We are pleased to report the heartwarming story of Carter Romeo who is able to hear clearly this Christmas thanks to a new surgical procedure at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Carter has benefited from National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines that health trusts should fund the expensive procedure. Clearly, for Carter, who has the whole of his life before him, this procedure will provide a huge increase in quality of life over a sustained period.

NICE guidelines do not always lead to such a happy outcome. There are other procedures, particularly where patients are suffering life-limiting illnesses, that do not receive the NICE approval.

Balancing the available resources with clinical outcomes is a difficult task. We can only see this task getting harder.

The next decade will, we expect, see a tightening of resources for the National Health Service. It will also see new medical breakthroughs and improved medical procedures.

As we approach a General Election, political parties will be queueing up to prove the NHS is better off in their hands. We should scrutuinise them all very closely.