Key to is giving patients access to services when they need them. Funnily enough I've just been putting that to the test in Blackpool, so here's my input to the Darzi review.
Finding myself without my asthma inhaler when I needed it in the middle of the night I ring for advice on how to get another. Having answered a dozen form-filling questions (none of which include the basic "what do you think you need?") I am then advised to call another number for an out-of-hours doctors service.
Not wishing to waste a doctor's time in the middle of night I decide to wait till the morning. I go to the local chemist and wave my empty inhaler and wheeze loudly. You need a prescription they say. So I go to the doctor's surgery who say they can get me a prescription if I can wait till three o'clock, or I can go the NHS walk-in centre. Off I go only to be told they don't issue prescriptions there and I need to go somewhere else. Everyone I've spoken to has been pleasant but yet ultimately not helpful.
I've given up and am wheezing my way home.
Let's be clear. I know this is just an anecdote which might have no wider relevance. I also know how important it is that the proper procedures are followed where prescription medicines are concerned. And further, I know this was my fault entirely for not carrying the appropriate drugs with me.
But on the other hand, I don't think I've turned into a misty-eyed nostalgic when I suggest that that in the past someone might have said, "we've got an inhaler you can use (or I'll pop this prescription in front of the doctor) but next time do remember to bring a spare".
The man they call the Health Goat in Whitehall has been dragged into the electoral bear pit today. That man is Professor Lord Darzi - a man who's already got more than his fair share of titles and jobs. He's a top surgeon and professor two days a week and the man Gordon Brown brought into the government to head up an inquiry into the NHS four days a week. That's where his latest title comes from. GOAT is the acronym for Government Of All the Talents.
A few weeks ago I observed Darzi as he performed high tech keyhole surgery to remove a gall bladder. His talents there are not in question. As he openly acknowledges what is open to doubt is whether he can transfer that talent to the world of politics.
The decision to become a minister was, he told me, the hardest of his life. It took him two meetings with Gordon Brown and two weeks of worry before he bowed to the pressure to become a minister and not merely an expert adviser.
Both the timing of his interim review - brought forward to allow an election to be called - and his view that "the days of the district general hospital are at an end" (which, he insists he meant only in relation to big cities like London) have ensured that he faces a tough first day in the political spotlight.
You can see why Brown wanted his man. The government has lost the trust of health service staff and desperately wants to regain it. Darzi has a track record of engaging with the staff in the hospitals he works in.
When fellow surgeons at his hospital complained that the porters always brought the patients to surgery late, he decided to become a porter for a day to see how things looked from their perspective. He recalls one colleague who knew about his disguise, calling to warn him that one of the porters was operating on his patients. The serious lesson he learnt was that no-one looked him in the eye when he was a porter so it was no wonder they didn't feel part of the team.
Whilst holding up a lady鈥檚 gall bladder for me to see on his new high definition monitor Darzi told me that Eden's decision to invade Suez was probably taken because his gall bladder op went wrong. The illness that resulted impeded his judgement. When I suggest that this proves that politics and surgery don't mix he laughed. I wonder if the Health Goat would laugh today.
UPDATE: In response to comments about the exact date of the announcement. I have replied here.
