Not because district or county councils run hospitals. Not because any party here is campaigning for closures or cutbacks.
No, our hospitals matter on May 3 because their best defence is local democracy. And local democracy is at risk on May 3.
My opposition to scrapping district councils and replacing them with a distant unitary authority is well known. But the unitary debate is not some abstract argument about council structure. It goes to the heart of how we safeguard local services.
Local councillors from all parties have been in the forefront of the campaign to halt hospital and ward closures. Take away these foot soldiers for democracy and the NHS would be even more vulnerable to the depredations of out of touch bureaucrats.
Take what is happening at Ludlow Community Hospital where South Shropshire District Council is playing a key role in giving it an alternative credible future run by the local community. I, with others, have argued it should be a leading contender for funding from the Government's flagship £750m pot for community hospital redevelopment.
But I worry that remote communities in the Ludlow constituency, like Bishop's Castle where redevelopment of Stone House remains in doubt, will suffer from moves to greater centralisation of decision-making in local government.
A unitary council for Shropshire would make it harder to fight the local corner for vital services such as our community hospitals.
