We finally got there; lumbering ‘Sir’ David Nicholson dragged
himself out of bed today, Thursday, with his long anticipated pronouncement on
the future of the NHS.
There you are, you are about to retire with a big fat pension
and you have a chance to be provocative before you leave – you could do some
good, challenge the cowardly politicians, act as a spokesman for the poor,
stick up for the staff, put forward a courageous plan, demand more expenditure
for a better NHS.
Eh, no. The big plan, the brave new future – close loads of
hospitals.
Is that it?
Just what the government wants?
Lazy bones wasn’t as early as I was – he is being interviewed
after 8-00 am, I’m going shopping.
At 0710 am I was listening to Anita Charlesworth, chief
economist with ‘The Nuffield Trust’ – normally I’m not a fan, it’s a private
charitable trust with a research wing, while at the same time it is also a
major provider ‘non-profit’ private
medical services. It may be non-profit but lots of people make a lot of money
out of it.
Anyway, Ms Charlesworth did the right thing – she quoted
Carol Propper of Imperial College, London and her study which showed that
merging hospitals did not lead to greater efficiency, lower costs or better
patient outcomes. It was the basis of my series ‘Merger mania’ on my other Blog
and is on ‘pages’ here.
So much for Nicholson.
Of course, Carol Propper won’t be getting honoured, while I bet
Nicholson will soon be a ‘Lord’ and will wander into a series of well-paid part
time posts, to ease the pain of his retirement.
He is going to say that without the cuts there will be ‘many
more mid-staffs hospitals’ – at which point I may need to ring 111 about my
blood pressure – he was ‘in charge’ of the NHS area which brought us the mid
staffs hospitals scandal.
More to follow…after Tesco’s.
Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you drop production)
helpmesortoutthenhs.blogspot.com
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