Jan 29, 2012
Emperor's New Clothes:
Tailor speaks again! Chris Ham in the Guardian:
Chris Ham"May I add something briefly? The big question is not whether GP
commissioners need expert advice or patient input or other sources of
information. The big problem that we have had over the past 20 years, in
successive attempts to apply market principles in the NHS, has been
the fundamental weakness of commissioning, whether done by managers or GPs, and
whether it has been fundholding or total purchasing."
“………The barriers include government
policies that risk further fragmenting care rather than supporting closer
integration. Particularly important in this respect are NHS Foundation Trusts
based on acute hospitals only, the system of payment by results that rewards additional
hospital activity, and practice based commissioning that, in the wrong hands,
could accentuate instead of reduce divisions between primary and
secondary care.”
Emperor’s New Clothes: Fraudulent Concealment & OTPP
Oct 01, 2011
The
dire performance of a £3bn contract to upgrade NHS computer
systems had been "fraudulently concealed" from investors in American
IT contractor Computer Sciences Corporation for years, according to a class
action claim being brought by angry shareholders.
Besieged executives at CSC, a company
listed on Wall Street with a market value of $4.25bn, now face the possibility
of litigation on two fronts – from shareholders and the British taxpayer. The
group's existing NHS work is running years behind schedule and has racked up
huge costs, much of which have yet to be divided between CSC and British
taxpayers. At the centre of problems has been CSC's much-delayed acute hospital software
package, Lorenzo.
According to the class action
complaint, brought on behalf of a number of investors led by a major Canadian
fund, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, as early as May 2008 CSC knew,
through reports and testing, that Lorenzo was "dysfunctional and undeliverable".
Aug 13, 2011
Given the ineptitude that
has characterised this project, disaster was almost certain. According to a new
report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Department has failed to get
value for the vast sums of money that it has paid contractors. Of the two tailors companies that are still involved in the
project, one has yet to deliver the bulk of the systems that it was contracted
to supply despite being paid £1•8 billion since 2002, and the other is being
paid £9 million to implement systems at each NHS site that have cost other
organisations outside the programme £2 million. The Department seems to have
been foolishly duped by commercial companies that promised the
sun, cost the earth, and delivered not much more than hot air. Damningly, PAC's
report states: “The Department could have avoided some of the pitfalls and
waste if they had consulted at the start of the process with health
professionals.” Apologies to Lancet for the typo!!!
Aug 23, 2011
PFI: The Enron of the NHS
“PFI makes me particularly angry. It is a
guaranteed loan to property investors, where high-rate mortgage payments are
kept off-balance to reduce the country’s declared debt. In other words, it’s
the Enron of the NHS. This is money the NHS has committed to leave frontline
healthcare for the next 35 years.”
The best advice is often free. Yet our government
would prefer to spend millions (or was it billions) to buy them from people
whose only motive is to get the easiest money they can lay their hands on:
government money. Just look at Greece. Here in the
We might get new hospitals that look like
airport lounges but what about the doctors and nurses when we cannot afford them. Or are these places only there to house the
ever increasing numbers of managers. What about the patients? Patients, did you
say?
Aug 08, 2011
Last year there was
a fuss when it became apparent that the government wanted to close NHS Direct,
and as a result of the outrage the service was given a reprieve. But like
everything with this weasel government, the "reprieve" was only
partial because the government merely said that NHS Direct would be expected to
be just one of several providers of the new NHS 111 service. Yes, that is
right, the government thinks that there has to be competition. Bizarre? Indeed.
We live in Lala land ruled by people who think that nothing can work without
enforced and inappropriate competition.
"strategic
health authorities have been given seven weeks to tell the DoH how and when
they plan to roll-out NHS 111 hotlines across their area ... one senior GP
warned the deadline was 'crazy' given that the pilot NHS 111 schemes across the
UK were either incomplete, or yet even to begin"
Have they not
considered fraud for NHS 111. How easy would it be for fake phone calls to be
made and for the newly privatised NHS 111 to collect £16.00 or more per call.
Aug 09, 2011
The greatest threat to
the NHS is perversely that of its regulator and in turn it is a threat to our
democracy as the regulator is not elected and therefore not accountable to the
electorate.
“……Tom Clark our leader writer says the real
problem with the bill is the fact that the new regulator has a duty to promote
competition where appropriate. He points out that in a previous life as a
special adviser the regulator
used his powers to squeeze state bodies in order to open up the space for
private providers. It's why he is so against competition.”
Aug 26, 2011
Most people who take an
interest believe that the amended Health and Social Care Bill is a regurgitated
dog’s dinner.
Most doctors don’t want
to see this legislation introduced. There is nothing here for hospital doctors,
and the privatised future looks grim for junior doctors and medical students.
Even GPs, who were meant to sign up in droves, have realized that the prize of
GP commissioning is not worth the price they are being asked to pay.
A back of the fag
packet calculation suggests that the percentage of doctors who support (as
opposed to have been forced to get involved with) the Bill is in single figures.
The public don’t want
it either, with polls showing widespread suspicion of the ‘reforms’
And yet it is still on
the table, with a third reading at the beginning of September, when
MPs will hardly have
had time to compare Tuscan tans. How can it be that the vast majority of health
professionals detest the legislation and yet we still haven’t managed to see it
off?
