Deep concerns about the Middle East remain. 
As readers will know I was among the 199 MPs who voted that the case for war was not yet made. It was good to hear Kenneth Clarke MP making the arguments for this point of view forcefully on Radio 4 yesterday morning. More and more I feel against war altogether but I would support the Government over Iraq if there was a further United Nations resolution that showed most of the world including other Muslim states to be in favour of an attack on Saddam Hussein.

Despite momentous world affairs, we cannot neglect local issues.

I attended a meeting to promote rural tourism. The message is that now is the time to promote our own tourist attractions vigorously as due to world unrest, more people are planning holidays at home. Let us discover and support local attractions which may be close to home and yet we have never bothered to visit them.

The parliamentary regulations necessary for Local Authority Overview and Scrutiny Committees on the NHS have passed through a Standing Committee as have the regulations for the functions and membership of the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health.

Local Overview and Scrutiny should have started on 1 January 2003 and as we all know many aspects of local health services require examination urgently. The mechanisms for patient and public involvement in health which will take over from the Community Health Councils (CHCs) are complicated and despite the Minister’s assurances there will be a gap following the abolition of CHCs on 1 September and the start of effective work by patient forums.

I was delighted to have an adjournment debate on hospital reconfigurations this week.
I welcomed the Government’s document on the subject entitled ‘Keeping the NHS Local - A New Direction of Travel’.
Although, not surprisingly, I did not get any promises from the Minister, in her closing sentences she did say local MPs "can continue the debate on service redesign so that we get services that meet the expectations and aspirations of that community".
A vital sentence that we can build on!
Pilot sites for the new ways of working will have at least "as a minimum a ‘first port of call’ (a service able to receive and provide assessment initial treatment and transfer where necessary".
This is our next aim after achieving a significant increase in elective surgery.

I have invited local MPs to a meeting next week to discuss ways of persuading the Government to realise the necessity of improving hospital services across the county in view of the CHI report and the Annual Audit Letter.

R.T.