Almost without noticing, we discovered that we were spending very heavily on health but not getting a lot for it. France is often put forward as a role model for us to follow in the area of health. However, it now transpires that we are spending more than France on health on a per-head basis, yet our health system is nowhere near as good as the French model. If we had focused on achieving outputs from the start, we might be in a much better position now. I am glad the Government is now taking decisive action to reform the health service and put new structures in place. The new structures will enable us to establish a clear and transparent relationship between inputs and outputs in the service. This is not too much to expect when one considers the money being invested. The treatment purchase fund serves as a template for what can be done. To the best of my knowledge, this fund represents the only area of the health service in which it is possible to allocate a defined amount of funding and be confident that one will get a defined level of output in the form of patient treatments in return. The debate on health will now focus much more on issues of reform, value for money and accountability and move away from a crude emphasis on funding.