Wednesday 10 October 2007

Darzi's advisory board


These are the members of Professor Darzi's advisory board as stated in his interim report:

Dr Sam Everington (GP from East London and Member of BMA Council)

-member of the Labour party and health adviser to the Labour party

Dr Michael Dixon (GP from Devon)

-OBE for 'for services to Primary Health Care' and of Chair of NHS Alliance, an organisation backing the government's strategy in reforming primary care

Prof Mayur Lakhani (GP from Leicestershire and Chair of Council of Royal College of GPs)

Sir John Oldham (GP from Glossop)

-former Head of the Improvement Foundation, that organisation that supports all government reforms

Ursula Gallagher (Community Nurse and Director of Quality, Ealing PCT)

- a loyal PCT manager no doubt

Andrew Burnell (Community Nurse and Director of Provider Services and Nursing, Hull PCT)

-another loyal PCT worker

Paul Farmer (Chief Executive of MIND)

- also a member of the Department of Health National Stakeholder Forum and the Department of Health National Choice Group

Anne Williams (President of ADASS)

- President of the organisation 'Association of Directors of Adult Social Services' that she was on the steering group to establish

Alwen Williams (CE, Tower Hamlets PCT)

-another loyal PCT worker

Dr David Colin-Thomé (National Clinical Director for Primary Care)

- a former Labour party candidate

No one could realistically argue that this is not a very conveniently compliant advisory board, it is strange that there are so many close links to the Labour Party and the PCTs. This is hardly a selection of expert opinion, there are no microbiology experts, there are no public health or health policy experts, this is nothing short of a disgrace. The only problem is that we have become so used to this kind of corruption of the democratic process, that it is now just standard fare, and that is a very sad indictment indeed. We are hardly short of examples of this sytematic corruption.

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