simon stevens, who set out his priorities for the health service today, said it was part of the tradeff for improvements in other areas, like cancer care. he's been speaking to our health editor, hugh pym. the nhs serves patients from cradle to grave, but there are difficult choices, and the message today is that it offers high quality care in many areas, but something has to give, and that's waiting lists for routine surgery, for patients like christine. she waited 22 weeks for a heart bypass operation, longer than nhs england's 18—week target. it's caused her a lot of anxiety and she's decided to go private. the sword of damocles hanging over my head, because i couldn't plan my life. i couldn't say categorically "i'm going to be able to do something". i feel i am getting not worse, but more tired. the head of nhs england explained his immediate priorities, including a&e and cancer care, to health staff today, but waiting lists for routine operations will, for a while, get longer. might more patients be waiting longer and might they be very disappointed with this? we need to fix the