THE latest NHS performance indicators are due to be published today.

Following on from the school league tables, they attempt to give the public some idea of how their local health trusts and health authorities are performing in relation to their neighbours and the country as a whole.

The indicators single out key areas, such as heart disease and cancer, as the measures by which our local health services should be judged. But they do not give a complete picture because they are essentially selective.

Another problem with the tables is that they are, because of their limited nature, easily influenced. Health authorities and trusts know that to get the right "result" in the tables they have to channel their funds into the services given high priority because they figure among the key indicators.

Illnesses such as cancer and heart disease attract the headlines because the consequences of long waiting lists can be so tragic. Our health services should, ideally, be measured across the complete range of the services they provide, not just the dramatic ones.

Whilst the performance of our local health trusts in relation to coronary care will be closely studied because of the death of Ian Weir, a colleague of ours on The Northern Echo who died while waiting for a heart operation, we will also be monitoring how the Northallerton and South Durham trusts are dealing with the burdens placed upon them by the virtual closure (for NHS patients) of the Duchess of Kent hospital at Catterick Garrison.

While it is not expected that this decision will now be reversed, attention should be properly directed at how the service to thousands of people living in the Dales has been affected by the closure.

Horror stories about patients from the upper reaches of Wensleydale and Swaledale not reaching either the Friarage or Darlington's Memorial in time for life-saving treatment have not, thankfully, materialised. But the provision of hospital services in Richmondshire remains an important issue for the people of that district.

Politicians are mindful that health will remain the number one issue in the run-up to the election and beyond because people's expectations of our health services are growing at what seems like the same rate as our dissatisfaction with what it currently provides.

The government has discovered in the last two years that you can never throw enough money at the service because of these ever-increasing expectations. And thereby lies the danger of health being a political football. However much politicians promise, they can never really deliver.

Locally the publication of the tables should be used to guide opinion on the best use of what resources we have. Study them carefully and have your say.