It Happens in Private Care Too

Read this and weep.

A Better Pain Scale

Have just discovered the wonderful 'Hyperbole and a Half' blog by Allie Brosh. Apart from a disturbingly accurate post on my life, she also has re-drafted the Pain Scale to reflect reality. Well worth a browse.

38 Degrees Place Full Page Ads in Papers

38 Degrees has placed full page ads in the Daily Mail, Guardian, Express, Metro and the Mirror. You can read about it here.

Letter to the Telegraph

A letter from GPs was printed in the Telegraph today, objecting to the Government's Health and Social Care Bill. It reads as follows;

SIR – David Cameron claims to have widespread GP enthusiasm for his NHS Bill because GPs have joined commissioning consortia (“Coalition’s GP health reforms have the support of doctors responsible for seven million patients”, Letters, May 11).

However, there are many GPs who are opposed to the Bill but have felt compelled to join consortia to fill the gap left by the meltdown of Primary Care Trusts.

We are angry that this is being used by the Government to suggest that we support the reforms. On the contrary, we believe the Bill is so ill-conceived it should be thrown out. The reforms are revolutionary, not evolutionary. Focusing only on GP commissioning ignores the most radical aspect of the Bill: the increased role of competition and the market.

Large for-profit companies are eager to gain entry into the market. They will cherry pick profitable services, destabilising NHS providers in the process, leading some to close. As Mr Cameron’s health adviser Mark Britnell said recently, there are “big opportunities” for the private sector, and the NHS will be shown “no mercy”.

Competition will undermine the collaboration between services that has been the hallmark of the great improvements that have been made in cancer care, stroke and heart disease treatment, as well as local care pathway improvements between GPs and hospitals. Such collaborative relationships will be deemed “anti-competitive”, as European competition law will be enforced by Monitor, the regulator.

We can achieve improved cost-effective and caring services without a Bill. GP commissioning has been effective in many places with no need for legislation. At a time of unprecedented austerity, it is dangerous to introduce legislation that will waste money, destabilise services and divert health workers from their main task of providing better services.

Click here to read the signatories, Johnathon Tomlinson, Julian Tudor Hart and Dr Robert Cumming (Scottish Health Campaign Network) amongst them.

Care Home Crisis in Southern Care Homes

Do read 'Fighting Monsters' excellent post on Southern Cross care homes. This is what could happen with other services in the NHS when the bottom drops out of the profits and the private boys move on to something else.

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