It’s debilitating and often painful to sit on a waiting list for hospital treatment. It’s good news then that waiting lists are currently at their lowest level for two years and that they even dropped in April, for the first time in 17 years. At the General Election we promised 2 million more appointments and in less than a year we have delivered 3.6 million. A promise made: a promise kept.

We are fortunate to have an excellent local health trust and I want to pay tribute to all the hardworking staff and the excellent leadership at Northumbria Healthcare Trust. But though better than most even our local hospitals are not immune from waiting lists. So as more appointments are delivered, and waiting lists fall, a direct result of the investment this Government made at the Budget, we need to focus on how, going forward lists remain low or are eliminated altogether, a change which requires reform as well as investment.

New technology will help as people are able to be monitored at home using new equipment and as doctors’ surgeries become the place where follow up to surgery takes place. That’s why new investment into local surgeries like Marine Avenue Medical Centre is so important.  Hospitals can then get on with the treatments only they are equipped to do and outpatients stop being the scene of endless waits for quick consultations. Unless our NHS steps up to the challenge the principles on which it was founded may become less convincing and there are other parties advocating a different funding model.