The curious incident of the word in the weekend

So 48 hours into the trading and bargaining that will eventually result in our new government there is a word that has, to my intense dismay, not even been mentioned. Health.
What plans do our political masters have for the service? It seems that it is but a secondary issue. Never mind that it is the country's largest employer with 1.3 million people, nor that the waste within it would in these financially constrained times account for massive savings if properly managed, nor even that access to it it is a key measure of social equality. The talk is of economic cuts (watch out there!), divisions over Europe and voting reform as the main areas of dispute between the parties. The current crippling bureaucracy of targets and stifling paperwork, quangos and internal market financial squabbling will remain untouched to eat away at the morale and quality of a service that should be the best in the world in both ideals and quality. Granted, the two parties currently in discussion have not too dissimilar views on making administrative cuts but the magnificent over-riding pledge to abolish Strategic Health Authorities - those costly, non-visionary, paper-pushing, interfering nuisances - belongs to only one. Without swathing cuts like that the rest will be mere window dressing and so the outcomes of these negotiations is crucial to our immediate future within the NHS.
"Do a deal with Nick", should be the mantra in Whitehall. And not to form a Coalition of Losers either. Will it happen? Maybe.
But chin up though. At the current rate we'll be voting again in the autumn.