Labour pledges cleaner hospitals and a more patient friendly health service

John Reid, England's health secretary, promised the public a more customer friendly health service with an emphasis on prevention rather than just cure if Labour retains power at the next election. Mr Reid, however, stopped short of banning smoking in public places, a move which had been anticipated in many quarters, issuing instead an inscrutable statement that leaves the issue of smoking in pubs and restaurants up in the air.

Speaking at the Labour party conference in Brighton last week, Mr Reid said that “we will help people to make the healthier choice more easily” with a promise that in the future under New Labour it would be “more difficult to do deals in smoke filled rooms.”

The Department of Health was unable to expand on Mr Reid's statement and said the …