Waiting for Gordon

The Prime Minister says that he wants the NHS to be his battleground for the next election : good.

Then he can start explaining the wasted billions (as cited by the King's Fund and Sir Derek Wanless), the disaster of PFI, the useless management consultants charging hundreds of millions for very little, the £20billion NHS IT fiasco (for a system that doesn't work).

He can also explain why Choose and Book prevents patients being seen in the hospital of their choice or by the consultant of their choice; he can explain the perverse effect of waiting list targets and the "4 hour rule" which actually costs lives, and the spectacular increase in hospital acquired infections, largely attributable to running hospitals at capacity levels for which they were not designed.

Yes, we are ready for an election; the leaflets are ready for the printers, the badges have been ordered, and the canvassers are ready.

Name the day, Mr Brown.