Tuesday 13 March 2007

The wounded MTAS beast is wheeled forward


How deeply flawed, corrupt and lame must a policy be for the DOH to scrap it? Stupid question. They won't scrap anything that they create; if the DOH had made the Titanic, then they would still be talking up its chances of rising from the ocean to set sail once more! I do not exaggerate. MTAS is at the bottom of the ocean, it is disintegrating before our very eyes; yet the DOH have not yet written in off. The DOH have revealed their true colours once again. They are nothing more than scum, intent on forcing through an ill conceived and corrupt ideology upon us.

Several groups of consultants have withdrawn from the interviews already and the vast majority of opinion (other than the 'independent' review panel) lies in favour of scrapping this failed system. In fact doctors are marching on the 17th of March in London and they are not a bunch to take to the streets without good reason. Even the Royal College of Surgeons are firmly against the process:

http://rcs.niss.ac.uk/public/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2007_0006

I do not use the word 'scum' lightly. The agenda behind MMC and its side arm MTAS is truly despicable. The aim is to take control of the medial profession and create a cohort of drones to undertake service provision. With a disempower and less trained medical profession it will be much easier to force through the privatisation of NHS services. The problem with this plan is that it will wreck the health system completely. Many doctors will quit medicine and many more will flee to greener pastures abroad, where they will be treated with more respect and dignity. The new cohort will be poorly trained thanks to MMC, which emphasises form filling 'competency' at the expense of proper clinical experience. Hence even if the good doctors stay around to be trained, they will not be half as good as the current crop of consultants. One must also add to this that doctors do not like to be treated as machine-like service providers and they will continue to emigrate to countries where they are treated better. The creation of a service-providing privatised service will be a recipe for worsening health inequality in the UK, it will also be more bureaucratic and less cost effective than the current system.

http://careerfocus.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/334/7591/77

All in all MMC is a cynical and corrupt plot from a nasty government that would rather bully people than cooperate with them. The long term impact on our health system and patient care will be truly devastating if the cronies pushing MMC forward are not stopped firmly in their tracks. It's also a great shame that the government has no trust or respect for its people, as it would be much cheaper and more effective to engage with the medical profession to come up with a workable long term solution. History has taught us that bullying very rarely creates long term harmony, and MMC will be yet another example of a bullying failure to add to this list unless something is done.

These two excellent pieces from the telegraph sum up how MMC/MTAS are dangers for us all:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/03/10/do1002.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/03/11/do1103.xml

So unless you want a health care system run by poorly trained demoralised doctors, then I suggest you get behind the medical profession in fighting this dangerous government reform. This MTAS debacle is merely the tip of the iceberg, but it does demonstrate that this despicable government cares nothing for the long term future of its people. This government has shown once again that it will not stop railroading through its corrupt ideology until someone stands in its way and says 'enough, no more'. We must join together and fight these bastards to the death, as if we do not and they win; the prospect does not bear thinking about.

No comments: