THE NHS was on this afternoon's Labour conference agenda.

Since Bevan's day, health care has been the party's heartland and delegates were being served up some stirring stuff about the billions being ploughed into hospitals and GP surgeries.

Nobody would dispute the scale of investment. Patients of York Hospital have seen for themselves the improvements brought about by this extra spending.

Nevertheless, concerns remain about the structure of reform. Doctors and unions have warned about the "creeping privatisation" of the NHS. And today Tory MP Anne McIntosh expressed unease that there is one manager to nearly every two GPs in the Selby and York Primary Care Trust.

The NHS is Britain's biggest organisation. It takes a lot of managing. Many of its administrators play a vital role in ensuring doctors and nurses are free to do their jobs, and patients get the care they need as quickly as possible.

Yet a real fear remains that new layers of bureaucracy heaped on the NHS by a target-obsessed Government are stifling progress. Today, health service frontline professionals must comply with more than 200 targets. According to one analysis, the amount spent on health service officialdom has risen by £578 million in the last two years, enough to fund 27,000 nurses.

Tony Blair should be careful. For all the extra billions, his race to reform the NHS could still be tripped up by red tape.

Updated: 11:42 Thursday, September 29, 2005