She employs more people. She utilises more and more varied, cutting edge technology. She disposes of a bigger budget than anyone else. She is unbelievably powerful and, if she gets things wrong, people die. Lots of them. In the strict sense of that much misused word, her responsibilities are awful.

She has only recently been appointed Chief Executive of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (she is boss of the Blackburn and Burnley hospitals) and it would be quite wrong to blame her for past mistakes, but anyone who knows a hospital doctor in this part of the country knows the two hospitals are seething cauldrons of discontent.

Over a G&T, the doctors are happy to recount anecdotes that make the hair stand up on one's head and their most common complaint is they cannot look after their patients to the best of their abilities as they now spend half their lives on the M65, shuttling back and forth between the two hospitals.

It's a terribly sad state of affairs and it is made much more murky by the fact many doctors claim they are actively discouraged from voicing their concerns in public. While she and her assistant, Dr Geraint Jones, medical director of the Trust, spend a lot of their time telling the newspapers everything is fine and we have nothing to worry about, all the other doctors know that, if they said a word to the newspapers, their fate would lie in Marie's hands.

It is for that reason I use my column today to heap praise on one of Marie's most senior employees, who has put his or her whole career on the line to give us the information to which we are entitled. In effect, the doctor confirms that the many complaints raised by Burnley councillors, on behalf of the people of their town, are true; in particular that, now Burnley A&E has closed, folk who collapse in Burnley have to wait too long for emergency care and the administration of both hospitals appears to have descended into chaos.

And I can also offer praise to our sister newspaper, the Burnley Express, which has given Marie all the space she could possibly need to answer her critics and has elicited from her a statement which, to my mind, encapsulates everything that is wrong with our beloved NHS.

Marie has effectively said she will not re-open Burnley A&E, but she has everything in hand and, at some unspecified date in the future, will do some unspecified things that, in some unspecified way, will make everything all right. And then comes the ultimate NHS punchline. In the meantime, we should stop complaining and let her get on with it.

Now just try to imagine Tesco closing their fruit and vegetable department at Burnley and transferring it to their Blackburn store. Of course you cannot! Makes you think, eh?