The Torles belleve they have neutralised the NHS as an election issue: and from Labour's recent performance it appears that they are right. Without a serious promise to allocate new money, Labour cannot offer any solution to the growing pressures on acute services, mental health and long term care.
The Tory plans for HHS Involve a three year standstill budget, with real terms growth of just one third of one percent (0.3%) between 1996 and 1999.
This compares with commonlyaccepted assumptions that the increasing numbers of elderly. advances in new technology and other pressures require at least a 2% per year increase to keep pace with demand.
But Gordon Brown has insisted that Labour accepts the Tory spending limits - which leave Britain near the bottom of the international league for the percentage of national wealth (GDP) spent on health, and 30% below the OECD average per capita spending.
Ditched
The Party has ditched promIses to restore free dental checks, and will be Immediately caught up in a new round of scandals as health authorities set out to ration treatment, cash-strapped Trusts leave patients for hours on trolleys, and health chiefs look for different ways to raise cash through charges for superior meals or other "extras".
A standstill on spending will mean painful cuts. Even If Labour £100m savings by cutting bureaucracy, this is far from sufficient to stand still.
Far from an electoral asset, the WHS could rapidly become an albatross around the neck of a Labour government tied to Tory spending policies. No wonder Stephen Dorrell is leading the chants of "It's all gone quiet over there".