Miliband yesterday pledged to cap the profits of private firms providing NHS care. Kicking off his election campaign at the site of the 2012 London Olympics, he said Labour would halt what he called a ‘tide of privatisation’ in the NHS. Firms brought in to provide free treatment to patients would be hit with a five per cent profit cap, he said. But last night a former Labour health minister accused his party leadership of scaremongering and risking patient care. Ed Miliband yesterday pledged to cap the profits of private firms providing NHS care, bringing in a five per cent profit cap . Mr Miliband said yesterday that another five years of Conservative government would mean ‘the disintegration of our public services’. ‘We’ll scrap David Cameron’s market framework for the NHS and stop the tide of privatisation,’ he said. ‘The NHS will be the preferred provider. No company working with the NHS will be able to profit by cherry-picking: rejecting patients with the more complex and expensive needs. ‘We will cap the profits that private health companies can make from our NHS. ‘The standard rule will be a five per cent cap. The money we pay for our health care should be invested for patient care, not for excess profits for private firms.’ Labour said the profit cap would apply to all NHS contracts worth £500,000 or more. Any company that made more than five per cent from the contract would be forced to reimburse the NHS for any returns above that level. Local NHS commissioners would have the power to allow higher profits in exceptional circumstances and the cap would not apply to GPs, pharmacies or dentists. Critics accuse Labour of hypocrisy, since expenditure on NHS services provided free of charge by private providers has risen at a slower rate since 2010 than in the four years before, when the party was in power. Lord Warner, a Labour health minister between 2003 and 2007, said the NHS could not survive without private sector providers, particularly during spikes in demand, which occur most winters. He warned that Mr Miliband’s profit cap ran the risk of being a pre-election promise ‘which doesn’t stand up when confronted with the reality of government’. ‘It’s far from clear how you would implement it,’ he said. ‘A lot of the private sector is currently providing services to the NHS at standard NHS tariffs. Is that a profit? ‘If you want to scare people, you can scare people. But all the work that was done in the Blair government on choice and competition showed that people didn’t have concerns on whether work was done by the private or public sector. What they were concerned with was whether they would have to pay and was their care safe.’ Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: ‘We all know Labour want to “weaponise” the NHS but this is another policy from Ed Miliband that looks ill-thought through.’ Score of viewers complained of bias against Ed Miliband in Thursday’s TV election interviews. Regulator Ofcom received 250 gripes about his treatment at the hands of hosts Kay Burley and Jeremy Paxman. Channel 4, which hosted the show with Sky, said it received around 300 complaints, while Labour insiders said Miss Burley was too ‘aggressive’.
range of hospital services seven days a week by David Cameron will pledge today. Consultant-level care and scans will be offered every day to end Prime Minister will admit that Britons are ‘more likely to die’ if they turn up at weekends and outline plans to use £2billion to fund the move