SUNDAY brought the opening salvo in what I believe will be a early General Election, as the Prime Minister delivered her first interview on Sky to start the year off.

It was heavily loaded with manifesto style statements to be followed up with even more at the start of the working week. The sharing society was illustrated and included all of the buzz words and groupings you could imagine.

Sadly rhetoric is not in short supply, unlike hospital beds, and can be delivered and still be home for tea, which of course is not the reality for those attending our NHS this month.

All these statements are food and drink to a hungry and thirsting political press and provides plentiful copy, but they do not solve a single issue. We have a great many issues to solve; not least the NHS. We need to stop and take a rational and unemotional look at the whole problem. A working long term solution must be arrived at – more money is not the only requirement.

You can liken the health service to a Rolls Royce, a machine built with expensive and well-crafted parts but unfortunately a duff clutch has been installed resulting in the vehicle going nowhere fast.

The clutch is of course the clinical commissioning groups and primary health elements, together with social care, which needs to be sorted out to enable this machine to move forward, just for starters.

Chris Gallacher, Chairman, Ukip Redcar.