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Access to NHS Services

I wholeheartedly agree with a number of the ideas that have been thrown around this afternoon. First, it would be excellent to have elections to the boards of NHS hospital trusts, and the introduction of such elections would be thoroughly consistent with the spirit of the Prime Minister’s announcement this afternoon. Secondly, I very much agree with what has been said about macular degeneration. It is a real problem, and the fact that some PCTs ration treatments for it is a disgrace. We are talking not about a condition that causes merely minor discomfort but about an illness that affects a person’s sight—a faculty that is desperately important to everyone. Under no circumstances should PCTs try to save money in that way; indeed, almost any other health programme would provide a better vehicle for saving money. We have very little time, so I shall make only two, connected points. First, there has obviously been the most astonishing turnaround in the NHS over recent years. It would be churlish and an example of bad faith to deny that—