NHS - It's time for much needed reform

Every week people talk to me about health care and the NHS. The NHS is one of our most cherished institutions but its future is not in the hands of the people it is there to serve. Its future is at the mercy of the changing whims of politicians and unaccountable managers. Patients should come first and local people know what they need for their area. Having centrally imposed targets placed on doctors or hospitals has put the patients' needs in second place. Responsibility and accountability needs to rest with a Local Board - answerable to us through elections.

If we become unlucky and need hospital treatment the last thing we should worry about is catching an infection we didn't have beforehand; C-Diff or MRSA for example. These infections were born from poor cleaning routines weakened by diverted hospital budgets and/or hygiene control that had been taken out of the hands of the nursing professionals. For a long time strong anti-infection measures were not in place and the monitoring and accountability was of the sloping shoulders variety. It is clear hospitals' chiefs should be made fully accountable - to us.

The 'Post Code lottery' system of health care needs to end now. Why should health care vary from one part of the Country to another? At the moment the Government decides how much money each part of the Country receives but this has led to an unfair distribution of NHS funds. Should people be allowed their needed drugs in one part of the Country but not in another? Is it right that some mothers- to- be have a midwife assigned to them throughout their pregnancy yet in other places receive very little care? This grossly unfair 'Post Code lottery' can not be justified nor tolerated. Primary Care Trusts, which are not held responsible for actions that they take, can still dictate whether a person's life is put at risk because of their policy not to supply them with an essential drug.

Why does the Government think it fair to allow some people living with long-term conditions to pay no prescription charges, while people with other equally serious conditions have to pay?

The NHS is mostly free at the point of need and whilst we appreciate this, it is nevertheless a service paid for, by us, by way of taxation and contribution. And that is why we have the right to use this service and for it to be accountable - to us. Remote and unaccountable Strategic Health Authorities need to be abolished.

In the coming months we will have to decide which party can be trusted with the NHS. There is no doubt Labour has thrown money at the NHS but it completely failed to reform it. They have introduced hundreds of centralised targets and demoralised staff. And for the Conservatives, their MEP Daniel Hannan said recently of the NHS; 'he wouldn't wish it on anybody' and it was a '60 year failure'. In 2005 David Cameron favoured the Patients Passport where if you were rich enough you could have the NHS pay half the cost of your private treatment. It's time to think very carefully which direction the NHS should take.