Daily Echo - 3 July 2008

Written by Sandra Gidley on Thu 3rd Jul 2008

One of the special events in my diary this week has been the NHS 60 Service of Celebration at Westminster Abbey. It is a very special occasion celebrating a very special organisation.

In some circles it has become almost fashionable to knock the NHS. It is not without its problems but I know from constituent feedback that there are many people who have had satisfactory and life enhancing experiences. When I receive a letter about the NHS these days it is often about an individual experience when something has not gone according to expectations. Compare this to my post bag when first elected in 2000 when people were regularly waiting in pain for 18 months for a hip replacement and people requiring urgent cardiac surgery were kept waiting weeks, often taking up a hospital bed. Let us not forget that some things really have got better.

Ironically, it was the Conservative near destruction of the Health Service, when they were last in power, that transformed me from a meek community pharmacist to a political activist. I sometimes worry that people do not remember just how bad it was and that they might believe things will be different this time. I see no evidence that the party has changed radically in its thinking although I do think that the Andrew Lansley, the Conservative Health Spokesman is basically a decent bloke. But when his party is putting pressure on to cut taxes then something will have to give.

In my role as an MP I have been privileged to visit health systems around the world. I always return to the UK thinking that there are many things that we do well and that there is a world class example of any aspect of health provision to be found somewhere in Britain. The problem is that we are not always good at spreading the best practice so that all patients benefit.

Politicians can sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that changing structures will improve matters. What is often forgotten is that it is the health service workers, at all levels, who deliver the services. I hope that in the next 60 years the Government will give the NHS staff the freedom and the resources to provide a world class service and that, from time to time, they show thanks by their actions rather than empty words.