Column

What more could you ask for?

Eric the Heretic speaks his mind — straight from the horse’s mouth

Don’t get me wrong, I love the NHS like anyone else. I know I’m going to need it when I finally keel over with a massive heart attack brought on by laughing too much during Blind Date, and when I do I’ll be glad it’s there (the NHS, not Blind Date). We all want a good, well-run health service with plenty of doctors and nurses to look after us.

Which is precisely why I can’t understand all this rubbish about the Tories being up to no good with the NHS. What are all these moaning minnies on about? Even I can see that Maggie’s (sorry, John’s) lot have done more for the patients than the Labour party ever got around to - or ever will.

Take these NHS reforms. They can only be a good thing - I mean, what more could you ask for?We’ve been on about looking at the needs first, the services second, for years. Well, now we’ve got it. We’ve been on about consultants doing exactly as they please, taking no notice of what local people want. Well, now they can’t - thanks to contracting.

They’ll only be able to do what’s wanted. Quite right too.

It’s the same with this Patient’s Charter. Why didn’t someone think of it sooner? It’s obvious people don’t want to spend years waiting for surgery, they don’t want their operation cancelled just as they climb into their hospital bed and they want a proper appointment at the clinic - not just “turn up at the crack of dawn without any breakfast and the doctor will try to fit you in before lunch, if you’re very lucky”.

At last ordinary people like you and me are being taken seriously. When did the Labour party ever tell the managers to listen to what local people are saying before they spend the cash? But that’s exactly what the Tories have done - and you should see the bureaucrats running around like headless chickens trying to work out how to do it.

These reforms have shaken things up - and that’s no bad thing. You might not like the fact that it’s the Tories who have done it, but you’ve got to agree that they’ve got things moving.