National health or national wealth?

THE ills of the National Health Service became all too apparent during the second part of The Service, tantalisingly entitled The Man With The Plan - or Darlington MP and Health Secretary Alan Milburn as we know him.

His job is one of the toughest in the Government which calls, in his opinion, for stamina, a sense of humour and the ability to do what you think is right. "Decide what you want to do and see that through - the ability to persevere," he says.

His scheme will expand and fundamentally reform to ensure patients' needs, concerns and convenience always come first. While his desire to improve the NHS is genuine enough, the problem, as was demonstrated here, won't be solved merely by throwing more taxpayers money at it.

The objectives are admirable but no matter how much Milburn sits around with other people in suits discussing the problems (and this happens a lot), those at the workface are the ones who know what's wrong. Sometimes, they're to blame themselves, showing a reluctance to abandon old working practices for a more streamlined system.

We followed Nicola Chandler, Head of Modernisation at University College London Hospital, as she monitored waiting times in A and E. She hoped to reorganise to make it no longer than four hours.

We discovered that a system adopted by Kettering Hospital has drastically cut waiting by reorganising staff. UCLH found it worked for them too without requiring extra money.

Hospital staff still have to cope with inadequate computer systems, meaning patients' paper files are brought in from a warehouse each morning. No wonder an average of five files a day go missing.

UCHL medical director Professor Tony Mundy, one of the world's top urological reconstructive surgeons and self-described model for "the arrogant, pushy surgeon", pointed out that the hospital used 30 per centagency staff, costing £20m a year. They're paid more, causing resentment among regular staff who go off to do agency work, and make the crisis worse.

Even the extra Budget money for the NHS failed to raise his hopes because of the cost of "a huge raft of bureaucratic machinery" and the upkeep of an old building.

Hope for health matters came in the Equinox documentary How To Live Forever as population expert James Vaupel said that a girl born today had a 40 per cent chance of living for 150 years, about double the present life expectancy.

This is down to using stem cells to cure senility, nerve damage, heart disease, and cancer. Trials are going well. A woman who suffered a stroke spoke of recovery and a man told how abdominal tumours had gone down.

The implication of people living longer in economically-poor countries could be disastrous, with the gap between the have and the have-nots resulting in vast gaps in longevity. More national wealth than national health.