The Yorkshire Post says: Do not betray spirit of NHS. Put patients before statistics

THE latest weekly knockabout at Prime Minister's Questions will have done little to reassure patients, whether they be Dame Tessa Jowell, the former Olympics Minister, who has spoken so candidly and so bravely about her struggle with brain cancer, or patients across urban and rural Yorkshire trying to access social care or other cash-hit NHS services.

Dame Tessa Jowell has spoken candidly about her fight against brain cancer.

In its 70th year, the National Health Service should not be a political football. Arguably this country’s most cherished – and important – institution, every politician has a duty of care towards the NHS and MPs should be working on a cross-party basis to ensure it meets the medical needs and expectations of a growing and ageing population.

Even though Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s call for the Brexit dividend to be allocated to the NHS is motivated by his own political ambitions rather than any Damascene conversion on his part, this Government – and its successors – will inevitably have to make more funding available, not least to optimise the medical advances that have the potential to transport cancer treatment and other life-changing conditions.

There are two choices – find the money from within existing budgets or raise taxes. Either way, all funding needs to be spent more wisely – the ‘blank cheque’ remedy has been proven not to work – and it is regrettable that the toxic political  debate makes it harder to deliver a truly integrated health and social care policy across the country that treats everyone, from  elderly patients with mobility issues to cancer sufferers prepared to pioneer new treatments, as human beings rather than statistics that can be traded at PMQs.

As Dame Tessa prepares to lead a Lords debate today on cancer care, her spirit – and willingness to work with others – needs to be applied not just across the political spectrum, but across the whole country, if the NHS is to meet today’s health challenges which are  indeed very different to those that confronted its founding fathers.