From the Daily Telegraph

It's nice to be quoted:

Thanks to those of you who pointed this out from James Le Fanu's column in the Daily Telegraph on 2nd July-

Patricia Hewitt was a terrible Health Secretary - and her exit last week was more than welcomed by the thousands who campaigned to save their local hospitals.

"I can't pretend I'm sorry to see her go," commented Dr Barry Monk of the Save Bedford Hospital party. "Her period in office has been a catastrophe for staff and patients." Quite so.

But will her successor, Alan Johnson, do any better? It all depends on the company he keeps. I would advise him to put in a call to Sir Roy Calne, our most eminent surgeon.

Sir Roy's comments on the Letters page last week, on the need to "pull the standards and pride of the health service back to where they once were" touches on a fundamental truth: "The health service was immeasurably better run 20 or 30 years ago than it is now."

Mr Johnson needs only to find out why and to act on it.

Thanks, James