THE NHS has been in the news this week at a number of levels. It is important for me to connect the contours of national debate with what is going on in Salisbury and south Wiltshire.

Last Friday I visited Dr Steve Rowlands, an experienced Wiltshire GP, who heads up the Clinical Commissioning Group for Wiltshire, which is responsible for commissioning health services for the local population.

GP-led commissioning is the most obvious practical change which has arisen from this government’s reforms.

Our conversation revealed a great opportunity to align health services closely to the local community’s needs. It was helpful to meet an experienced health professional in a position of responsibility, alongside other GPs, for commissioning.

GPs play a pivotal role in dealing with health problems on the ground and in prevention and education.

Through closer working with the local authority on public health and social care I am very hopeful that we will see both cost savings and enhanced quality in service provision.

In the NHS nationally, the Keogh Review into mortality rates has thrown up further issues of accountability and service delivery.

It is vital that a culture of transparency and openness is restored to the health service and that clinicians are not prevented by top-down targets from providing high-quality, compassionate care to every individual.

Lastly, the benefits cap was rolled out across the country this week. No person or family can now earn more in benefits that the average family earns in work.

While it is right that the state does look after the vulnerable and those in acute need, it is vital that work should always pay more than benefits so that those who can work have the incentive to do so.

Trapping individuals on benefits through high marginal tax and benefit removals rates is not compassionate and I am glad the Government has had the courage to tackle this area of reform.

70 per cent of the country agree that the cap is the right thing to do and I am sure the Government is on the right side of this argument.