A report, entitled 'A High Performing NHS?', by the 'thinktank' group King's Fund have found that alcohol and obesity levels have slowed progress made by the Labour party givernment since they gained power in 1997.

The King's Fund found that while waiting times for patients has improved under a Tony Blair and Gordon Brown run government in the UK but that the National Health Service was still failing to cope with rises in national obesity levels and alcohol-related disease and illness.

The report stresses that the NHS is a higher performing health service than it was in 1997 and that the NHS does deliver a high quality service to some patients, in some areas, some of the time. It does stress that the challenge for the next NHS run government, either under Labour or the Conservative party, will be to deliver a NHS service that can deliver a high quality service to all patients in all areas all of the time.