The government will try and blame the failure of Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust on the NHS. The public won't buy it.
Last week was a momentous one for the NHS. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s announcement on Lewisham Hospital occupied all corners of the press.
Added to this we had the action of Lord Owen, who joined the March to save Lewisham Hospital and launched his Amendment Bill to re-instate the core principles of the NHS and protect services from marketisation.
The Labour Party and the National Health Action Party have declared their support – and in the face of the current assault on the health service by the coalition it is a much needed move from within the parliamentary portals.
To return to the outside world, now that the reality of Hunt’s decision about the Lewisham hospital #Lewishambles has started to embed itself in the national reality it’s time to cast our eyes further afield.
Not only have we witnessed the government announcing their decision to dismantle a brand new, successful and solvent A&E and accompanying acute facilities in Lewisham, but we can now see that the whole A&E system is about to be dragged into it’s very own emergency situation.
To look at the specifics: The coalition has missed its own reduced waiting time targets for the last 17 consecutive weeks, with an extra million patients waiting more then four hours.
Even worse, the ambulance back-up situation is nearing breaking point, with patients waiting for up to 11 hours in ambulances before entering A&E (moreover, I have just heard of one elderly patient waiting in an ambulance for over 18 hours).
In some regions, fewer than seven in 10 ambulance calls are reaching the most serious cases within the eight minute target – and more than 11,138 ambulances are waiting over 30 minutes outside of A&E departments.
Far from protecting the NHS – 5,000 nursing jobs have been lost since David Cameron became PM and one in six hospitals now have inadequate staffing levels in A&E – the government is plowing on with a wholesale destabilisation of the NHS and lying about it.
Tomorrow we will see the release of the long awaited Francis Report, which is sure to reveal shocking levels of maladministration and malpractice in Mid-Staffordshire Trust – which was overseen by the current NHS CEO, Sir David Nicholson.
With the pressures which the current regime are placing on the system it’s likely there will be more rather than less terrible instances like that seen in Mid-Staffs.
However, if the government see fit to try to use this to smear the NHS, they may find the public aren’t so easily duped.
38 Responses to “The public won’t be fooled by the government on the NHS”
LB
But as I keep saying, its not the Health Service World cup, with prizes for those that kill the most. It’s you who want to try and deflect from the NHS being crap and killing lots of people because its crap.
e.g. One hospital with 500% the death rate of another for low risk (ie the same risk), patients.
Hospitals that starve people to death
Hospitals that act as god and decide who will live and who won’t, without consultation.
Hospitals that are cess pits of dirt to the extent that they kill hundreds.
That’s not a health system fit for purpose.
And what do the left say? Throw a few at the top to the wolves. It’s far deep, since its engrained in the culture.
blarg1987
Hmmm nothing to do qith targets and running the NHS like a business which was introduced by the right?
it is important to compare to other countries health systems yes these things have happened and we should do as much as possible to reduce it but if say it works out to be the same per head of population as everywhere else then it is wrong to say the whole system of the NHS is crap.
What is wrong with comparing it to other countries or systems if they are better then surely we should take a leaf out of their book, but there again if they are worse then maybe we should not.
LB
14 years of Labour. Lots of spending, and this is what happens.
Problem is that most of the spending went on salaries and buildings, and the rest was ignored.
Latest research I can dig up, from the BMJ, is that the NHS kills 40,000 a year.
What’s wrong with comparing with other countries is that you’re just waving a willy trying to say, look, the NHS is great compared to Burkina Faso, [Put your own choice in]
Instead, why is there a birmingham hospital killing 5 times the number of people as a comparable hospital for patients of the same risk?
Why is it and has it been covered up?
Will the NHS compensate its victims? Or do they have to take a walk and suffer?
Why aren’t there prosecutions? e.g Tom Watson, making a fuss today about horse meat, but not about medical murder. Shows what’s important and what’s a priority. Even Cameron is playing that game too.
LB
Nothing to do with targets.
Hmmm, what’s your suggestion?
We set a new target, by picking a country, and its all hunkey dorey if we don’t kill as many as hospitals in say, Siera Leone.
Why not pick a hospital in the UK, and if your hospital kills more, we target that hospital.
Like Birmingham, 500% more deaths for low risk patients compared to a comparable hospital in London?
Basically, you won’t say anything against the NHS, which is the problem. You would rather try and say, look else where, but don’t whatever you do look at the 40,000 killed a year in the NHS, by the NHS.
blarg1987
You did not read what I said or implied, I am saying that what we need to do is work out whether its a few rotten apples by comparing hospitals or if it is a system failure which means comparing other systems and seeing what they do.
At the moment you are saying a car is rubbish because it does 35 miles to the gallon but another car by the same company does 40. But you are saying we should change manufacturer yet when the suggestion of comparing all cars mpg you say we do not need to now if I was buying a product I would be very suspicious of that sales person.