SEEMINGLY out of thin air, Tony Blair and Health Secretary Alan Milburn somehow conjured up thousands of what we are assured are "real nurses" to run the NHS Direct service. Presumably these nurses could be employed in even more "direct" nursing - attending to patients in our still understaffed hospitals.

But now, family doctors, also in short supply, are to diverted from their primary role of caring for patients. Or at least some of them are. For, under a new Government appraisal system, each GP will be assessed annually by another family doctor trained for the task.

Obviously, any doctor who is appraising, or undergoing appraisal-training, will not be doctoring. Whether doctors judging doctors will prove effective is a key question. And another is raised by the curious exclusion of locums, stand-in doctors, from the annual check-ups.

Still with the NHS, Tony Blair stamped fast on any hope of free care for the elderly following the vote putting it at the top of the public's NHS agenda. Ruling it out, Blair quoted the £1bn cost.

But the Government scarcely blinked in shelling out an unscheduled £2bn to combat foot-and-mouth. This seems to have had no adverse effect on the economy or Government finances. Indeed, the Government is awash with money. Official figures show that in the first Labour Parliament, Government departments failed to spend almost £8bn allocated to them - health £3.3bn, education £1.3bn, and other departments, including the Home Office (crime) and transport, £3bn.

Not only could we fund free care for the elderly, but that other great public priority, wage-linked pensions. Everything comes down to priorities.

YORK Minster was shockingly full. None of its 2,500 seats was vacant for a Mass earlier this month devoted to the "original integrity" of the Church of England - ie a church without women priests. Eight bishops and 120 priests - male, of course - joined this shameful show of prejudice. No doubt if the Church's long years of debate and prayer about ordaining women had produced a thumb's down, those now still opposing women priests would have hailed the decision as God's will. The Church should move swiftly to the ordination of women bishops - thus putting more distance between itself and those whose anti-women stance can only make the Church seem ever less relevant.

LIKE 5.6 million others who had a late night last Thursday, I was enthralled by those admirable Scots women whose curling won Olympic gold for Great Britain. I only hope that if Britain ever wins gold in a mainstream winter Olympic event, the achievement of Rhona Martin and her team will not be devalued. For in skill and stamina - remember these women delivered the 42lb stones through an unprecedented 13 games - it was an Olympic victory to rank with the greatest. The undemonstrative way the women went about their task, with no high-fiving or other triumphalism, made their joy at the end all the better to see. Mind you, I still felt sorry for the Swiss skip. Her final two stones were as accurate as Rhona Martin's - but Martin had the advantage of going last. Most thrilling thing I've seen on TV for years.

Published: 27/02/02