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NHS Deficits

At the beginning of my contribution, I gave the figures on relative health improvement in the country, which has taken place in all constituencies. If the hon. Gentleman claims that that is not the case in his constituency, I can tell him that there has been huge improvement and that his constituents can look forward to a maximum 18-week wait from GP referral for treatment by the end of 2008. Decisions have to be taken to balance expenditure on the ground, which sometimes means that services have to be changed. If he considered the outcomes in his constituency, I hope he would agree that waiting lists are at their lowest-ever level, and that the NHS’s service to patients is as good as it has ever been.