I have just received a local health service update from Jane Ellison, our MP. I am not sure whether this has gone only to those of us who have in the past corresponded with Ms Ellison about the National Health Service or to all Battersea, Balham and Wandsworth residents, but its contents certainly affect everybody – and it concerns me deeply.

It begins like a mystery novel: “...many people had political estate agent style boards put in their gardens”. Who by?

Ms Ellison continues: “I wrote to all the GP practices in our area...they have confirmed that there are no closures planned in this area.”

But the GP practice where my wife and I are patients, and to whose patients’ liaison group I belong, recently lost the funding for two doctors with specialist skills, whose patients now have to swell the overcrowding at St George’s.

“Like much of our NHS, St George’s is experiencing pressures as a result of a combination of factors, not least increased demand”.

Is not one of these factors the failure of Government to meet increased demand by diverting funds from other areas into health rather than by opening more and more of the NHS to profit-driven private companies?

But back to the mystery: “Since last year’s activity many local people have asked what I knew about the campaigners...They referred to themselves as ‘the People’s NHS’.

Now the mystery is revealed: “...this website is registered to the Unite union”. Is that bad?

Or surprising? Unite is a responsible trades union and, moreover, the main union for NHS staff, many of whom fear losing their jobs. I am not a member of Unite, nor do I work for the NHS, but I believe trade unions perform a vital function in our society.

Finally it all becomes personal: “I understand from their public declarations” (note that these are public declarations, not anonymous private threats) “that Unite is targeting its misleading campaign in our area because, as well as being your MP, I am a Government health minister and they hope to help unseat me”. That is called democracy, and I hope readers who are as concerned about the NHS as I am will act accordingly in May.

MICHAEL GRAUBART
London