Comments on: Paul Hobday on another NHS reorganisation

By: 75 year old retired teacher

75 year old retired teacher — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:17:27 +0000

Type your comment here.
I read your article with interest and agree with all that was written, and that of Clive Peedell in later articles.
A very frightening prospect for all people using the NHS and for the future health of all children and grandchildren. A letter sent to Andrew Lansley via my MP on the very frightening aspects of the changes proposed by this government has illicited a very negative response of no hope for my/our concerns. - Earl Howe Minister responsible for this policy area.'
It was obviously a standard letter, and did not address any of my concerns.
Where I expressed the concern over the pace of changes the reply was 'Bold proposals.' Where I expressed my view that GP's were not wanting or experienced in the type of work that was being forced onto them the reply was 'Commissioning by GP consortia will ensure that commissioning decisions are underpinned by clinical insight and knowledge of local healthcare neeeds. It will enable consortia to work closely with secondary care, other health and care professionals and with community partners to design joined up, high quality services that make sense to patients and the public. Effective healthcare is a partnership including not just doctors and patients but everyone involved in healthcare.'
This kind of answer does not inspire confidence that they, the government do not understand what the public needs and capabilities are. .

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By: Drrenjukc

Drrenjukc — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:40:08 +0000

Evolution tells us that the best hunters in the wild are the ones that hunt in packs and that they can bring down prey bigger their size.
It still applies today, to see the GP take down consultants,all because they hunt in packs.An advise to all hospital senior staff time to wake up and evolve.

By: Clive Peedell

Clive Peedell — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:26:37 +0000

I fully agree with Paul's analysis.
These reforms are ideologically driven with the main aim of reducing the public sector workforce, reducing public sector pensions, removing national T+Cs, and transfering public money to the private corporate sector. This allows Government to keep taxation low and control inflation in order to suit the needs of the City of London, investors, and the International Bond markets. This is why all 3 political parties support the idea of marketisation and privatisation of our public servicies. This has happened all around the world because of the deregulation of the financial markets and the potentially grave consquences of "capital flight" i.e unless the domestic polices of Governments suit the needs of the financial sector, investors will flee to other countries. Nations have lost sovereignty to the demands of global financialisation. This is neoliberalism in action and this explains why Labour became "New Labour". Blair famoulsy said in a speech in Chicago:
"Every day about $1 trillion moves across the foreign exchanges, most of it in London. Any government that thinks it can go it alone is wrong. If the markets don’t like your polices, they will punish you.’
Two Labour MPs, Jon Cruddas and Jon Tricket, summed up this up will in the 'New Statesman' in 2007: ‘After years in opposition and with the political and economic dominance of neoliberalism, New Labour essentially raised the white flag and inverted the principle of social democracy. Society was no longer to be master of the market, but its servant.’

I would add that the "Big Society" is also a key part of the neoliberal agenda. The aim is to reduce public expenditure by replacing public sector jobs with the voluntary sector. This is known as "Social Capital". When FTs become Social Enterprises, all employees will belong to the biggest "Social Enterprise" sector in the world. New employees will not be protected by TUPE legislation and will not be entitled to NHS pensions and national T+Cs. SEs will set their own local T+Cs.

I congratulate Paul on his excellent piece. The sooner that the profession wakes up to this impending destruction of the NHS, the better

Regards,
Dr Clive Peedell,
Consultant Clinical Oncologist
JCUH
Middlesbrough
Co-Chair NHSCA

By: PublicHealthWoman

PublicHealthWoman — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 09:34:00 +0000

How come more GPs don’t have the clear vision of Dr Hobday? Oh, sorry, I forgot, greed. Too few Dr Hobdays and too many who are sitting in their offices trying to figure out how to pay themselves twice for one procedure.

By: Narny

Narny — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:15:49 +0000

I work in the NHS as a senior manager whose role is to strive to collect good clinical information to support payment by results (PbR). I totally agree with Dr Hobday and do think this should be a public debate. GPCC reminds me of the GP fundholding days that “crashed and burned” as they did not work. What does worry me is that the hospitals are the end provider and if the money runs out and GPCC cannot afford to pay how will the hospitals be able to manage their bills? Who will step in to help? Why does the gevernment think that privatising will help? There is a wealth of informed people who work tirelessly in the NHS who could be put into a “task force” to be used to guide policy and change and keep the NHS free at point of use. The NHS is unique and cannot be put into a business without consequence to certain groups of public – especially the diasabled, elderly and those on low income or benefits. My father and grandfather fought in the wars to keep us safe and have freedom of speech. Just after WWII the NHS was born. Will we be a nation that remembers the deceased war heroes at the cenotaph along with the deceased NHS? I cerainly hope not unless we fight for our NHS.

By: Ravinder

Ravinder — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:03:19 +0000

There is much written about the dangers of GP commissioning- however look at the number of GPs who have already volunteered to take this forward.
As with the last `new contract' we are given no real choice to vote against any of this.
Honestly the day job is taking more of my time than ever -I really do not have the time to read the reams being written to `help'me take on commissioning.
Should we support Stephen Dorrell who is speaking against this reorganisation?