Tough question to answer given the current political climate! I do feel as a voter that there needs to be some sort of manifesto bind. How many promises have been made in the past during the run up to an election that have never again made an appearance?!? Quite a few I would say.
My main concern, not just as someone who works for the health service but as someone who uses health services is that neither main political party seem to be giving any clear indication of what their plans are for the future of the NHS.
However, my main frustration and to be quite frank, this is something that has infuriated me during the last week is the remarks which were made by Andy Burnham in last week's edition of the Health Service Journal (HSJ). He was quoted as agreeing with the phrase used to describe NHS membership as a "damp squib" and this has upset me (to say the least). I attended an NHS confederation conference this week in London where I was able to listen to speakers from different NHS Trusts around the country and I was very proud to be a part of the work being done around service user and carer involvement. There are some shining examples of NHS organisations who make it their mission to make sure that the ideas, views and opinions of the people using their services are listened to, taken into consideration and acted upon every single day. How then can our very own Health Secretary claim that our members are nothing more than a flash in the pan, when there is plenty of evidence which demonstrates that this is quite the contrary?
