With the recent change of government, Andrew Lansley CBE, MP for South Cambridgeshire, and former Shadow Health Secretary, has been appointed Secretary of State for Health.
He said: “It is an immense privilege to be appointed Secretary of State for Health in the new Government. Just as Britain needs strong, stable Government, so we intend to bring to the NHS the consistent, stable reform to deliver improving quality of care. I am determined we will have an NHS in which the patient shares in making decisions, where quality standards are evidence-based and form the basis of the design of services and their management, and where the objective is consistent improvement in the outcomes we achieve, so that they are among the world’s best. “To achieve this in the current financial crisis requires leadership and highly effective management. The NHS will be backed with increased real resources, but with this comes a real responsibility. We will need progressively to be more efficient, cut the costs of what we do now, and to innovate and re-design.” Educated at Brentwood School and the University of Exeter, Andrew Lansley began his career as a civil servant at the Department of Trade and Industry. Elected South Cambridgeshire MP in 1997, he joined the Shadow Cabinet as Health Secretary in 2003.
