Your chance to debate NHS

The state of the NHS will come under the spotlight in a major debate next week.

The event, supported by the Evening Standard, follows the Government's pledge to cut waiting times and deliver a health service fit for the 21st century.

Under plans unveiled by Health Secretary John Reid this week, from 2008 patients will wait no more than 18 weeks for hospital treatment after seeing their GP.

With the health service sure to take centre stage in the next general election, an expert panel will debate in public the motion: "The NHS is broken; it needs reinventing."

Speakers include Lord Hunt, the former NHS official who became a health minister only to resign last year over the Iraq war; London School of Economics professor Kenneth Minogue and writer Harriet Sergeant.

The event, organised by the Intelligence Squared forum, is at the Royal Geographical Society, Kensington Gore, on Tuesday at 6.45pm. To reserve tickets, costing ?20, call 020 7494 3345 or visit www. intelligencesquared.co.uk