If this had been the Tories allowing NHS top up...

In what might be seen as a good day to release bad news* the Labour announced that it will lift the ban on patients topping up their NHS care:

The bar on topping up NHS care by paying for drugs not available on the health service is to be lifted under plans drawn up by ministers in England.

Now I think that is a good thing, people should be allowed to spend their savings how they like without fear that the state will capriciously withdraw existing benefits to assuage the green eyed monsters. If you want an opposing view Dr Crippen sees this as the beginning of end of the NHS. However there is one thing we agree on:

A Tory government would never get away with it.

A Tory government would not dare do it.

Lets just imagine what would have happened if the Tories had proposed this measure:

It would probably have been all over the BBC web site with their correspondents falling over themselves to proclaim the end of the NHS in their very best "told you so" patronising way. What do we get? A short story tucked away on the Health pages.

The there is the health unions. Surely we could expect their leaders to be queuing up to condemn the evil Labour? If it had been the Tories we would expect them to be battering down the studio doors of Radio 4 to get their strike threats heard. So what do we get from them? You would expect them to be screaming from their rooftops but Unison's front page's main story is some wibble from Prentis praising Gordon Brown, with a short press release condemning the move tucked away at the side.

What about the BMA then. Arent they supposed to be protecting the NHS? They certainly went mad when the Tories started to apply a bit of market forces in the 90's. Going on about the end of the NHS and we can't trust the Tories. So their position:

Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association, agreed the best solution had probably been reached.

OK, one last bastion of NHS protection left, the Royal College of Nurses, surely they will save the NHS? Bugger all on their web site either.

It was always said that only Labour could reform the NHS, just like only the Tories could make changes to the Armed forces. Some expected Labour to make those changes in the first flush of their 1997 success, but they didn't, they scrapped the Tory's internal market, just as it was starting to work, and then hosed it with money.

And before I rush off lets just remember that 1997 election slogan: 24 Hours to Save the NHS



*bad news for die hard NHS supporters

Rewarding failure goverenment style

The left love, especially NuLab politicians, to go in to paroxysms of outrage whenever the boss of a company receives a big pay off having lost a shed load of money. That it is the shareholders who are paying and none of their business doesn't seem to matter, they are full of moral outrage about fat cats and the iniquities of capitalism.

So what happens when someones failure leads to death? Remember Ruth Harrison? Let me remind you:

A former Buckinghamshire NHS chief whose trust was the centre of a Clostridium difficile scandal has stepped down from a review of other hospitals.
Ruth Harrison headed up Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury but left in 2006 after a damning report revealed how outbreaks of C diff led to 33 patient deaths

This wasn't shareholder money being lost it was people lives. So, she left her job, didn't she? Well, sort of:

She left her £130,000 chief executive job at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Bucks, in 2006 with a £140,000 "golden goodbye" the day before a damning report was published, citing serious faults in her leadership

Yep, that's our money her failure was rewarded with, money we have no choice about paying as taxes, not some shareholders who have gone in to a transaction understanding caveat emptor

So what might somebody who's incompetence led to 33 deaths be doing now?Ruth Harrison is being paid £52,000 on a short-term contract to head a review into maternity and children's services at Epsom and St Helier Hospital in Surrey, which could lead to the closure of wards.

Yep, working for the same NHS as a consultant. Its not like this is a one off, remember Rose Gibb, who's incompetence led to deaths at a hospital in Kent?

The practice of cash pay-offs to failing NHS managers led to a public outcry last year over the case of Rose Gibb, the chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent.

She left her job in October when a Healthcare Commission report criticised her handling of the C.diff infection which hit 1,176 people in three hospitals between 2004 and 2006.

After it emerged that she was likely to be given a large payout, Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, attempted to block it. However it was disclosed last month that Ms Gibb is still seeking £150,000.

This is what we are getting for our money, serial incompetence that not only goes unpunished but is rewarded. Who want a bet that Ms Gibb won't appear somewhere soon, I understand she is setting up a consultancy (I can't be bothered to google it).

Its one thing venture capitalists backing failed entrepreneurs because they have experience, that's their own money, it quite another with the government reemploying people who's incompetence led to people's death.

At least the patients' association are on the ball:

NHS hires ex-chief from 'superbug hospital'
By Lucy Cockcroft
Last Updated: 2:24am GMT 03/03/2008



A former hospital chief executive who was at the centre of a superbug outbreak which left 33 people dead is working for the NHS again, despite receiving a £140,000 pay-off just over a year ago.

Your guide to local hospital services
Ruth Harrison is being paid £52,000 on a short-term contract to head a review into maternity and children's services at Epsom and St Helier Hospital in Surrey, which could lead to the closure of wards.

advertisementShe left her £130,000 chief executive job at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Bucks, in 2006 with a £140,000 "golden goodbye" the day before a damning report was published, citing serious faults in her leadership.

Under her tenure 33 patients died and 334 became seriously ill with the highly infectious stomach bug Clostridium difficile.

The Healthcare Commission, which carried out the investigation into the outbreak between October 2003 and June 2005, said the trust "compromised the safety of patients by failing to make the right decisions" and that it "rejected the proper advice of their own experts".

Its report said: "The Healthcare Commission considers there were significant failings on the part of the leadership at the trust and has recommended that the leadership change."

The appointment of Ms Harrison at Epsom and St Helier Hospital has caused outrage among patients' rights campaigners, who believe it is tantamount to rewarding poor performance.

A spokesman for the Patients' Association said: "Ms Harrison left Stoke Mandeville at a time when infection rates were so high that it led to avoidable deaths.

"She then got a huge pay-off and a year to enjoy it. Now we hear she is back again advising the NHS on best practice. It absolutely beggars belief."

So next time you hear some NuLab flunky or lefty pontificating about fat cats do what my old RSM would have said: shove it up their backsides so far they will need a dentist to remove it.

This has to be good, doesn't it?

Up to ten doctors applying for a single post:

Junior doctors across the UK are being warned the competition they will face this year for specialist training jobs in the NHS will be tougher than ever.

To be fair the junior doctor I listened on the radio this morning did accept that this was good, he was complaining about the incompetence of the implementation of new recruiting processes (well what a surprise NHS/Government incompetence). What got me was the beeb reporter who was beside herself with indignation that there was competition in the NHS. Shows how they think.

I am reminded of a conversation I had when booking a BUPA medical:

Call centre: Would you like a male or female doctor, sir?
Me: The best doctor, please.

Citizen's jury states the bleedin' obvious

Its taken a citizens jury to tell the NHS that hospital hygiene is a top priority. According to this report:

According to the health authority, one participant stated: "Cleanliness isn't just about infection.

"It also gives an impression to patients that they can be confident about the standard of care they are going to receive."

But I really love the response:

After the discussions, local groups of health and social care staff were set up to review services after the talks.

Fucking priceless - we have gab fest to tell the NHS something they should know and then a mini gab fest to carry out a review of what they have been told.

And some people wonder why the NHS costs so much and delivers so little.

Statistics: Health service waiting lists

I have just been catching up on Radio 4's excellent programme More or Less: Behind the statistics and this week one of their listeners raised this curious point:

If a hospital procedure is carried out on everyone in exactly 10 weeks, what is the average waiting time? I was particularly taken with this piece because I have been very wary of "averages" for a long time and never accept them in a business context unless I have seen the raw data. The reason for this is the average, and even above average, person is clueless as to what an "average" really tells us, especially with small data sets. (Pun intended)

Anyway, the answer to this question took me by surprise: 5 weeks.

It seems that we are really being told average waiting times of those in the queue and they get this by asking each person in the queue how long they have been there. So if the sample is large enough it is reasonable to assume that some will have been there for 1 day, others for 2 days etc all the way to 69 days. The average of these wait times is indeed 35 days.

To be fair the programme does go on to say that the Government is moving towards total treatment times, but not before misleading us as to waiting waiting times.