Wednesday 6 June 2007

Is the house of cards collapsing?


It seems that our ivory tower dwelling dictators are beginning to feel a little bit of constructive revolutionary heat warming their tootsies. About time too.

Professor Rubins's limp excuses did not convince Remedy Uk, who have responded convincingly to his limp brand of apologism. In fact PMETB have been shown to be up to their neck's in it:

"Such evasiveness does not concur with the evidence given to the High Court, that the PMETB “was responsible for laying down the basic principles of recruitment to specialist training posts”, that it instigated the change to the new (competency-based) shortlisting process, and that they issued guidance concerning the use of CVs."

The BMA consultant's committee has passed a vote of no confidence in Sir Liam 'poodle' Donaldson. Sir Liam has been accused of ignoring the profession in assisting the railroading through of various government reforms. It's a shame that these obvious points were not pointed out sooner, after all several medical blogs had pointed out facts many many months ago.

An astonishing leaked email has been unearthed by the Times, it reveals how the Department of Health routinely uses dishonest spin to deflect attention away from their failing management of the NHS:

" - There will be some long waits – of up to, and in excess of one year, in some areas."

" - There is a risk that the media’s attention will focus around long waits, and make claims that these new, more transparent measures of waiting times, undermine the effort to date to tackle waiting in the NHS."

" - Clearly, the way to address these risks is to get on the front foot!"

So the Department of Health is admitting that previously its measures were not transparent, meaning that all the waffle about waiting lists coming down was probably just down to fiddled statistics. They also reveal their dishonest and cynical approach to spinning health issues, rather than trying to address them openly and honestly. They would not have to spin and manipulate the truth if they had been up front from the start.

Essentially for all the chatter about more doctors, more nurses and lower waiting times; the reality is more demoralised staff, more dishonest spin and patients still waiting far too long for treatment on the NHS. The DoH's culture of dishonest manipulation rather than honest engagement is a large reason for these failings, however the rot extends up into Whitehall as the DoH's political leaders have been the proponents of this necrotic approach.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have a look at the calibre of doctors who did not get a job, on Remedyuk front page. Click "No jobs in round 1?"

;-(

Anonymous said...

What is round 2 going to do for FY2 doctors, who were told they were the streamlined lot and the first patch of MMC, hence guaranteed to go straight into run through training, if only to prove MMC was working! The majority concentrated on ONE speciality since graduation, thinking, that since they are guaranteed a run through post, better use the time to get experience in the speciality they like! How can those change speciality now?! Example, surgery, if you did your rotations in say, orthopedics and general, how can you now change to say, Obs & Gyn or Phsychiatry where there more chance of getting a post?! Those who go for surgery are usually exceedingly qualified and for their hard work, the skip is waiting!

Dr Grumble said...

In fact PMETB have been shown to be up to their neck's in it.
***************
Yet they keep trying to claim it is nothing to do with them. If it is nothing to do with them, just what do they do?