It's a sad indictment of politics and the media that the public at large are not presented with a fair picture of our public services and the NHS in particular. I remember campaigning in the 2005 general election when some voters would just not believe that x number of extra nurses had arrived at y hospital since 1997, but then the same individual would wax lyrical about her neighbours hip operation and the excellent care received.

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I've recently had to pay for a wisdom tooth removal, because it was 8 months plus, on the NHS. My dentist said if it wasn't removed before then I would have lost the neighbouring tooth as well.

I do work for several hospitals. In one, there was a whole floor of consulting rooms. It's now offices for administrators.

One consultant told me, that they used have one manager for the hospital. Then they decided he needed an assistant manager. They then decided they needed heads for each department. And every one of these managers has a secretary and a PA.

It was bad enough under the Tories. I remember Private Eye reporting that managers had designated parking spaces, whereas doctors and nurses had to find a space on the main car park and pay.

I think the government needs to be more hands-on as to where all of this money, our money, is going.

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