Ukip outlines health policy ahead of general election

Ukip leader Nigel Farage will today set out plans to invest an additional £3 billion in front-line NHS services in the party's first big policy launch of the general election campaign.

Among the measures to be unveiled is a commitment to invest £650 million in dementia research over the lifetime of the parliament - more than double the amount pledged by David Cameron at the weekend.

Under the party's plans, the Care Quality Commission watchdog would be abolished and responsibility for hospital inspections passed to local health boards which would be encouraged to take evidence from whistle-blowers and patients with grievances.

Hospital managers would have to be licensed in the same way as doctors and nurses in a move which the party says is designed to "negate the drift" of disgraced hospital managers who are fired from one job only to take up another elsewhere in the NHS.

Tuition fees for medical students would be scrapped on what the party says would be a means-tested basis.

In another populist move, Ukip will promise to abolish hospital car parking charges - a move that would cost £200 million a year which it would cover by tackling "health tourism" which, it estimates, costs up to £2 billion.