16th December 2005

WHEN Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister, someone asked what worried him most. Famously, he replied 'events, dear boy, events.' In other words, the world's tendency to spring surprises when you're least expecting them.

That's happened to me in the last two weeks. My first child was born a week before Christmas and I was looking forward to spending the festive season with my new family, learning how to be a dad. But four days later Weston's healthcare trust announced it had to make £3.5 million in cuts, effective immediately, and all bets were off.
The problem is that we've got too few GPs and the hospital's too small to cope with all the new families who have moved into the area. Weston hospital is already one of the most efficient in the country, and our GPs treat far more patients than you'd expect. So they're dealing with more patients than the Government projected, and the money's running out.
The stupid thing is the Government has promised us more money for local healthcare from April next year. But it won't arrive in time to stop the cuts, so our local NHS has to hunker down to survive the next four months when it should be gearing up for a major expansion. They're trying to avoid any permanent cuts in services, but it's going to be hard to get the balance right.

I've asked for an emergency meeting with the health minister, to make the point that this kind of stop-go policy makes life impossible for everyone. The Government deserves credit for promising more money next year, so why slam on the brakes now? If 'boom and bust' is bad for the economy, why is 'bust and boom' OK for Weston's healthcare?
I hope to meet the minister soon. Until then a Happy New Year to everyone.
Now where's that baby's bottle got to...........?