Go on. I dare you.

"The money will follow the patient" is one of the new fashion phrases amongst senior healthcare planners. In essence, it is supposed to mean that having given patients the choice of where they can obtain hospital care, the hospital will then be paid by the number of patients it "attracts". There is a national tariff (price list) which ensures that all hospitals are competing on a level playing field (except for the foundation trust hospitals which can set their own prices). If a hospital cannot fund its current operations, the government thinks it will be able to say "it isn't our fault; you aren't attracting enough patients or you are performing the work inefficiently".

So, the day will come when some hospitals will start to "implode". They will start to lose services which will make them less able to fund the overheads of their buildings and services which will require them to save even more money by reducing their services further, and round and round it goes.

Earlier this month, the government lost a by-election in the constituency where lives our Prime Minister in waiting. One of the principal reasons given for this loss was the "downgrading of the local hospital".

So one question: how long will it be after the psephologists calculate the "health effect" in government marginal seats before the local hospitals suddenly find a bag of cash at the front door?