As a Yorkshireman speaking to a Yorkshire audience, Frank Dobson did not mince his words. Many National Health Service hospitals are dumps, he told a meeting at Easingwold. They are "a bloody disgrace".

If that assessment had been made by an NHS worker, we would have been sympathetic but not too surprised. Coming as it did from the Secretary of State for Health, we are left to wonder how to react. Should we be reassured by such a rare moment of political honesty - or troubled by this damning appraisal of our hospitals?

Perhaps both. We know that Mr Dobson is not one to hide behind spin. He has always worn his heart on his sleeve.

When he opened the £1 million renal unit at York District Hospital last month, he made an emotional speech about the early death of his father from kidney failure in Dunnington in the 1950s. His determination to reform the NHS is fuelled by personal experience.

But the size of the task facing him is clearly hitting home. The health secretary has been shocked by the state of some of the hospitals he has visited.

He is right to say that health care professionals should not be expected to work in these "dumps". Neither should patients have to be treated in them.

This Government has recognised that there is a link between working conditions and performance. It has previously invested money in improving the schools infrastructure.

Now Mr Dobson is looking to do the same in the health sector. He told his audience last night that work has started on 15 new hospital developments and more are on the way.

That is an excellent start. However, a complete overhaul of Britain's most antiquated health institutions will take time and an awful lot of money.

Labour has stuck to its commitment to invest in the NHS, investing £21 billion over three years. But the fragility of the health service was exposed last year when a bout of flu was enough to bring some hospitals close to breaking point.

Simply preventing the NHS from declining further is a tough enough task for Mr Dobson. To rid the service of those "dumps" and replace them with modern, state-of-the-art hospitals is an enormous commitment.

But the very fact that the health secretary has spoken of his dismay at the state of the NHS building stock actually gives cause for optimism. Mr Dobson has admitted the scale of the problem. The public will be more likely to trust his reform programme as a result.

see NEWS 'Dobson slams hospital 'dumps''

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