ISTCs kill

I have said it before and I'll say it again, ISTCs are expensive and dangerous. This recent BBC Panorama program says a lot of things that I have said on this blog time and time again.

The comments from the Health Minister and the regulator are beneath contempt, they are either being dishonest or they are completely ignorant of what they speak. The dangerous lack of safety at ISTCs cannot be put down to 'human error', they were down to negligence and a complete rank lack of decent procedure being in place.

ISTCs have been brought in without adequate mechanisms in place to ensure that the care they provide is of a decent and safe standard. This is the fault of the government and the regulator. The only outcomes these shoddy centres have measured are extremely soft and meaningless.

The same lack of transparency is present for many of the government's recent health reforms. No one has looked at outcomes for GP out of hour's services that have been farmed out to dodgy private firms, no one has looked at the dangerous Walk in Centres that often have some rather dodgy staff running them, no one has looked at many new health care projects that this government has forced through in a reckless manner. This government quite literally has blood on its hands, this privatisation has not only wasted our money but has also killed people.