Doctor knows best

The increasingly ridiculous shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley, has come up with a brilliant wheeze to sort out the problems of the National Health Service. Ministers should confine themselves to delivering sermons on smoking, drinking and fat people. Meanwhile, the consultants and GPs should be left to decide for themselves when, whether and where to treat people who are ill, without those pesky targets that mean people no longer have to wait a year for treatment and will soon have a maximum 18 weeks from GP referral to the start of treatment. None of that patient-focused guff for Dave's dynamic new Tories, oh no. Lansley has evidence on his side, of course: just look how the GPs rushed to embrace weekend opening and after-work surgeries to meet the needs of their patients in return for being given the best pay deal in Europe. We can, of course, be sure this same spirit will infuse this brilliant new wheeze. After all the BMA always likes a good laugh - at our expense.