Hewitt twists her vindictive blade

Despite a clear request from the judge to the opposite, Patrica Hewitt has been directly and personally involved in the decision to claim costs against Remedy UK. Just when you think she can sink no lower, she continues her downward plummet towards the fires of moral bankruptcy. The Judge had no choice to award the costs in the end but as Lindsay Cooke cleverly points out by quoting the immortal words of Francis Urquart, "You might call such an act vindictive, but I couldn't possibly comment."

The BBC has been reporting events in their typical HMG manner, they use the headline 'Hewitt retains MP's confidence'; a lovely bit if spin. Hewitt only won the vote by a slim majority of 63, hardly showing that MPs had great confidence in her work! The BBC are however correct in that it is really Blair that should be carrying the can for a lot of the failed health policy, after all he has been the driving force behind the NHS reform agenda.

Hewitt's deeply unpleasant and vindictive streak has been commented upon by other bloggers here and here. It seems that the woman is running out of support, with only her close friends willing to limply defend her unique brand of arrogant incompetence. As Dr Crippen points out it is quite remarkable that the BMA opposed Remedy in the high court; the BMA's JDC had recently passed several motions that directly contradicted their stance in the high court, and the BMA has not once consulted its members on MTAS. The BMA is fundamentally antidemocratic.

If Remedy have to pay these costs then I, for one, will be keen to do my bit to help raise some cash. I would also urge anyone supportive of Remedy to donate to their war chest, they may well need all the money they can get their hands on.

While we're on the topic of Patrica Hewitt, an unpleasant topic I know; did she lie to parliament when she claimed that MTAS has been abandoned because of 'concerns' for junior doctors? This is taken from the judge's final judgement:

"The effective abandonment of MTAS would seem to have little to do with the concerns of junior doctors, but be a consequence of significant fresh problems with the system. As I understand it, the algorithm needed to govern the allocation process under MTAS did not work. Fresh software was needed to enable offers to be made. Such software could give rise to security problems."

Pants on fire Patricia.