Parties in an NHS arms race have an addiction that can't be cured.

The NHS has always proved a contentious issue in election campaigns but the rhetoric has been ramped up to record levels already, especially in Kent.

The future of a hospital in Canterbury has taken centre stage in the increasingly high-intensity battle there, with Labour defending a majority of 187.

So any expectation that the parties will begin to soft pedal over the issue is probably unrealistic - in fact, about as unrealistic as some of the political pledges the parties have made so far.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson set a few hares running when he said Canterbury was among 40 new hospitals to be built - under a Tory government.

Downing Street was obliged to issue some clarity via the Department for Health, which contrived to say that a new hospital was possible but not definite and would have to go through a bidding process a bit further down the line.

So, it is no wonder frustrated NHS officials have appealed to the parties not to make "empty promises" or create "unrealistic expectations".

But an election without unrealistic expectations? Over-dramatised? A case of wishful thinking if ever there was.

It is hard to see the parties turning down the volume. Labour is playing on fears that in a post-Brexit world, American drug companies are out to make a killing and the government is poised to privatise the service; the Conservatives want to neutralise the standard line of attack from Labour that they would cut funding so the election debate on Brexit is not overshadowed.

The appeal for a less attritional debate is justified; the concerns that the NHS is a political football legitimate.

But the parties are suffering from an addictive condition for which there is no treatment. And patients are caught in the crossfire...

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