Video, Cameron and Osborne launch their draft health manifesto

George Osborne and David Cameron launch the draft health manifesto

Video: The day Obama Care Died - Obama on vocals.

This is excellent, the day Obamacare died:



Hat Tip to the Great Theo Spark

I'm not saying I agree with the sentiment, but I do admire the skill involved in producing this video.

Lord Darzi - How to wind up Doctors - NHS Review.

The words both Doctors and Nurses dread to hear are, review, reform, overhaul, change, and shake-up. I've had similar experience of change during my service in the Royal Navy - and it was all bad. Poor managers refuse to accept responsibility if something is not working as well as it should be. It must be the system - the system needs changing - we must hold a review - blah, blah, blah... In the majority of cases the system in place works perfectly well when it is being run by a competent manager. Sadly, most government run organisations are lacking that vital ingredient.

I found (and I'm sure health staff are experiencing the same thing) that just when I got to grips with how the Engineering branch in the Navy worked, we would get a new Admiral and everything would change again. This change also tends to be driven by the Admirals need to be seen to be doing something, and I'm sure the same goes for Health Ministers. What people at the coal face want, is for those people on the surface who have no idea what is going on down below, to leave them the hell alone.

Doctors and Nurses must dream of the day when the instructions to change this or that stop coming down from the government. The NHS is a fantastic organisation lead by the wrong people. Doctors know where improvements need to be made (that's improvements - not changes) to the system and the government should leave them to get on with it for at least a couple of years. The fact that Doctors have already delivered a petition to Downing Street signed by a million patients rejecting the new polyclinics, shows how popular this review will be with those having to make yet more changes.

Gordon Brown is very pleased with the changes, he claims that they are a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" and will have "an even more profound effect" than previous shake-ups. I'm sure they will, and I'm sure that health staff are dreading them.

Labour targets force up average NHS waiting times.

The one thing that I have not criticised this Labour government over is their reduction in NHS waiting times. It turns out that I should have. According to the BBC, figures show that the average waiting time has gone up during the last ten years of this Labour government from 41 to 49 days. Not a lot is it? well it's not if you are waiting for a doctor to look at your eczema, but it is a bloody long time if you have been diagnosed with cancer. It is also quite a lot when you consider how much of our money the government has thrown at the NHS. Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association, said:

"These figures make us really question whether patients are getting a better deal. "What concerns me is that patients with serious conditions may be waiting longer than they used to be. That is wrong."

Labour have many good intentions but they believe the answer to a problem is to throw money at it. If the problem does not go away they raise taxes and throw more money at it. Instead of asking the doctors how the NHS could be run better, they simply set targets without considering all the possible outcomes. It's all about control. Doctors and the Police both claim that the removal of their discretion is one of the main reasons for the decline in the service they provide (Other public servants working to targets may feel the same). Whilst targets may make the figures look better, it's a professional's discretion that provides the greatest efficiency.

Gordon Brown's - NHS Constitution Nightmare.

Is there a word that instils greater feelings of dread amongst public sector workers than "reform?" That's what Gordon Brown is planning for the NHS this year with his new NHS Constitution (or is it a treaty? - It seems he can't tell the difference between the two). Anyone who is involved with the NHS must be thinking "bloody hell (or possibly something more profane), here we go again." Why can't politicians just leave things alone? They are just like bloody Admirals. When you have just got near to getting to grips with the last set of pointless changes, some idiot from the "good ideas club" comes along and changes everything again just to prove they are doing something to earn their wages.

Dr Michael Dixon, chairman of the NHS Alliance, said:

"A constitution is not as big an issue as it once was." We've had the NHS Plan and there are some fairly radical reforms going through, like practice-based Commissioning, and getting the implementation of these things right is the absolute priority." To the average member of the public and patients and, frankly, doctor or nurse it doesn't mean much. It's just another big idea from on high."

Why the hell do we need a NHS Constitution to tell us what to expect from the NHS? If we are ill we go to our GP. If our GP can't help, he refers us to a specialist or sends us for tests. What we do know is that we expect to be made well again at the end of the process and that any problems can be discussed with our GP and he will chase them up. This Constitution seems to me to be a measure that will look good, rather than be of any practical use to the public. A bit like a diamond encrusted snooze button on a smoke alarm.

168,000 NHS Patient records lost - What do you expect?

Following the news that 168,000 NHS Patient records have been lost, I wonder why the Conservatives bother making any statement. Surely now it should be a case of just saying "what do you expect?" Without doubt this government is now incompetent, and we should now expect more of the same kind of cock-up until they are removed from power. It's getting to the stage when we are no longer shocked or outraged about the loss of our data, or illegal immigrants working in the Home Office.

Health minister Dawn Primarolo said:

"What it is really important to stress is how important patient security and confidentiality is and how each of these trusts is moving to deal with this."

Fine words but what does it mean. If patient security is so important, why have nine trusts lost it?

Like I said "What do you expect?"