An obvious lack of skills for health

The Department of Health has been contacted as regards the scary 'Skills for Health' ladder, another seemingly idiotic reform that must have been spouted by someone who knows very little about providing a good standard of health care. This is the response received:

"Thank you for your email of 6 November requesting, under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, information about the Skills for Health Career Framework. Your email has been passed to me for reply.

I can confirm that the Department of Health does not hold the information you have requested.

The Career Framework for the NHS originated from the former NHS Modernisation Agency. A stakeholder steering group was established in 2004, chaired by Andrew Foster, former Director of Human Resources for the Department of Health. The aims of this Group were to determine priorities and timelines for the development of the framework, determine its aims and objectives, and to provide leadership.

The Career Framework was officially launched through the publication of a discussion document for open distribution in June 2004. Over 30,000 copies of this document were distributed. The document included an invitation to share comments, a number of which were received from healthcare professionals, education providers and professional bodies.

The Department of Health asked Skills for Health to take over further development and population of the Framework in summer 2005. The remit was to further develop and embed a competence-based career framework for health, where possible ensuring that the framework is capable of being applied on a UK basis. Initial priorities were given for population of the framework.

Since that time, work has been ongoing to test and refine the framework methodology and to develop integrated tools to enable the sector to use the Career Framework consistently as part of their approach to workforce development."

Sounds like a load of hot air to me, just like the "Skills for Health" framework. With this kind of useless government scheme it is standard that the very opposite of what is being claimed is actually true, ie "Skills for Health" would be better termed "Lack of Skills for Health".

This kind of pathetic numpty level thinking is responsible for the dumbing down of medical standards in this country. The rise of the Noctor is a worrying phenomenon whereby those without proper training are empowered to do jobs that they are simply not adequately prepared for.

Proper education, proper training, proper examinations, proper experience all mean nothing these days. All one needs is a short training course with minimal assessment, and one if free to have a crack at jobs that previously would only have been done by a registered professional. The rule for the gold standard of any system that many doctors apply is to think, would I be happy if my family member was to be treated by this new professional/system/process?

I can safely say that I would not want anyone I even knew, let alone a member of my close family, being medically managed by one of this new breed of health care professional who do not possess medical degrees. Yet again the government is dumbing down, and yet again it is a false economy. Money will be wasted as standards continue to fall, what fantastic progress, who needs skills for health?