Fancy a sudden career change? If you do, you're not alone.To add to the NHS's usual recruitment and retention problems, staff turnover and burnout, a select bunch of health service stalwarts are prepared to pack it all in for a stint on Parliament's green benches.By the time you read this, prime minister Tony Blair may have taken the 'prospective'out of prospective parliamentary candidacy, and the brave candidates will be out on the stump - NHS managers, doctors, nurses and other key staff among them.

They might be the people influencing health policy with a genuine knowledge of what it is like on the inside - or not.Here are a few who may be worth looking out for on election night.Tash Shifrin canvasses the candidates'views