South Cambs MP Andrew Lansley named Secretary of Health in Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government

MP for South Cambridgeshire, Andrew Lansley has been appointment the Secretary of State for Health of a new Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government.

In a statement released on Wednesday (May 12), Mr Lansley said: "It is an immense privilege to be appointed Secretary of State for Public Health in the new government.

"Just as Britain needs strong and stable government, so we intend to bring to the NHS the consistent, stable reform, which enables Healthcare professionals to deliver improving quality of care to patients."

Mr Lansley said the main objective is consistent improvement to ensure the delivery of a health service that is amongst the best in the world.

He said: "To achieve this, in the current financial crisis, will require leadership and highly effective management. The NHS will be backed with increased real resources but with this, comes a real responsibility. So we will need progressively to be more efficient, to cut the costs of what we do now, to innovate and re-design, in order to enable us to meet increased demands and to improve quality and outcomes.

"There is much to do. If I have learnt one thing over six-and-a-half years as Shadow Health Secretary, it is that in the NHS we have an immense number of talented, committed and capable people, who want to be trusted to get on with the job. It will be my task to enable them to do this; with our shared ambition to achieve the best healthcare service anywhere in the world."

Mr Lansley retained his South Cambridgeshire seat in the election with 27,995 votes compared to his closet competitor, Liberal Democrat candidate Sebastian Kindersley with 20,157 votes.