Back in 2009 David Cameron evoked the memory of his late son, Ivan, to emphasis his, and the Conservatives', commitment to our NHS.

In 2012 he went further and told the country our National Health Service was safe in the Conservatives' hands.

I recall thinking at the time, here is a politician and political party I can believe in.

Sir Simon Stevens, was appointed head of NHS England shortly after in 2013, who, along with Jeremy Hunt former minister for health, now chair of the health and social care committee, both set out on a road that has brought our NHS to its knees, sowing discontent amongst junior doctors, regrading nurses so many could be paid less.

Both are the architects of historical increases in patient waiting lists, bed shortages and clinical staff shortages, along with the lack of PPE and any adequate respiratory pandemic preparedness, despite Exercise Cygnus back in 2017 revealing the devastating consequences such a threat posed.

The vulnerability for care home residents in the post-Cygnus analysis was well recognised and effectively ignored emergency stock levels of PPE were reduced and allowed to fall out of date.

When the Covid pandemic hit, NHS hospitals were instructed to discharge Covid positive patients into care homes, seeding the Covid infection into them, leading to the devastating deaths of over 30,000 care home residents.

Many dedicated NHS staff and care workers bravely fighting on the frontline with inadequate PPE paid the ultimate price with their lives, part of well over 100,000 covid fatalities now in the U.K.

The idea that Sir Simon Stevens and Jeremy Hunt still have anything remotely connected with heath care I frankly find not only staggering but also an insult to the many, many who have died.

We are now told the government is planning a shake-up of our NHS along with a reduced role for the private sector, the very private sector the government has continually denied was part of its strategic planning for our NHS.

With 4.5 million patients awaiting NHS treatment, a quarter of a million of whom have been waiting well over a year, can this Conservative Government be truly trusted with something as important as our NHS? Let’s simply say, I have a much clearer picture on that than I had a decade ago.