We keep on being told that there is a finite amount of resources to share. So why on the left are we not channeling our energy into things we care about?

Among the various things I have been witness to in the last year have been endless discussions on procedure and constitution. Such discussions while possibly well intended by some have virtually ended up being circular and being presented in summary in an incredibly unimpressive manner.

There are serious matters afoot. There was a draft Bill proposed by the Law Commission, which didn’t make it into the Queen’s Speech, on the regulation of clinical professionals. This promises to be a landmark piece of legislation, and has now been bounced into the next parliament’s lifetime. Clearly this Bill will prioritise patient safety, on which there was not a single clause in the Health and Social Care Act (2012) apart from abolition of the National Patient Safety Agency.

Many of us have allowed the narrative to be articulated in terms of ‘sustainability’, in other words we can’t afford the National Health Service – but curiously can afford war, and afford a lengthy inquiry into the legality of it. We have allowed a ‘there is no alternative’ closure of ‘failing’ hospitals, but have not addressed the principal issue of how clinicians and patients can be in charge of their own services without a firestorm by the Trust Special Administrator.

We have lost time on how we can make the health service function nationally, not in a piecemeal fragmented way like the privatised railway industry. We have lost time on implementing serious methods of keeping vulnerable frail patients out of hospital, or people living with dementia, in cases where they’d be better off with some proactive intervention out of hospital.

It is simply impossible to have this sort of discussion of what the left wishes to do in terms of solidarity, justice, equity and equality, while certain people are at each other throats. Whilst I am not a big fan of Tony Blair by any stretch of the imagination, it cannot be said that the previous Labour administrations can be the root of all of the ills of the National Health Service.

Basic things being done well matter a lot to people, like seeing their local GP or being attend an A&E unit in a timely matter. Andy Burnham MP has a golden opportunity to make sure medical records are shared freely between one part of the health and care service with the other, to prevent reduplication and poor medical decision-making based on information asymmetry. There is a key chance to break down barriers between health and social care, so urgently need, for example, in my academic field of living well with dementia.

There are many people who are now publicly concerned about the effect of competition in English health policy. Margaret Heffernan, of ‘wilful blindness’ fame, is just about to have a bestseller on her hands on this subject.

So can we cut the incessant concerns about how the Labour Party is still a cover for corporate Britain? That Labour hasn’t learned anything from the past, which includes John Major activating the private finance initiative initially before badly negotiated contracts under the early years of the Blair administrations?

It is impossible to divorce the needs of physical and mental health of a person from social care needs. So we can we put a sock in the movement that integrated care of any variety can only be a Trojan Horse for privatisation? There is a possibility that a future Labour government might be able to provide a fully funded national care service, if there were a momentum of public support.

Labour’s position on personal health budgets (“PHBs”) for the last few years has been clear. Whilst there are noteworthy successes, there have been a plethora of concerns, including safeguarding issues for people with dementia. It was never intended that they should be compulsory, despite the subject of PHBs at all being promoted previously by some very senior in the Labour Party.

There’s a battle to be fought indeed, but the outcome of that battle should not a Conservative-UKIP coalition. You’ll find that they will not be the answer to all your concerns about the NHS.