Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Not good for the government and Lansley on this today.


Firstly, both the Community Practitioners? and Health Visitors? Association and the Faculty of Public Health have become the latest professional bodies to come out against the Bill.


Then tonight, it loses the vote in the Lords regarding the priority given to mental health.

Interesting that now a number of Tories saying drop the Bill as they believe it will get the blame for the inevitable crisis looming in the the NHS - right wing free market critics are almpost saying leave it alone and let it collapse under its own contradicitions


We have

- ever increasing cost of treatment;

- the baby boom generation hitting 65 and fairly soon 75 - the ages when need grow enormously

- an infrastructure built largely for 1940s medical practice


My personal 'prejudices' are that additionally



- some internal culture which sees the NHS as a provider of employment rather than a service for the public

- deep internal 'conservatism' a general widespread internal culture of antagonism to reform, which New Labour found everywhere too


I'm not saying the current reforms are right, I've given up on this debate but am deeply suspicious of those who advocate the Status Quo and cry "Wolf" ("or literralyy 'they want to deystroy the NHS') at any attemp at reform.

Whilst I can see the arguments for reform, as indeed can many of the Royal Colleges who are opposing the Bill, I am also left wondering whether after 13 years of Labour reforms and now more promised by the coalition, the NHS is in a constant state of flux.


We bemoan that increased bureaucracy stops clinical staff treating patients but instead ties them to a desk filling out forms and yet with every new reform or reorganisation we are making that situation worse.


A moratorium on reform may be more beneficial in the short term. Lansley apparently spent six years in opposition coming up with these proposals and yet he may have done better jotting them down on the back of an envelope.

Personally I think what we need to do is really comprehensive review of what a health service free at delivery should look like in the 21st Century...but that is largely impossible because of the politics, especially the small C conservatine intrasigence from the Health Prefession in general and the Unions, means that no government (but especially a Tory one) can say they are looking and root and branch reform, so intstead we get tinkering, change of direction etc. Long term it is unsustaanable in terms of its current delivery and funding given what I said earlier (demographics and medical advancement). We need radical reform but that as good as politically impossibl - and that appears to me to be becuase of blatant self interest packaged as emotive 'protecting the NHS from those that want to destroy it' and the inevitable weight of massive, self fuffilling, self preserving bureacracy.

Orrrrr maybe its because everyone in the country wants free health care and is prepared to pay for it, and anything other than tinkering at the edges in a bid to drive down costs is political suicide at the ballot box.


Tend to agree that organisations can only take so much radical reform without the glue beginning to give, and I'm pretty sure that's where we're at right now.


There is no doubt that things can be done better but we'd probably be better off getting disinterested experts to give the recommendations rather than politicians, and it'd be great if they could be incorporated over a period of time irrespective of the colour of ties of the government.


For starters we could look at taking advantage of the economies of scale in purchasing the NHS could leverage, where currently things are so bad that there isn't even a strategy within an average PCT.


I did a project for NPEP (NHS Purchasing Electronic Psomething) that was looking at increasing pan institutional communication with a bid to doing this sort of thing and it was blocked at every turn before being dismantled as a 'costly' quango by the tories.


A conservative estimate at cost savings would be about 15 billion a year. Amazing that noone is doing anything about it.

Why can't the NHS be run as a corporation independent from political/government intervention? With a strict charter and legal obligations obviously. Like the BBC.


To my mind the 2 things that redeem the entire British nation are the existence of the NHS and the BBC. The one works very well because it is able to keep at arms length (to a degree) the tide of sub-human slime that are the political classes while the other seems constantly fraught with peril because it can?t.

I think you're just confusing where we are are now with what the very near future will look like in terms of resource requirements (see also pensions)...soooooooooo maybe that's just because people aren't really aware about what oongoing commitments with a rapidly ageing population means (without some radical overhaul) in terms of the future tax burden.


Try and getting a vote for the basic tax rate to go back to 30% to pay for maintaing current standards in the NHS as a vote winner say?


"A conservative estimate at cost savings would be about 15 billion a year. Amazing that noone is doing anything about it." that's classic unweldy bureacracy for you


Everyone wants first class public services paid for by someone else

The sheer number of changes being proposed in the Bill mean that despite the admin savings from abolishing PCTs and SHAs there is a real risk that additional bureaucracy will be created.


Also, the NHS has made significant progress since 1997. It currently costs circa ?100bn per year to run. Raising basic rate tax by just 1% would raise circa ?4.75bn per year. Even with an ageing population and even if no reforms were introduced, I don't think it's necessary to increase its budget by circa 50% just to maintain current standards.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • Our cellar was damp constantly and we were told that there were many underground streams in Dulwich (which eventually end up in the river in Belair Park),  Agree it is connected  to the water table. We had all old plaster removed from walls and replastered, 
    • Andy did a good job for me doing up a flat - bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen for a very reasonable rate. He’s a top notch painter and decorator and can turn his hand to many other trades too. I’d highly recommend him - nothing was too much trouble.
    • A ramp would not be suitable for Love Dulwich. Gradient would be too steep, also length of ramp would go into road. We considered a ramp in the house to get down 2 steps (internal) but an OT who measured said we would need a clear space of around 9 feet plus because of the height of steps.
    • Over the past few months, Jan from Silver Fern Landscapes has completed several projects for us.  (He was recommended by a neighbour.)  We have been very pleased with his work.  Some details are below: Built and replaced several trellis fence panels.  In one part it was very complicated due to a large vine that had grown into/around the trellis.  He was able to save the vine, having unpicked it from the old trellis and then securing it to the new.  The vine went into a bit of shock, but is now thriving. Repaired the top frame to our garden side-return door, replacing rotten wood, and repainting the new to match. Repaired the loose tiles in our front walkway Along the way, during his visits, Jan also gave advice on various topics, such as how to best care for: our recently re-planted lawn, a tree that lost a large branch, and the vine mentioned above.  His working style is straight forward...he shows up when he says he will, discusses what needs to be done, provides timely quotes, completes the work as agreed, and sends an invoice. No drama, no hassle.  We will definitely be calling on Jan again when future garden-related projects arise! silverfernlondon.co.uk/silver_fern_landscapes.html
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...