Knowledge is Power

Am just back from holiday, and have come back to the glad news that NHS Lothian has been forced to disclose the running costs of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. This is very significant; up until now, anything that had 'Commercial confidentiality' slapped on it did not come under the Freedom of Information act, even if it involved the spending of copious amounts of public money. At last we might be able to trace just exactly where all our money is going, and how much is going into the shareholders' pockets.

It wasn't mentioned in the report, but the fact that the 'Save St John's hospital' campaign now has a councillor on the health board, meant that the game was a bogey for NHS Lothian anyway. He would have access to that information, even if it didn't make it into the general public domain. I'm sure that this lead in no small part to the decision to make this information public. So three cheers for The St John's' councillors; this could be a real turning point for scrutiny of expensive and wasteful PPI projects. Prepare to be shocked by the real cost when it comes out.