I am beginning to enjoy this coalition business. The emergence of ‘new’ politics and the realisation that no single party has a monopoly on all the right (or wrong) answers somehow seems to have given a refreshing injection of enthusiasm, team working, and pulling together in the national interest.

So, if the warring Tories and Liberals can now work together is this a model that can be applied to the NHS? I hope so - but the signs are not good. Only this week I have been involved with a trust adamant that whatever the employment contract says, consultants not prepared to work weekends will face the threat of redundancy; another trust that has thrown a doctor’s rights under agreed disciplinary procedures out of the window; and yet another who frankly thought that DDA stood for the Dangerous Dog Act rather than the Disability Discrimination Act!

Listening to the Queen’s speech this week I had hoped that Her Majesty might have said: “My government will ensure that all staff working in the NHS will be treated fairly and with respect…” Although she let me down I can’t help but wonder whether this new style coalition, or working together, approach born from the ‘Dave and Nick love-in’ is worth trying in the management of our hospitals.

It can’t do any harm; it may actually do some good. My NHS coalition style of management would see Machiavelli replaced by consensus. Remember that speech of Margaret Thatcher when she was elected: “Where there is discord let there be harmony etc…”

That speech may have been cringe making to watch but the sentiment holds firm. Decades on perhaps we are only now beginning to understand that the NHS will only survive the challenging next few years through coalition of all its talents, and not by exploitation, bullying or fear.