"Ambushed"? Come off it. "Fair comment" would have been a better headline (Evening Press, April 22).

Dr. David Fair's comment to Health Minister, Rosie Winterton, is a point frequently made by doctors: they would like fewer targets, and greater freedom to set their own priorities.

Politicians expect to be "grilled". We get out and about during - and between - elections to make ourselves accountable.

We listen to doctors, but we also hear patients saying they want shorter waiting lists and cleaner hospitals.

Politicians always have to reconcile conflicting interests and opinions.

That is part of our job.

Labour has doubled health spending in our area, from £615 a person when we came to power to £1,230.

We have set targets to cut NHS waiting lists because that is what patients want.

Thanks to the hard work of NHS staff, York's inpatient waiting list is down from 6,850 to 5,500, and outpatients waiting more than 13 weeks are down from 2,058 under the Conservatives to 645 now.

Labour has set targets for hospital cleanliness.

Last year York Hospital lost its three star rating, in part because of problems with cleaning.

The hospital has "brought back matron" - given ward sisters responsibility for running their wards - and done other things to improve cleaning, and looks set to win back its three stars.

The Government is right to demand more from the NHS in return for doubling the budget. Targets are necessary.

But Dr. Fair is right too: some types of health care, such as mental health, are hard to measure and must not be neglected.

It is "a conundrum", as he said. Politicians must listen to doctors, as well as patients, to get the balance right.

Hugh Bayley,

Labour Candidate for City of York,

Holgate Road,

York.

Updated: 11:14 Tuesday, April 26, 2005