It's quite a journey from former Tory Councillor to the front page of the Morning Star.  Actually, it's about 40 minutes on the train.  From leafy, commodious Surrey to Waterloo, a few minutes on the Tube and you are at journey's end.

Pick a place; Lewisham, Southwark, Lambeth, Brent, Barnet, Waltham Cross, Enfield.  Just a few of my journey's ends.  It's not been lonely. 

For company I have had Polly Toynbe, from The Guardian, Dr Louise Irvine inner city GP, GP trainer and leading light in the 'Save Lewisham' campaign.  Prof Sue Richards Prof of Public Management at the University of Birmingham, formerly seconded to the Cabinet Office as Director of Strategic Leadership at the National School of Government.  Naledi Kline, a registered nurse, midwife, and health visitor currently Head of Professional Standards: Health Visiting and School Nursing at a large London NHS Trust and one of 50 BME Pioneers in this year's HSJ awards.  And, Frank Wood 25 years in pathology services and a member of the exec-committee at Unite.

Cool team, eh?

I've been chairing the independent People's Inquiry into London's NHS.  My travelling companions were the panel.  The whole deal was sponsored by the London Eastern Region of Unite.  When they asked me to do it I wasn't sure they'd got the right Roy Lilley!  They said they wanted someone 'independent' and they would leave me to get on with it.  Do you know what?  They did!  Scary!

With the help of the indefatigable John Lister we had seven meetings in public, took 30 hours of oral testimony, generated 140,000 words of raw transcript, accepted 50 written submissions and took evidence from the public, staff, professional organisations, medics, clinicians and big-beasts like Bob-the-Builder at  UCL, Dame Ruth (Daisy) Carnall, the Carbuncle's Regional director, Sir Steve Bullock, Mayor of Lewisham and a host of others... listed on page 4 of the report.

We made 18 recommendations and concluded; there is no strategic direction, there isn't enough money and given a couple of years London's health system is likely to implode.  Maybe we didn't need to do all that running around to find that out but the how and why is important.  Mayor Boris gets it; he's set-up a strategic health authority in exile and asked Lord Darzi to conduct his own inquiry; which he was kind enough to ask us to participate in.

The report's detail is a compendium of facts and figures which create a picture.  If you are reading this in Manchester, or Scunthorpe, or Devon, or East Anglia you may think; what's this got to do with me?  Think again.

We found general practice pretty much, on its knees, something the RCGP highlighted, as a universal problem, over the weekend. 

On the same day we published our report the awesome Anita Charlesworth published her swan-song blog (She's leaving the Nuffs') nattily titled; 'Are the wheels finally coming off the NHS finances?'

If you are pushed for time and can only read one thing today, as much as it irks me to say it (and forgive me colleagues); read Anita's blog.

The dislocation we found in London, the disgusting treatment of people with mental health problems, the crippled finances, the hopeless lack of a public-voice, side-by-side with stunning clinical and medical achievements, the work-till-we-drop mentality that carries the service... all of that will be happening where you are, if not now, sooner than you think.

Somehow the politicians have to be challenged; NHS spend, as a percentage of GDP, is falling (Page 40) and NHS budgets (�5bn) are being hived off to support Social Services.  It is not sustainable.

The UK stands as only 15th highest in health spend per head of population, or as a share of GDP. This puts us below not only the chronically wasteful US, but also Netherlands, France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Japan and Sweden... all countries that have faced recession and austerity.

I have no idea by how much these countries subsidise beer and bingo but my guess is they put bandages and beds first.

Asked by BBC London to comment on the report Dr Shirt-Off trashed it.  He hadn't read it.  How do I know?  We hadn't sent the DH a copy.  The DH are in denial.  Whatever you say they vomit statistics on you.  They dare not admit the reality.  

This debate is beyond politics.  We are into survival-mode; that means strip the NHS of the hangers-on the CQC, Monitor, TDA and everything else that has NHS in the title but doesn't touch the lives of patients at the front line.