AS a Health Minister I am often challenged about so called cuts to the NHS.

Do you know there has been no cuts to the NHS budget? On the contrary, spending on the NHS has gone up year on year at unprecedented rates since the Conservatives took office.

The NHS is however a locally commissioned and delivered service.

NHS Commissioners decide how the services are to be delivered.

That can mean that when they decide to deliver a service differently there can be cuts to individual services. I have every confidence our local NHS wants to deliver the best possible health services it can. It has identified that GP services require more investment and has proposed the new health centres. It is now more than 20 years since Orsett ceased to be a General Hospital.

The success of our NHS is in no small part dependent on the investment in the newest and best facilities that taxpayers money can buy.

I have often read on these pages that Grays should have its own hospital. Imagine new expanded facilities at Thurrock Hospital in Grays. More accessibly located than Orsett.

This is what our local NHS intends to deliver. I support them.

Those who would prefer to retain Orsett lack the ambition to deliver the health services we deserve.

They are yesterday’s men delivering yesterday’s health services.