A few weeks ago there was a big uproar in the town about the 'unfairness' of the latest health-care resource allocation ; the county of West Oxfordshire , a fairly well-off part of the country was due to receive a relatively larger share of the cake compared to places like Bolton. Various comparative data and figures were produced to prove its 'unfairness'. The 'response' of the Central Authorities were that 'they were fair and the allocation figures were being mis-understood when they were actually correct and fare without any reduction in Bolton budget'.

Who knows what is correct ? The beauty of figures and statistics is , those can be used in many ways and tend to prove everything and anything!! One thing , however, I can say that Bolton has received significant amount of resources over the last 3-4 decades but that was only to catch up with rest of the country especially with the better-off southern counties. Our morbidity and mortality are still higher than 'national average' and far worse than some of the more healthier districts. And we are not alone in this , the North East and industrial Yorkshire are also on the same boat.

There is not much point in quoting figures and statistics , but we should sincerely hope that our health and social care will continue to have significant improvement just to stand still in comparison to the rest of the country. The impending cost-reductions will hit us even harder but we'll have to co-operate and try to look after each other. We should sincerely hope that our elected politicians will do their best to look after us as well.