Fri 3 Sep 2010
Posted by Helen Evans under Public Health
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Standing in opposition to the principals of of life, liberty and property local government minister Grant Shapps has decided to introduce a busybody tyranny that will benefit many anti-freedom minded activists and campaigners.
If this press release is anything to go by David Cameron’s talk of a non-coercive big society will be still born. When will these fools learn that what we want is less national and local regulatory interventionism? When will they learn that to build a truly free society you want less politics?
Wed 1 Sep 2010
Posted by Helen Evans under Book review
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Those with an interest in the provision and funding of healthcare should definitely add this book to their reading list.
It is one of the best books written about health, science, politics and the medical establishment.
Or as The Times review put it ” An astute critic of modern medical humbug… devastatingly accurate”
Sun 29 Aug 2010
Posted by Helen Evans under NHS Failure
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It is interesting how during August when many people have their eye off the ball the realities of government policy are quietly revealed. This story demonstrates that, despite its pre-election promises, David Cameron’s government are not committed to providing cancer drugs to those in desperate need.
In fact as this article demonstrates the goal posts are being moved constantly, the budget for cancer drugs is being revised downwards and only a fraction of people with cancer will receive the life prolonging drugs that they need.
Sat 28 Aug 2010
Posted by Helen Evans under NHS Reforms
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Nurses for Reform is delighted with the breaking news that the government has rightly decided to scrap the exorbitantly expensive, inefficient and frequently useless NHS Direct helpline. NFR has long campaigned for the ruthless dismantleing of such pseudo-services instead preferring wholesale privatisation.
On the downside, NFR is hugely skeptical of the new 1-1-1 Helpline currently being piloted in the North-East of England. Instead of such state funded monopolists NFR prefers a much more open and diverse approach to healthcare advice.
Sat 28 Aug 2010
Posted by Helen Evans under Public Health
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While I make no comment on the health issues surrounding smoking, I am very concerned about this article and the rise in public health vigilanteism.
That children should be encouraged, either actively or passively, by teachers and the police to assault smokers in public because they do not agree with their personal choices is something that we should be very worried about.
This type of action has led to dreadful horrors in the past and society should be very worried about the public persecution of individuals merely exercising their freedom to make life style choices.
Sat 28 Aug 2010
Posted by Helen Evans under NHS Failure
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In 1948 the British government put a leaflet through the door of every household. It said, in black and white, that: “the NHS will provide you with all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone – rich or poor – can use it.”
However, more than 60 years later this lady, who had worked for and believed in the NHS, was denied basic diagnostic care because it was the weekend!
As time goes on we are seeing more and more examples of how the NHS promise is not worth the paper that it is written on. This, and many other examples that I have previously written about, should warn the American people that more government intervention in healthcare is not a path that they should take,
Thu 12 Aug 2010
Posted by Helen Evans under Book review
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I know that I have recommended this book before, but I make no apology for doing so again. Working Class Patients and the Medical Establishment: Self-Help in Britain from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to 1948 written by Dr David Green of Civitas, is one of the most influential books that I have read on the provision of healthcare before the establishment of the NHS.
Given the changes that are coming our way with the NHS reforms proposed by Andrew Lansley, many opinion formers and indeed Union Officials could do with brushing up on some history!
Fri 30 Jul 2010
Posted by Helen Evans under NHS Reforms
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Following Andrew Lansley’s announcement last week that he will be cutting a number of NHS quangos including the Health Protection Agency (HPA) I have spent some time thinking about what can be done to stop these agencies reinventing themselves.
For this is actually one of the biggest challenges that the Government faces. As I have already commented, the Food Standards Agency have been the first organisation to get the better of the politicians.
To enable the Health Secretary to counter the appeals that are going to come his way he only really has to look to the market. For example one of the responsibilities of the HPA is to collect statistics on Healthcare Acquired Infection, well, Dr Foster does that, and much more, far better and has been doing so for many years. If NHS trusts want to attract custom from the commissioning GPs and from consumers (patients!) they will quickly learn to publish the information that people are interested in. It’s called marketing! The HPA also provide infection control advice put again, private companies have been doing this for years and can be contracted by commissioning GPs as and when required.
The message to Mr Lansley is simple. You have lost the first round to the FSA. Don’t let the rest of these state funded bodies follow in their wake. Be ready, be ruthless and make the NHS Reforms worth much more than the paper they are written on!
Tue 27 Jul 2010
This is a very encouraging story from the BBC reporting David Willett’s announcement that the UK’s Coalition Government are going to allow the establishment of more private universities.
The first, run by BPP will expand it’s courses to include the training of healthcare professionals such as nurses. NFR welcomes this move as evidence that the Government are following yet more of our policy ideas, for we have long believed that nurse education and the definition of what constitutes being a nurse should be set free from government and the Nursing and Midwifery Council. It is imperative that this new university is allowed to set its own curriculum for nurse training and set it’s own standards. I am sure that Foundation Trusts and hospitals from the independent sector will be more than happy to work with an institution that has high standards and that trains nurses who provide high quality patient care.
The unions that are decrying this initiative are peddling pure fallacy when they say that:
“Encouraging the growth of private providers and making it easier for them to call themselves universities would be a disaster for the UK’s academic reputation. It would also represent a huge threat to academic freedom and standards.”
For in truth, if this university wants to survive it will have to provide and maintain exceptional standards to retain its reputation and to continue to attract the best students. Just as the pioneer of private universities in the UK, The University of Buckingham has done for many decades.
Tue 20 Jul 2010
Posted by Helen Evans under NHS Reforms
[2] Comments
This story from the BBC announcing a reprieve for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is, if true, very worrying for a number of reasons.
Not only will the Government have gone back on its promise of abolishing Quangos, but it will also have fallen soundly at the first hurdle in its bid to reform the NHS. For this move will send out signals to Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) that if you make enough noise to justify your existence and roll with the punches to reinvent yourselves, you will be saved.
One can imagine the mutterings in the SHAs and PCTs about being seen to support the changes as long as they do not go so far as too get rid of any “our” jobs or layers of bureaucracy!
It is vital that Andrew Lansley and his health team recognise the forces that they are up against. They have lost the first battle against the FSA, they must now regroup and begin to close down all avenues that could allow the SHAs and the PCTs to have any chance of survival. Otherwise all talk of reform and the ‘Big Society’ will be dealt a blow from the outset.
