For once, just for the sake of argument, let’s take Andrew Lansley at his word and assume that however keen he is on getting private providers in to do the work of the NHS, he’s not doing it because he’s corrupt, or because his wife is, or because he’s ideologically hell-bent on privatising whatever he [...]
In all the discussion about why we should be opposed to Andrew Lansley’s NHS reforms, one of the points which seems to pop up most frequently (in this excellent article here, for example) is the potential conflict of interest that could exist when healthcare commissioning powers (and budgets) are handed to GPs. The argument is [...]
It has come to light, quite formally, what the government plans to do with the NHS. David Cameron’s senior health advisor, Mark Britnell, declared that the NHS will be “shown no mercy” to a conference of health executives eager for news of how deep the axe will fall in their sector. It seems for them, [...]
BBC headlines today: A better-funded, better-staffed NHS coinciding with more people being happy with the care it provides? My god. It’s almost like there’s some kind of ‘causal relationship’ between how well you fund and staff a public organisation and the quality of service which it offers. But I’m sure that’s just crazy talk.
I did something different this Saturday. I stood in a freezing park in London and took a deliberate overdose of tablets in the company of some of the UK’s most well known scientists. No I haven’t joined some kind of doomsday cult. In fact, none of us were ever at any risk. We were overdosing [...]
I was planning to avoid writing about the US healthcare row. A lot of very good stuff has already been written on it, not least on this blog, and I wasn’t sure I had anything to add. But then this article on the Telegraph website caught my eye, and I couldn’t help myself. In case [...]
