THE spiralling crisis in the National Health Service has given birth to a language all of its own. The worst example to date has been the term "bed-blocking", a glib piece of callous jargon that this newspaper has always viewed with with utter distaste. Perhaps "top slicing" -- the practice whereby the Government shuffles diminishing amounts of available money -- comes a close second.

The latest in the litany of problems is the proposed closure of the only bedded cancer unit in south Worcestershire. The chief executive of St Richard's Hospice says that despite a decision for the proposed shutting of the Macmillan Cancer Unit at Evesham Community Hospital at Evesham to go out to public consultation, it will still close. The problem is that the relative primary care trust has put the proposal forward as part of a series of measures to help plug £13m lost after Whitehall indulged in a bit of "top slicing" to help pay off national NHS debts.

Once again, our society has articulated through its elected leaders its collective will with regard to health care. Somehow or other, the British people have been brainwashed into thinking that the NHS is no more than a business selling a commodity that must generate profits at all costs. Maybe we're being impossibly naive, or perhaps a voice crying in the wilderness, but we do wonder whether the laws of the commercial jungle should apply to a vital service. There is no doubt that society as a whole must reassess its priorities.