The new corporate strategy for Bradford Teaching Hospitals is ambitious. The 26-page document contains some interesting ideas aimed at making the hospital service more efficient while not reducing the level of care provided to patients.

Whether it will succeed in that latter goal while cutting running costs by £9.5 million over the next five years remains to be seen. Bradford has had a fine reputation for providing an excellent health service. Let's hope this strategy is able to put it back on track after its recent problems.

While the trust is slimming down its own costs, it is commendably also trying to slim down those members of the Bradford public who eat the wrong sort of foods. The plan to encourage patients and visitors to the hospitals to eat better by slapping a "health tax" on such foods as crisps and fizzy drinks sold internally while subsidising healthy alternatives such as apples and yoghurt and providing water free of charge is a sensible measure.

It is right that the hospitals should seek to strengthen their role as centres for healthy living as well as being places that people turn to when they are sick. Obesity is a major and growing problem leading to an increase in diabetes and heart disease, the consequences of which can be costly to treat. Cut the obesity and those costs should eventually come down.

It is difficult to persuade people to change their eating habits in their own homes. However, it is a good idea to try to put them on the right track during their visits to the district's hospitals.