The NHS has been transformed since 1997. Just look around Thanet at the new health centres we now have and the investment we have seen in the QEQM. Look also at the reduced waiting times for operations, the shorter waits in Accident and Emergency and the extended hours for getting access to your GP. Most of all, look at the improved outcomes, the better chance you have of recovery and the improved quality of care you receive.

None of it happened by accident. It happened because the Government took some tough decisions and a lot of people who work in the NHS worked very hard to deliver these improved results.

And part of the reason we have seen these improvements is because we set targets that local health services have had to deliver against. We also gave people in England greater choice over where they are treated. These were controversial policies, but now we know they worked. We know because in Wales and Scotland the devolved administrations did not follow the same path and so waiting times and outcomes now lag well behind ours. They made the wrong choices and those countries are suffering accordingly and their citizens grow envious of what we have achieved.

Now, Labour is promising another 'target' if we win the election. We will offer a cancer treatment guarantee that will include the right to see a cancer specialist within two weeks, getting the results of tests within a week and the right to 'one to one care' at home if that is where you are being treated. We will expect local health trusts to invest in cancer care until they can meet this commitment, and we'll make sure that they have the resources to do so.

The Conservatives, on the other hand, have learned nothing. They opposed targets and say they will scrap them along with our cancer treatment guarantee. All local investments and service standards will in future be left to local decision - which was exactly the policy that has proved so disastrous in Scotland. And, if that is not bad enough, it will mean the post code lottery will run thoroughout the NHS in England.

In West Kent they may decide to introduce a cancer guarantee, but if health managers here in the East come to a different decision then we will wait longer to see cancer specialists. It will be the same for operation waiting times and for treatment in Accident and Emergency departments. In other words, the standard of care you get will be determined by where you live.

That is, of course, if the budget cuts the Tories promise allow anyone in the NHS ever again to invest in any service improvements.