Anita Prabhakar, PPC for Leicester South, supports the NHS "Free at the point of Use"

I believe the NHS is one of our most valuable public services and if I am elected in May I can say with certainty that I will always fight to protect it and I can also assure you this is a position shared across the Liberal Democrats. A national health service, which is available to all and free at the point of use, is an essential part of the fairer society we want to build.

The Liberal Democrats were the first Party to publically commit to increase real terms NHS funding by £8 billion per year by 2020. This is in line with a recommendation from the NHS Chief Executive last year about the amount of extra funding the health service needs. We called on the other parties to match our commitment and while they have now done so they have not provided creditable information as to how the additional expenditure will be funded.

We will also hold an independent and fundamental review of NHS and social care finances later this year, ahead of the Government's next spending review to fully assess the pressures on the NHS and social care budgets.

I am proud of reforms to the health service that Liberal Democrats have fought for in Government. We have introduced measures which put patients at the heart of NHS decision-making. We have improved support for people with mental health conditions and we have taken important steps to better co-ordinate health and social care around patients and their families. We have also focused investment where it is needed most, employing more than 13,000 extra frontline staff since 2010.

By contrast, I found some of the previous Labour Government's policies on the NHS extremely concerning. They gave private health companies preferential treatment. Private companies were paid £250 million for operations that were never performed and, on average, 11% more was paid to the private sector than to the NHS, for delivering the same services. Thankfully, this Government has put a stop to this.

Use of the private sector currently accounts for only six pence in every pound spent by the NHS. In some cases, we do think there is a clear and beneficial role for the private and charitable sectors to provide services in the NHS, as has been the case under previous Governments. Macmillan, for example, provides an excellent service for people suffering from cancer, while Specsavers Hearing Centres provide free NHS hearing aids. However private and charitable involvement will not come at the expense of delivering NHS services which are free and available to all.

I think it is also very important that all providers of NHS services should be accountable to the communities they work in. I am pleased that, thanks to the Liberal Democrats in Government, Overview and Scrutiny Committees at local councils can now request evidence from any healthcare provider - from the private, public or voluntary sector - and summon them to attend public meetings of their committees. I hope you will agree that such transparency will be of benefit to the quality of NHS services and, most importantly, to patients.