NHS news:
Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms are unworkable, says review chief | Society | The Guardian
Prof Steve Field, chairman of the NHS Future Forum – set up last month to undertake the coalition’s “listening exercise” – flatly rejects the health secretary’s plan to compel hospitals to compete for patients and income, which he says could “destroy key services”. The proposal, contained in Andrew Lansley’s health and social care bill, has led key medical organisations to warn that it will lead to the breakup of the NHS and betray the service’s founding principles.
It was ‘Nurse’s Day’ on Friday.
A report from the Torygraph Junk food Britain costs the NHS more than cigarettes and alcohol – Telegraph says that obesity is a huge problem to public health. Lansley consults junk-food companies on NHS policy: McDonald’s and PepsiCo to help write UK health policy | Politics | The Guardian.
There is confirmation by Mark Britnell, an advisor to Cameron that the intention of the Con-Dems’ abolition of the NHS bill is to abolish the NHS and create a health care system based on the US insurance model. He said that the NHS “will be shown no mercy” by the Coalition.
Shameless liar Nick Clegg lies shamelessly by stating that there will be no “privatisation by the back door”. The theme is picked up by the Morning Star.
Shameless liar David Cameron lies shamelessly by claiming “… it’s because I love the NHS so much that I want to change it.”
These shameless liars raise an issue of democracy. Shameless liars deliberately decieving the electorate should be held accountable for their actions. There have been similar recent incidents in UK political history with Blair, Campbell & Co and it appears that Cameron and Clegg are following that example e.g. Clegg’s “I believe” formulation.
Cameron is expected to make a speech full of shameless lies today e.g. “this Government will never, ever take risks with the NHS”.
The BMA warns on training.
- Conservative election poster 2010
A few recent news articles concerning the UK’s Conservative and Liberal-Democrat coalition government – the ConDem’s – brutal attack on the National Health Service.
Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms are unworkable, says review chief | Society | The Guardian
The senior doctor called in by David Cameron to review the government’s health reforms has dismissed them as unworkable and “destabilising” in provisional conclusions that could fatally undermine the plans.
Prof Steve Field, chairman of the NHS Future Forum – set up last month to undertake the coalition’s “listening exercise” – flatly rejects the health secretary’s plan to compel hospitals to compete for patients and income, which he says could “destroy key services”. The proposal, contained in Andrew Lansley’s health and social care bill, has led key medical organisations to warn that it will lead to the breakup of the NHS and betray the service’s founding principles.
In an interview with the Guardian, Field says Lansley’s plan to make the NHS regulator Monitor’s primary duty to enforce competition between healthcare providers should be scrapped. Instead it should be obliged to do the opposite, by promoting co-operation and collaboration and the integration of health services.
“If you had a free market, that would destroy essential services in very big hospitals but also might destroy the services that need to be provided in small hospitals,” says Field.
“The risk in going forward [with the bill] as it is, is [of] destabilising the NHS at a local level. It would lead to some hospitals not being able to continue as they are. If you were to say ‘we’re going to go out to competition for vascular surgery services’, University Hospital Birmingham wouldn’t be able to run their own trauma centre, for example, because you wouldn’t have the staff and the skills on site to do things and the volume of procedures needed to ensure clinical standards remain high.”
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Nurses “Holding The NHS Together” – Carter, UK
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) today praised the vital work of nurses as they marked International Nurses’ Day. Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, spoke out to highlight the work nurses carry out above and beyond the call of duty, and called for their achievements to be recognised.
Nurses’ Day was also marked by The Prime Minister, David Cameron, and key figures from across the political spectrum, including Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Leader of the opposition Ed Miliband, as well as Health Secretary Andrew Lansley. The political leaders all recorded video messages pledging their support for nursing and thanking nurses for their work. Many thousands of people have also signed a pledge in support of nurses on the RCN Nurses’ Day website.
Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary said: “Nurses’ Day is an opportunity for all of us, whether we are patients, nurses or politicians, to reflect on the value of a profession whose worth is clearer than ever as we deal with an aging population who increasingly need care. Medical advances are helping people to live longer, but it is nursing which can help them to live well and make those extra years worth having. I am very pleased that in spite of all that is going on in the NHS at the moment, political leaders and MPs of all persuasions have made time to recognise the value of nursing.”
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Junk food Britain costs the NHS more than cigarettes and alcohol – Telegraph
A rising tide of diseases caused by poor diet and couch potato lifestyles are costing the health service around £12bn a year – almost twice the £6.6bn spent on ill health linked to smoking and alcohol, according to research by experts from Oxford University and the World Health Organisation.
The paper, published in the Journal of Public Health, says obesity and poor diet now place “the largest economic burden” on the NHS of all lifestyle choices.
Experts said that while the individual health risks of smoking and excess drinking are high, resulting in billions spent treating liver disease and lung cancer, the far higher numbers of people eating a poor diet had a bigger overall impact on NHS costs.
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David Cameron’s health adviser has warned the NHS “will be shown no mercy” by the Coalition.
Mark Britnell, who has been advising the PM on reforms, revealed that the NHS could turn into a US-style insurance system.
The former Department of Health bureaucrat said he believed the NHS would leave operations and other procedures to the private sector, with the taxpayer picking up the bill. Unions were outraged at the remarks and they will also anger Lib Dems who have demanded big changes to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s reforms.
Last month, the PM ordered a pause in the plans after Lib Dem activists voted against them at their party’s conference. Mr Britnell, head of health at accountants KPMG, visited Downing Street last week to advise on NHS policy. Speaking to bosses of private health firms, Mr Britnell said: “In future, the NHS will be a state insurance provider, not a deliverer.”
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NHS reforms will provide private firms the opportunity to make big profits, one of David Cameron’s advisers has said.
Mark Britnell said the healthcare system will be transformed by the Government’s controversial reforms to become a ‘state insurance provider, not a state deliverer’ of care.
His unguarded comments to a conference of executives came as there were calls for Health Minister Andrew Lansley to water down reforms which will give the private sector a far greater role in patient care.
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Clegg in vow to listen to medics – Health – The Star
DEPUTY PM Nick Clegg told doctors and nurses in Sheffield unpopular plans to reform the NHS would be “significantly and substantially” altered after a public backlash, writes Ben Spencer.
The Hallam MP, quizzed by staff at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, pledged there would be no “privatisation by the back door”.
The Lib Dem leader hopes to reassert his party’s independence within the Coalition Government after their disastrous performance at last week’s council elections.
He told staff: “No Government has the right to change the NHS without greater consent from people within the NHS.
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A chance to move ahead / Comment / Home – Morning Star
Health professionals and patients fear NHS reforms will “destroy essential services,” senior doctor Professor Steve Field warned at the weekend.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has vowed to veto the legislation but that’s merely as part of efforts to demonstrate a greater influence by his party following disastrous results at the ballot box last week.
It gives some perspective on his lack of understanding when he commented on a Bill that is designed to allow the backdoor privatisation of the NHS that there would be no “backdoor privatisation” of the NHS.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s plans would scrap primary care trusts and strategic health authorities and give GPs control of £80 billion of NHS spending, with a remit to commission treatment and services from “any willing provider” – including private companies.
It also places a duty on watchdog Monitor to promote competition in the provision of health services and, ostensibly incidentally, removes the duty to provide a free health service from the Health Secretary’s mandate.
The clear impression is that the government is seeking to privatise the NHS. Of that there is no doubt and Prof Field made it quite clear in his comments.
“If you had a free market, that would destroy essential services in very big hospitals and also the services in small hospitals,” he said unequivocally.
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David Cameron: ‘It’s because I love the NHS so much that I want to change it’ | News
David Cameron will signal his determination to press ahead with “deep change” in the NHS, warning it faces a fundamental crisis in the future if reforms are blocked.
The Prime Minister will use a keynote speech to detail some of the reworking being done of the Government’s health service shake-up to meet widespread political and professional hostility.
But he will make clear that the controversial package drawn up by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley will not be abandoned as Labour seeks to exploit tensions within the Tory-Lib Dem coalition over the plans.
Speaking at a London hospital today, the premier is expected to say: “We save the NHS by changing it. We risk its long-term future by resisting change now.
“I know that some people still have concerns. They might be listening to this and thinking: ‘OK, but if you love the NHS so much, if you don’t want to take any risks with it, why do you want to change it?
“But this is the point: it’s because I love the NHS so much that I want to change it. It needs to change to make it work better today and it needs to change to avoid a crisis tomorrow.”
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Cameron to promise ‘no risks’ in NHS reform – UK Politics, UK – The Independent
David Cameron will today attempt to breathe life back into the Coalition’s faltering plans for the NHS.
In his first major speech on health since the controversial plans were put on hold, he will set out the case for radical reform while insisting that “this Government will never, ever take risks with the NHS”.
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BBC News – Cameron set to stand firm on need for NHS changes
David Cameron will try to rally support for planned changes to the NHS in England, in a speech to health staff.
The prime minister is expected to focus on a need for “deep change”, warning of a “crisis” if proposals are blocked.
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Medical training reforms threaten patient care | GP online
In a speech to the BMA’s Annual Conference of Junior Doctors, Dr Shree Datta, who co-chairs the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, said proposals laid out in Liberating the NHS: developing the healthcare workforce ‘threaten the future provision of high quality patient care as anything in the Health Bill itself’.
‘They propose to invent a new system to commission, deliver, and quality-manage training through large-scale, untested, changes to the current system,’ she said.
Dr Datta expressed concerns over the pace in which medical training reforms would be implemented. ‘I am sure many of you remember MTAS,’ she said. ‘Are we really expected to believe that, with an entirely new structure in place, the recruitment process will run smoothly in a year’s time?’
Reforms could spell the end of deaneries, leaving Health Education England in charge of training funds, Dr Datta warned. Employer-led ‘skills networks’ are beginning to appear but ‘no one knows what they are going to do,’ Dr Datta said.
‘Are employers really going to focus on investing in the long term training of doctors when they are being asked to deliver £20bn in efficiency savings?,’ she added
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