The temptation to join in the politics of protest is too strong.. I suggest we could similarly redefine “NHS crisis” in terms of a new threshold of patients waiting on trolleys, being shunted between intensive care units and so on.But I fear it is unlikely to be taken up. What we need is a new definition to distinguish the normal winter pressures from the extraordinary ones.The Department of Health achieved this with flu some years ago, raising the threshold for an epidemic from 100 to 400 cases per 100,000 (the current level is 272), to avoid the ludicrous situation in which every year was an epidemic year. All that has changed is that the spectacle is no longer unique.There is no doubt that the NHS is under great pressure, created by the normal winter demands combined with the Government drive to cut down waiting lists But to call it a crisis devalues the term.

As Enoch Powell observed in 1962, the NHS presents the unique spectacle of an organisation that is continually run down by all those who work in it, because that is the best way of ensuring it obtains extra funds. Ask the members of any organisation under pressure where the problems are and they will point to lack of resources, equipment and staff They would be mad to do otherwise. But what option did Mr Dobson have? If he had denied it he would have caused uproar. By acknowledging it, he strengthened his own case for more NHS funds when the recommendations on doctors and nurses pay come before the Cabinet this month.Here, it seems to me, is the lesson of these events. To old NHS hands, who remember real crises such as that of 1987 which triggered the Tory NHS market reforms, this was a surprising admission. It was business as usual.Even Frank Dobson, the Health Secretary, agreed there was a crisis and warned it could get worse if the weather deteriorated.

Yet in London, where casualty departments were besieged by journalists eager to record the latest NHS convulsion, doctors reported nothing doing. This year’s version appears to have started in the North-west, where casualty departments came under pressure between Christmas and New Year, partly because GP surgeries were closed for four days as a result of the way the holiday spanned a weekend.From this local difficulty a national “crisis” was spun, helped along the way by claims from medical organisations about the shortage of nurses and intensive-care beds. It may even have contributed to the excessive pressure on the ambulance service, which saw 999 calls double, many from people who may have felt they were dying but actually needed little more than a hot water bottle and a drink.Thus is talk of a crisis in the NHS self-creating. It is true there are more deaths in the winter than the summer – an extra 25,000 on average and up to 40,000 in a bad year – but this year’s toll was not out of the ordinary.
Yet I am sure that this figure of 3,000-plus deaths, combined with tales of casualty departments turning patients away and people dying on trolleys, will have caused alarm.

Over 600,000, mostly elderly, people die each year – more than 10,000 a week – and they have to die of something. She had read in the papers that over 3,000 people had died of the illness in one week and she felt she should have shown more concern. No wonder the NHS was in crisis, she said, it was obviously a serious epidemic. I reassured her that the Grim Reaper had passed me by on this occasion, and that 3,000 deaths in a week was not, in fact, excessive. MY EX-WIFE called me last week to ask how I was after a recent bout of flu.

The second two are taken 12 hours after the first two.Side effects: Nausea and dizziness.Not suitable for: women with high blood pressure or a focal migraine at the time.Effectiveness: 95 per cent effective.How it works: by altering the environment in the womb, making it difficult for the egg to implant.What if I am too late? An IUD (intra uterine device) can be fitted up to five days after unprotected sex.. But unprotected sex happens – and that is a fact of life.”For more information, call Brook information line on 0171-713 9000Emergency ContraceptionWhat is it? Four tablets, a combination of oestrogen and progesterone, taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. They are open weekdays and Saturday mornings.One Boots store in Glasgow is offering drop-in contraceptive advice, including emergency contraception, at a twice-weekly clinic.Many family planning experts believe that emergency contraceptive pills should be available over the counter at pharmacies; others feel GPs could prescribe them to patients in advance, just in case.”Emergency contraception should not be seen as a permanent solution,” says Ann Furedi of BPAS “It is not as effective as planned contraception. “Sometimes they have, but are under 16 and don’t want to go to their GP, as they don’t know whether it is confidential.”Family planning clinics are an option, although many only offer clinics for limited hours on certain days – hopeless if that doesn’t fall within your 72-hour “window.”If you are prepared to pay, private clinics like Marie Stopes will provide emergency contraception for pounds 25 (pounds 20 for students). It is another option for emergency contraception.”Sometimes girls come here, pregnant, who have not heard even heard of the morning after pill,” says Ms Hadley. Tony Blair should be saying that this is fine and the government supports this.”Brook runs 18 advisory clinics around the country, with a free service for under 25s, open after school or at weekends. Nationally, the rate is seven times higher than in the Netherlands.In a pioneering and controversial move, Hayesfield Upper School in Bath has set up a clinic offering emergency contraception to girls during school hours, using a nearby GP.