DIFFICULTIES in the NHS will always be under the political microscope – but never more so than in the months before a General Election.

This is why statistics released to health chiefs in York make for stark and controversial reading. Targets for the ambulance service, A&E waiting times, planned care, diagnostics and some cancer referral waiting times all being missed.

This comes after a torrid Christmas at A&E at York Hospital with all the problems encountered then, and includes long-term and seemingly intractable problems with delayed release from hospital into social care, or so-called bed-blocking.

The causes of these problems are a matter of debate and political argument. Sir Hugh Bayley, Labour MP for York Central, makes the important point that every missed target is a patient not getting the care they need from the NHS in York. As a Labour man, Sir Hugh also argues that standards in the NHS are slipping, as they did, or so he believes, “when the Conservatives were last in power”.

From the other side, York Outer MP Julian Sturdy said he was deeply concerned by these failings, and by the funding shortfalls York faces. But he insisted that NHS funding had been ring-fenced in this Parliament.

Both make validhard-hitting points, but it is hard not to worry that this debate goes leads us nowhereround and round without anything ever really changing. The NHS must not be reduced to a political football. It is too important for that. Instead we need a serious national debate aimed at finding real solutions.