HOSPITALS will close and health authorities will merge said Frank Dobson, Secretary of State for Health.

Now where have we heard that before?

Merge, close and centralise was the Tory health battle cry during their 18 years in office.

No wonder Frank Dobson's latest speech has left many people feeling a little uneasy.

The Tories fought the general election on Europe, whereas one of the key planks in the Labour platform was the health service.

And the public conviction that they were serious in their promises to overhaul the service was one of the reasons for their landslide victory.

Mr Dobson now says that "health action zones" will be identified where health, social voluntary and business groups will be brought together to agree changes, defusing opposition to hospital closures and easing the process of reorganisation.

Defusing opposition from whom? Presumably the same poor old general public who have been expressing dismay at centralisation and who voted with their feet.

We agree with Mr Dobson when he said the NHS would have to be reshaped if it was to survive.

But when he said they were going with the tide of opinion in recognising the case for closing more hospitals he was referring to the opinions of NHS professionals .

We doubt the public see it that way.

They expect this Government to turn the NHS around because they believed the pre-election promises.

They realise there has got to be reorganisation, but if those changes are merely Tory close and centralise tactics in disguise there will be a lot of disillusioned Labour voters.

It will be interesting to see how Frank Dobson and his team develop their theme.

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