Sir Robert Francis publishes his report on whistleb lowing in the NHS

Freedom to Speak Up

Absolutely shocking what was found. Sir Robert lists recommendation s which should be adopted straight away and I hope they are. We should also be rooting out those that can be identified for causing much of the distress to NHS employees who should where appropriate be compensated for their lives being destroyed.

As it should be, the review is non-political. Here is the Press Release

https://freedomtospeakup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Press_release.pdf

No doubt relics of labours mass move to employ incompeteant public sector workers, no doubt all in the pocket of the labour party.
So agreed lets hope they take these people to task

Brasidas wrote:No doubt relics of labours mass move to employ incompeteant public sector workers, no doubt all in the pocket of the labour party.
So agreed lets hope they take these people to task

In 1997, 19.5% of jobs were in the public sector. Before the banking collapse caused by the financial sector happened it was 19.6%. Tories liked them as well it seems.

Any comment on the report or don't you care?

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:No doubt relics of labours mass move to employ incompeteant public sector workers, no doubt all in the pocket of the labour party.
So agreed lets hope they take these people to task

In 1997, 19.5% of jobs were in the public sector. Before the banking collapse caused by the financial sector happened it was 19.6%. Tories liked them as well it seems.

Any comment on the report or don't you care?

Oh I care about the report because it will come out how all these commies who have been in place back under labour have tried to destroy the NHS by preventing people speaking out. I have no doubt management are deliberately trying to bring the NHS down. My belief it goes all the way to the top of the labour party itself. Thank goodness the Tories are doing away with these incompetant public sector workers who are not fit wo wipe their own arses.

Brasidas wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:No doubt relics of labours mass move to employ incompeteant public sector workers, no doubt all in the pocket of the labour party.
So agreed lets hope they take these people to task

In 1997, 19.5% of jobs were in the public sector. Before the banking collapse caused by the financial sector happened it was 19.6%. Tories liked them as well it seems.

Any comment on the report or don't you care?

Oh I care about the report because it will come out how all these commies who have been in place back under labour have tried to destroy the NHS by preventing people speaking out. I have no doubt management are deliberately trying to bring the NHS down. My belief it goes all the way to the top of the labour party itself. Thank goodness the Tories are doing away with these incompetant public sector workers who are not fit wo wipe their own arses.

NHS improved after decades of neglect said Sir Bruce Keogh.



You didn't know that, did you?

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:

Oh I care about the report because it will come out how all these commies who have been in place back under labour have tried to destroy the NHS by preventing people speaking out. I have no doubt management are deliberately trying to bring the NHS down. My belief it goes all the way to the top of the labour party itself. Thank goodness the Tories are doing away with these incompetant public sector workers who are not fit wo wipe their own arses.

NHS improved after decades of neglect said Sir Bruce Keogh.



You didn't know that, did you?

:P:P

I am talking about since ther Tories took power, there has been an underhanded policy to bring down the NHS by the commies within the HNS no doubt going all the way to the top of the Labour party.


Best you start understanding Englsih tiny tim.

If you want evidence just look at what happenned in Rotherham, enough said.

Brasidas wrote:If you want evidence just look at what happenned in Rotherham, enough said.

Which NHS hospital are you talking about?

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:If you want evidence just look at what happenned in Rotherham, enough said.

Which NHS hospital are you talking about?

No hospital, Just Labour public sector works

Brasidas wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:If you want evidence just look at what happenned in Rotherham, enough said.

Which NHS hospital are you talking about?

No hospital, Just Labour public sector works

No hospital!!!

Ah, you've wandered onto the wrong thread Didge. This one is about the review by Sir Robert Francis on how NHS workers have been treated.

Off you go then

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:

No hospital, Just Labour public sector works

No hospital!!!

Ah, you've wandered onto the wrong thread Didge. This one is about the review by Sir Robert Francis on how NHS workers have been treated.

Off you go then

Eh?
Oh dear you abusing your powers again.


  

I am showing how no doubt like Rotherham this is another case of incompetant Labour for you with workers.

Whoops

Brasidas wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:

No hospital, Just Labour public sector works

No hospital!!!

Ah, you've wandered onto the wrong thread Didge. This one is about the review by Sir Robert Francis on how NHS workers have been treated.

Off you go then

Eh?
Oh dear you abusing your powers again.


  

I am showing how no doubt like Rotherham this is another case of incompetant Labour for you with workers.

Whoops

Start a thread on that very subject then and leave this one to people who want to discuss the report. It's not an order - just common sense really.

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:

Eh?
Oh dear you abusing your powers again.


  

I am showing how no doubt like Rotherham this is another case of incompetant Labour for you with workers.

Whoops

Start a thread on that very subject then and leave this one to people who want to discuss the report. It's not an order - just common sense really.

Jog on tiny Tim, ha ha ha ha ha.


    

You have no common sense you are a commie.

This is just you thinking the Tories are at fault where it is no doubt these many Mid maangement idiots that labour employed from before trying to undermine the Goverment through a Labour policy using them.

Whistle-blowers have warned more needs to be done to protect them and encourage others in the NHS to speak out, despite the recommendations in Sir Robert Francis’s report.
Amanda Pollard, a senior inspector with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) watchdog who resigned after saying that the organisation “would not spot another Stafford” – the hospital where failings led to hundreds of "excess deaths" – said Sir Robert’s recommendations would have done little to protect her at the time.
She told The Telegraph: “The legal protection he recommends seems to be aimed at people who are looking for work after being forced out of their job for whistleblowing, rather than protecting whistle blowers in their organisation.”
Mrs Pollard said several of the principles put forward by Sir Robert to protect whistle-blowers depended on the good will of NHS trusts and bodies to implement them.

“Saying that the culture needs to be more open relies on that organisation wanting to be more open. Where is the incentive for them to do that? And where are the sanctions if they don’t? There don’t appear to be any” she said.

Mrs Pollard, who had worked in the NHS for 20 years, left the CQC in 2013 after growing increasingly frustrated with the behaviour of management as she tried to alert them to her concerns.
She complained to her managers after the CQC disbanded its infection control teams – which advised hospitals on the crucial task reducing the risk to patients of 'superbug’ infections such as MRSA, C. diff and E-coli - and transferred the inspectors to regional teams.
The result was that Mrs Pollard and her colleagues found themselves inspecting care homes and nursing homes, in which they had no expertise or knowledge. She told Mid-Staffs inquiry: “I could not believe that something so effective could be thrown away.”
Mrs Pollard said on Wednesday: “If all of Sir Robert’s recommendations were in place now I would still be hesitant about coming forward with my concerns.
“I just don’t see how his recommendations would have helped my case or changed what happened to me.”
Mrs Pollard, who has found it impossible to get work elsewhere in the NHS since speaking out over her fears, also questioned how effective Sir Robert’s proposal for ‘whistle-blower guardians’ would be if they were recruited from the ranks of NHS managers.
“For them to be fully effective they need to be at board level. If they were trust managers they could easily be accused of not being independent,” she said.
Robert Rose, a medical negligence lawyer with Lime Solicitors, said other pledges this week to introduce financial sanctions for hospitals that fail to be honest about clinical mistakes were "likely to make little difference" if NHS whistle-blowers remained unprotected.
He said: "Potential whistleblowers must be able to voice their concerns safe in the knowledge that this will not negatively impact on their careers. Until this is addressed, and a watertight process is put in place where staff can safely raise concerns, the culture within the NHS will not change."
David Drew, a consultant paediatrician who claimed he was sacked after raising the alarm over a toddler who died after being discharged from Walsall Manor Hospital, said the Francis review underlined existing problems but that the failure to help those whose lives had been crushed remained an “open sore” on the NHS.
He added: “We will be back campaigning for reopening of cases of sacked whistle-blowers."
In April 2012 an employment tribunal rejected Mr Drew’s claims of unfair dismissal, religious discrimination and victimisation against Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust.
Gary Walker, the former chief executive of United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, said Sir Robert’s recommendations would prove to be “completely ineffective”.
He said: “The focus should have been on dealing with the individuals who victimise whistle-blowers, and these are usually trust board members. Sir Robert seems to be saying that no one is to blame and that’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Mr Walker claimed his warning to senior NHS figures about patient safety were ignored for years until he was eventually sacked by the trust in 2010, ostensively for swearing in meetings.
Raj Mattu, a cardiologist who publicly exposed overcrowding at Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry in 2001, claiming it might have led to avoidable deaths, said there still a lack of "sufficient protection” for potential whistle-blowers.
Dr Mattu said earlier that Sir Robert’s recommendations were "of no value if they are not going to be enforced".
He added: "As of today, I don't believe there are sufficient protections in place that are of any value. I couldn't possibly recommend anybody else whistle blow at this moment and go through the sort of ordeal I and others have gone through."
Hundreds of senior doctors and nurses gave evidence to Sir Robert about how their careers came to a standstill after they tried to alert NHS managers of unsafe practices and cost-cutting risking lives.
Sir Robert told The Telegraph the NHS should exploit the idealism of its doctors and nurses and not crush those who put patients first.
Dr Mattu welcomed Sir Robert’s report, but added: "It's frustrating and depressing to hear that whilst there is often and periodically noises made about ... protecting whistle-blowers, the reality is there are very few palpable, material changes that take place.
"Today even, the culture is very unsafe. There is still ongoing persecution of whistle-blowers on a grand scale.”
Dr Mattu said: "Large numbers of managers in the NHS are in there for a different reason to the nurses and doctors. Most of us come in because we want to care for people. Managers largely come from a background of wanting a career in management.
"Many of us who are whistle-blowers feel compelled and a moral obligation to speak up. I saw practices in my hospital that were putting patient safety and lives at risk."
Some whistle-blowers were more enthusiastic about the report.
Roger Davidson, currently Head of Media and Public Affairs at NHS England, said: “A culture of denial has absolutely no place in our NHS - there should be no ifs or buts. The fact this report has been produced is a powerful first step. It sets the direction and provides a yardstick against which we can measure. But it's behaviours that will make a difference. I hope the NHS roots out poor behaviour and drives strong values-based leadership to every corner of the health service."
Mr Davidson lost his job as head of media and public affairs for the CQC just before the 2010 general election, after telling how a quarter of NHS trusts had failed to meet basic hygiene standards.
He also warned that the CQC had stopped telling the public how to find reports on infections in their local hospitals in order to limit publicity damaging to the NHS.
Mr Davidson was forced to sign a gagging order when he left, but his testimony emerged during the Francis inquiry into the failings at Mid-Staffs.
Sir Robert's proposal to station "freedom to speak up guardians" in hospitals to help staff in coming forward was based on an idea by Helene Donnelly, a nurse who raised the alarm at Stafford Hospital.
Ms Donnelly, who advised Sir Robert on how whistle-blowers could be helped and now works as ambassador for cultural change at Stafford, suggested the guardians would be able to go over the head of hospital boards who failed to act appropriately.
"(In the) worst case scenario, if the board fails to act and there is serious patient or staff safety risk, they can then take it externally to an external guardian and all the other regulators as well to ensure the problem is dealt with," she said.
The campaign group Patients First said: "We believe that those staff who are brave enough to raise patient safety concerns should be treasured, not bullied, and look to Jeremy Hunt to decisively act to help change the prevailing culture in large parts of the NHS and protect such staff.”
But Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, the association of NHS foundation trusts and trusts, said that while “there is a significant minority of trusts where whistle-blowers are not being treated appropriately”, the NHS had been ranked as the safest health care system in the world.
Mr Hopson said out that only 0.06% of NHS interactions with patients ended in complaints and that more that 80% of patients were satisfied with the care they received.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11405430/Whistleblowing-Its-still-not-safe-for-us-to-speak-out.html

At last a comment. Took my advice. Well done Didge

Irn Bru wrote:At last a comment. Took my advice. Well done Didge

I gave you may, you just cannot counter them

   

Brasidas wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:At last a comment. Took my advice. Well done Didge

I gave you may, you just cannot counter them

   

What points did you make?

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:

I gave you may, you just cannot counter them

   

What points did you make?

About how Labour created non-Jobs for people not qualified to run management positions in hospitals.
So tell me what experience do you have working in the NHS?

Brasidas wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:

I gave you may, you just cannot counter them

   

What points did you make?

About how Labour created non-Jobs for people not qualified to run management positions in hospitals.
So tell me what experience do you have working in the NHS?

Can you give me the official stats on the number of non-jobs created in the NHS by Labour and also by the Tories. The number of public sector workers overall appear to be similar over the period for both of them.

I've been a patient of the NHS - I've never worked in the public sector.

And you?

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:


About how Labour created non-Jobs for people not qualified to run management positions in hospitals.
So tell me what experience do you have working in the NHS?

Can you give me the official stats on the number of non-jobs created in the NHS by Labour and also by the Tories. The number of public sector workers overall appear to be similar over the period for both of them.

I've been a patient of the NHS - I've never worked in the public sector.

And you?

First point is moot
Second, have you worked in the NHS.
Do you know how badly public sector mid management wasted millions on for example the Ambulance service to the point they had to create first aiders to run many ambulances?? This was down to poor management of the budgets they were given. Again I have worked for the NHS and know how bad the Primary care trusts were, so you better be up to speed on this because I will tear you apart on this.

Brasidas wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:


About how Labour created non-Jobs for people not qualified to run management positions in hospitals.
So tell me what experience do you have working in the NHS?

Can you give me the official stats on the number of non-jobs created in the NHS by Labour and also by the Tories. The number of public sector workers overall appear to be similar over the period for both of them.

I've been a patient of the NHS - I've never worked in the public sector.

And you?

First point is moot
Second, have you worked in the NHS.
Do you know how badly public sector mid management wasted millions on for example the Ambulance service to the point they had to create first aiders to run many ambulances?? This was down to poor management of the budgets they were given. Again I have worked for the NHS and know how bad the Primary care trusts were, so you better be up to speed on this because I will tear you apart on this.

How can the first point be moot when you claimed Labour created loads of non-jobs?
If you can't prove they did then you shouldn't have claimed they did.

Ah right, you have worked for the NHS. So that's why it must have been shit then. Were you one of the bullies?

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:


First point is moot
Second, have you worked in the NHS.
Do you know how badly public sector mid management wasted millions on for example the Ambulance service to the point they had to create first aiders to run many ambulances?? This was down to poor management of the budgets they were given. Again I have worked for the NHS and know how bad the Primary care trusts were, so you better be up to speed on this because I will tear you apart on this.

How can the first point be moot when you claimed Labour created loads of non-jobs?
If you can't prove they did then you shouldn't have claimed they did.

Ah right, you have worked for the NHS. So that's why it must have been shit then. Were you one of the bullies?

Because when I worked for the NHS it was under Labour control hence moot point, which is why I am trying to help you and why such reports like this really are comical.

So I see you have run scarred from my points

Buck buck

 

Brasidas wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:


First point is moot
Second, have you worked in the NHS.
Do you know how badly public sector mid management wasted millions on for example the Ambulance service to the point they had to create first aiders to run many ambulances?? This was down to poor management of the budgets they were given. Again I have worked for the NHS and know how bad the Primary care trusts were, so you better be up to speed on this because I will tear you apart on this.

How can the first point be moot when you claimed Labour created loads of non-jobs?
If you can't prove they did then you shouldn't have claimed they did.

Ah right, you have worked for the NHS. So that's why it must have been shit then. Were you one of the bullies?

Because when I worked for the NHS it was under Labour control hence moot point, which is why I am trying to help you and why such reports like this really are comical.

So I see you have run scarred from my points

Buck buck

 

You didn't work in the NHS under the Tories then? Just as well as Sir Bruce Keogh said it suffered from neglect under the Tories with people dying on trolleys.



So you were part of the problem outlined in the Francis report then? Thanks for letting that wee gem fall into my lap. Now my teas just about ready so go on, come up with piece of magic like that for me to use whilst I'm away

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:



Because when I worked for the NHS it was under Labour control hence moot point, which is why I am trying to help you and why such reports like this really are comical.

So I see you have run scarred from my points

Buck buck

 

You didn't work in the NHS under the Tories then? Just as well as Sir Bruce Keogh said it suffered from neglect under the Tories with people dying on trolleys.



So you were part of the problem outlined in the Francis report then? Thanks for letting that wee gem fall into my lap. Now my teas just about ready so go on, come up with piece of magic like that for me to use whilst I'm away

Oh dear epic fail as it was whilst under Labour that many were gagged from speaking out over the massive failures.
So this is your evidence under Labour?

    

Is that what you call a gem?

This is why you are running scared because on I know loads fro the individual experinces of working with many doctors and nurses the millions wasted by the Primary Care Trusts under Labour.

Buck Buck


  

All the management Labour created?



Didn't cost much, did they?

Irn Bru wrote:All the management Labour created?



Didn't cost much, did they?

I really am beginning to laugh at your inability to understand as it is not aboutthe costs of the management themsleves, but how much they actually cost the NHS in their blunders, why again many people were gagged from speaking out. So in reality their saleries never cost much, but their incompetence cost the NHS a fortune.

Buck Buck

Brasidas wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:All the management Labour created?



Didn't cost much, did they?

I really am beginning to laugh at your inability to understand as it is not aboutthe costs of the management themsleves, but how much they actually cost the NHS in their blunders, why again many people were gagged from speaking out. So in reality their saleries never cost much, but their incompetence cost the NHS a fortune.

Buck Buck

So management costs in salaries went down under Labour so stacks of managers being added can’t possibly be true. But you’ve moved on now and its incompetence is it? So, was there was no management incompetence in the NHS under the Tories 1979/1997 or under this current shower of a coalition? According to you there was only ever management incompetence under Labour when you worked in the NHS.

Think you said you were a policy planner or something like that. Well that just sums it up rather nicely doesn’t it?



Down from 5.1% to 3%.

Toot toot

Irn Bru wrote:

Brasidas wrote:



I really am beginning to laugh at your inability to understand as it is not aboutthe costs of the management themsleves, but how much they actually cost the NHS in their blunders, why again many people were gagged from speaking out. So in reality their saleries never cost much, but their incompetence cost the NHS a fortune.

Buck Buck

So management costs in salaries went down under Labour so stacks of managers being added can’t possibly be true. But you’ve moved on now and its incompetence is it? So, was there was no management incompetence in the NHS under the Tories 1979/1997 or under this current shower of a coalition? According to you there was only ever management incompetence under Labour when you worked in the NHS.

Think you said you were a policy planner or something like that. Well that just sums it up rather nicely doesn’t it?



Down from 5.1% to 3%.

Toot toot

Not talking about wages, but actual cost off many fuck ups to the point the Tories inherited a nightmare of many incompetent manager.,Where many of these roles to many who only had medical experience in the NHS. But little on how to actually run a business, hence hey made a complete mess which Labour basically covered up. Like I said we can start with how in many Primary Trusts they exceeded their ambulance budgets massively which brought about the creation of the Emergency care assistant for the Ambulance Service. Now you will read this was to help bring down costs, what you won't read about is in fact it was to get out of a massive hole where many Primary Cares had fucked up and they had vastly over budgeted. They then basically made the Ambulance service vulnerable off their incompetence by having to employ glorified first aiders. They fucked up big time under Labours watch.  Of course many in the NHS that has dealt with the Primary Car Trusts know this to be true but many were gagged from saying anything. As I say many of these managers were not fit for purpose and had gotten roles of medical careers, not of planning, budgets, etc. The NHS under Labour was a nightmare and why the Tories have had a tough time resolving.


Also Labour are shooting themselves in the foot over the NHS, even other lefties can see this.











As Labour centres its election campaign on the NHS, its record on the subject is coming under increasing scrutiny.

Not only are the pressures on the Labour-run Welsh NHS casting doubts upon the party's trustworthiness on health, now its Blairite past is persistently coming back to haunt it.

Alan Milburn, the former Labour MP and Health Secretary under Tony Blair, has called on Ed Miliband to break out of his "comfort zone" on the health service, and to start embracing difficult reforms.

Speaking on the BBC's The World At One, Milburn said:

There is a risk that Labour's position on the National Health Service becomes almost an emblem for Labour showing an unwillingness to lean into a difficult reform agenda.
Look, reforms are not easy, but the Labour party is not a conservative party. It should be about moving things forward, not preserving them in aspic.
I think the biggest risk for Labour on health, and indeed more generally, is that we could look like we're sticking to our comfort zone but aren't prepared to strike out into territory that, in the end, the public know any party of government will have to strike out into, which is to make some difficult changes and difficult choices.

Milburn was the minister who, controversially at the time, introduced NHS foundation trusts, and was behind negotiating PFI deals on hospitals. He serves as one of many reminders that not so long ago, during the New Labour years, the Labour party was driving through dramatic reforms in the NHS and did not shy away from private money in doing so.

Now the party's main attack line – usually delivered with verve via the media machine and self-styled high priest of the English religion that is the NHS, Andy Burnham – is to accuse the Tories of selling it off. But the more they focus on such a negative defence of the health service, the easier it is for their detractors to point out that the market's introduction into the health service flourished during the New Labour years.

Burnham has been forced to acknowledge this many times. Even well before the election campaign was underway, he was having to defend his tenure as Health Secretary. He has admitted in the past that the last Labour government “let the market in too far” into the NHS, although insisted when I interviewed him last year, “that’s not me doing an emotional argument of the left. There is real evidence to say why it’s the wrong answer to 21st-century health challenges . . . the evidence says market systems cost more.

“For me, [privatisation] is the wrong answer. And there’s almost been at times an unspoken consensus between reformers on both sides of politics that the market should just inexorably be allowed to advance. I suppose I’m making a break with that for the first time in a long time.”

But he also admitted to me that there are instances when he can see private money helping the NHS: “Yeah, of course. And it did, didn’t it? The last government worked with the private sector to bring down NHS waiting lists and they came right down. And that’s how I see it. I see a supporting role but not a replacement role.”

With the party's recent record on the NHS, and the lingering appreciation for what the market has to offer the public service, it would serve Labour well to stick to positive politicking on the subject, rather than crying "privatisation".




http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/01/labour-cant-escape-its-blairite-past-nhs-so-it-should-stop-crying-privatisation

This is interesting also, another leftie knocking Labour though do not agree on all points but it certainly again shows how hypocritical and incompetent Labour are:





Ed Miliband's attempt to "weaponise the NHS" certainly worked.


Unfortunately, the weapon has been grabbed out of his hands and fired in his face, and not just by David Cameron at Prime Minister's Question's yesterday. Unreconstructed Blairite "modernisers" like former Health Secretary Alan Milburn and former Labour Business Secretary Lord Hutton have been eagerly handing ammunition to the Tories as Labour's message on the NHS becomes ever more confused.

Milburn and co have said, effectively: hold on a minute, you can't suddenly dismiss Labour's contribution to the market-based reforms of the NHS as if it never happened. Labour were the ones who pushed ahead with what is now being called "privatisation": opening up NHS service contracts to private competition. What Andy Burnham now calls the "Tory market experiment in the NHS" was actually Labour's experiment.

And painful it was too. Remember the "scars on my back" that Tony Blair complained about after trying to break down what he called the old "top down" monolithic NHS? He made market reforms the keynote of his second and third administrations. The "any willing provider" principle that required English Primary Care Trusts to accept tenders from private firms, and not just the NHS, was introduced by Labour.

Indeed, it was Andy Burnham who gave the go-ahead for the first fully privately run NHS hospital, Hinchingbrooke in Cambridgeshire, which collapsed last year after it was criticised by the Care Commission. In Scotland, Labour's First Minister Jack McConnell experimented with privatisation at Strathcathro hospital in Brechin in 2006. This first and last private sector treatment centre was fully integrated back into the Scottish NHS in 2010.

Ed Miliband is not going to be allowed to forget all of this. Blairite modernisers including one Jim Murphy believed passionately that it was their "patient centred" market reforms that helped Labour to win three straight elections. Alan Milburn twisted the knife by comparing Ed Miliband to Neil Kinnock in the 1992 General Election, which was a little unfair on Neil Kinnock. He at least managed to restore Labour's electoral credibility in 1992 and, though he didn't win, Mr Kinnock arguably laid the ground for the victory five years later.

In 1992 Labour sort of knew what it stood for. Today, it is a mass of contradictions. It is futile for Ed Miliband to pretend that somehow Tony Blair was a momentary aberration; that he was on holiday when it all happened. Tony Blair was Prime Minister for three consecutive terms and Ed Miliband was one of his key policy advisers, working mostly for the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, who oversaw the market reforms.

But history has to be rewritten because Labour has discovered, much as Alex Salmond did towards the end of the referendum campaign, that the NHS is a touchstone issue and voters are intensely concerned about any risk of privatisation. Andy Burnham has been barnstorming round the country saying the NHS cannot survive another five years in much the same way that the Yes Campaign did after Dr Philippa Whitford's claims about privatisation went viral in June last year.

Better Together cried foul against the Yes Campaign, claiming that the Scottish service was under no direct privatisation threat from England. And they had a point. Nicola Sturgeon, amid great fanfare, had announced in 2008 that she had "outlawed" private sector competition from the NHS, though the service still uses private health to cover shortfalls in care. She now says that English privatisation threatens the funding of the NHS in Scotland through the Barnett Formula consequentials, though there has been little sign of this so far.

However, the problem for Labour is that, when the SNP were outlawing private competition for NHS contracts, they were actively promoting it. It started with the public/private independent surgical treatment centres in 2005 to speed up elective surgery. Under Labour, NHS foundation hospitals became free-standing non-profit making companies that could borrow on the private money markets and provide private care subject to limits.

According to the independent health care charity, the King's Fund, Labour significantly extended the internal market reforms introduced by the Conservatives in the 1990s. "These changes went further [than the Tories] towards creating a market" said the fund in its 2011 review of Labour's health policy.

In the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, the Coalition vastly extended this private provision by effectively pitching most NHS service providers into open competition with the likes of Virgin Health, Serco and Circle. In the first year of the Act more than half of NHS health contracts went to private providers.

Many NHS hospitals were plunged into the red. A succession of scandals, such as at Mid Staffs Foundation Hospital (not directly related to privatisation) has heightened public alarm and the NHS is racing up the list of key issues in the General Election campaign. Labour saw an opportunity to attack the Tories on an area where they have traditionally been vulnerable. Voters have never trusted the Tories with the NHS and are highly receptive to messages that it is being privatised.

Of course, the Conservatives deny this and say that health is still free at the point of need, the fundamental principle on which the NHS was founded. All that's happened is that the private sector has been brought in to boost efficiency through competition and increase patient choice. These, they say, are the same motivations behind Labour's version of the internal market when they were in office.

However, it is hard to look at the service in England that is emerging today and not agree that it is being radically altered by the wholesale invasion of private provision. Andy Burnham has promised to repeal the Health and Social Care Act if Labour are returned to government and the Scottish National Party has promised to help him. Nicola Sturgeon says she will make it a part of any coalition deal; an offer that Labour's Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, apparently has no difficulty refusing.

Many believed that the Scottish Government's legislation against private provision on the English model was an ideological step too far. However, with the liberalisation measures proposed in the forthcoming Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), this move makes more sense. It is generally accepted that only a uniform publicly provided health service is exempt from legal challenge under TTIP rules. Andy Burnham has added exclusion from TTIP to his list of reforms needed to keep health public.

But the problem is that Labour's approach to the NHS is confused, contradictory and many would say grossly hypocritical. As Andy Burnham demonstrated in a disastrous Newsnight interview this week, it is almost impossible to articulate Labour's policy on private provision. When it was pointed out that most of the privatisation to date occurred under Labour he admitted that they had got it wrong. But he then refused to put any figure on the degree of privatisation that would be acceptable in future.


http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/iain-macwhirter-chance-for-snp-to-clear-up-labours-mess-on-nhs.117240542




As I say you won't read about anywhere these fuck ups I stated, but one day they will come out when the evidence cannot be hidden any longer



:

I'd 'weaponise' the NHS! I'd give it nuclear warheads to defend itself from this bastard government that want to demolish and feed it to it's mates.

Yes the bastard Labour Government that started it.

and of course the real twats...who made it a "business"
i.e got rid of matron and PROPER ward sisters etc...and replaced em with jolly hockey sticks old boy network pals


\i wonder who that was???

Brasidas wrote:Yes the bastard Labour Government that started it.

Started what?

@Didge

The Kings Fund Review of progress NHS 1997-2010.

Conclusion

Since 1997 there has been considerable progress in moving the NHS towards being a high-performing health system. In common with health systems around the world the NHS has made advances in setting standards for high-quality, safe care based on the  best available evidence and measuring improvements from patients’ perspectives.
Waiting times for hospital care have been reduced, and access to primary care has been improved. There has been progress in making the NHS more accountable and transparent to government and taxpayers.

Work remains to be done to fill in the gaps we have identified: unwarranted variations in access, utilisation and quality of care even where national guidelines exist; ensuring that patients’ experiences have a real impact on the quality of care locally; and, above all, ensuring there is adequate investment and energy in tackling the preventable causes of ill health and better support and care for those living with chronic conditions.

In summary, there is no doubt that the NHS is closer to being a high-performing health system now than it was in 1997. It is capable of delivering high-quality care to some patients, in some areas, some of the time. Even though there are considerable

financial challenges ahead, the next government must aspire to create an NHS that can deliver quality to all patients, in all areas, all of the time – in a way that is demonstrably fair, efficient and accountable to the society that pays for it
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Obviously it's the parts of the NHS that you were employed in that were hopeless. I cam hear your cry 'I'm surrounded by incompetence' Wonder why that was

The King's Fund is an independent charity working to improve health and health care in England. We help to shape policy and practice through research and analysis; develop individuals, teams and organisations; promote understanding of the health and social care system; and bring people together to learn, share knowledge and debate. Our vision is that the best possible care is available to all.
http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/files/kf/summary-high-performing-nhs-progress-review-1997-2010-ruth-thorlby-jo-maybin-kings-fund-april-2010_0.pdf

More

From the NHS Confederation

The legacy of primary care trusts

Achieving financial balance and value for money.

Value for money is difficult to measure in the NHS. A number of reports have questioned the value for money achieved by the NHS in recent years because its many achievements have been made in an era of significant financial growth.

According to a report by the Public Accounts Committee in March 2011, over the decade from 2000/01 NHS spending increased by 70 per cent but productivity fell by an average of 0.2 per cent a year, and by an average of 1.4 per cent a year in hospitals.

However, it has remained difficult to find reliable measures of health service productivity, and others would argue that
Conventional indicators do not take into account changes in models of service delivery and quality.

What can be clearly demonstrated, however, is that PCTs have achieved significant improvement in maintaining financial balance in recent years. By 2005/06, a number of PCTs had fallen into financial difficulties, but by 2009/10, figures show that PCTs’ financial management was steadily improving.

In 2005/06, 35 per cent of PCTs were in deficit, with a gross deficit of £616 million and a net deficit of £492 million. By 2009/10, only 3 per cent of PCTs were in deficit, with a gross deficit of £39 million and a net surplus of £1,274 million.

Audit Commission figures also show a significant improvement in the financial capability of PCTs.

Its Use of Resources scores for 2009/10 showed a significant improvement in PCT performance, with 96 per cent of PCTs at or above minimum requirements for managing finances. As the previous section demonstrates, this has been achieved at the same time as the NHS has seen improvements in health outcomes and while most government targets have been delivered

http://www.nhsconfed.org/~/media/Confederation/Files/Publications/Documents/The_legacy_of_PCTs.pdf

Yep, that was when the NHS was working well and Cameron was elected on a promise to keep his filthy mits off it.  "no top-down NHS reorganisations"

He promised no rise in VAT as well and many other things.

Lies, every one of them.

Thank you Irn for proving my point.
First of what is the thread about.
What have I said about the NHS in connection to this thread
Then what did you present.

Thank you so much, lets see if the penny will drop.

What a pompous little prat you are, and you never get the point, you're not intelligent enough.

So yet again more points about me. Where clearly Stassi is upset because the penny has not dropped for her yet.
Did not take you long to get back into your routine constant abuse.. Hey ho never mind.
I mean I made the point very clear and Irn walked straight into it

Bye then