Tribal politics demeans NHS

By simply blaming his Labour predecessors, the hitherto underwhelming – and anonymous – Health Minister Paul Burstow demonstrated why taxpayers so dislike contemporary politicians.

This should not be a cause for political point-scoring. It should be a matter of great regret that complaints rose by more than 13 per cent in the past year, and that the reasons behind this increase require further examination.

It may come to pass, though this would not suit Mr Burstow's

politically-motivated agenda, that more people are expressing disquiet because hospitals and GP surgeries are treating record numbers of

patients, and that they are being actively encouraged to pursue

grievances in order to help to raise standards across the board.

Of course, the Minister is right when he says that the Health Service may not have been best served with Labour's mania for "tickbox" targets, and how these Whitehall-inspired initiatives may have come at the expense of patient care.

Yet, rather than abolishing these policies en masse, Mr Burstow should remember that many of them have brought about some much-needed focus to the NHS and raise awareness about the level of service that patients can expect. This is crucial in an era when customer care is paramount in a consumer-led society.

As such, it is important that some comparable indicators remain in

place so the public know whether waiting times, and such like, are becoming unduly long, and whether there is any validity to Labour's repeated assertions that this Government's health policies are not in the public interest.

Patients have a right to such information, and Mr Burstow should acknowledge this rather than demeaning his profession even further by playing the "blame game". For, if there is another rise in complaints during the current financial year, who will the Liberal Democrat MP look to criticise? His Tory coalition colleagues or his own office for being complacent?