Clear red water over health?

Labour strategists clearly think that they smell tory blood following a series of the negative endorsements made about a national (and nationalised) health service by fringe figures in Cameron’s ranks. The Sunday Times reports that Gordon Brown “broke off from his summer holiday to accuse the Tories of being two-faced over the National Health Service and pledged to put healthcare at the centre of the general election campaign”.

Talk is of Labour launching a ‘Back to Bevan’ pro-NHS campaign emphasising the familiar accessible and (almost) free at the point of delivery ethos. A major theme will be selective comparisons with US style across-the-counter healthcare, so helpfully highlighted by tory MEP Daniel Hannan.

Seasoned spinners however, who remember the “Battle of Jennifer’s ear”, will know that campaigns, just like a virus, have a worrying habit of jumping species. Brown will need to make sure that his own ranks stay entirely on-message and, more importantly, keep the fiscal expectations within limits. They will be aware that David Cameron yesterday faced new pressure after shadow chancellor George Osborne seemed to backpedal on an earlier pledge to continue increasing health spending in real terms.

Both sides know however, that the phoney war over the status of the NHS will soon evolve into a series of skirmishes and then trench warfare as to whether the organisation is fit for purpose, which essentially means more changing political whims, policy shifts and endless re-organisations that spawn yet more new agencies. It is already hard to see any joined-up thinking behind the restrictions placed on the number of non-UK doctors, introduced as a populist measure to appease critics of a ‘perceived crisis’, and which has already creating a real one as shortages hit front-line healthcare.

It seems that a truth that often gets forgotten by ministers is that not every problem affecting the NHS is one of resources or clinical expertise. Equally, few solutions require a political input – devolved or otherwise. The big question therefore is whether governments are the cure or the affliction.