Whether it’s the prospect of a rain-filled Bank holiday week-end or that of endless televised football games during the imminent World Cup, the newspapers today make particularly depressing reading.
Two domestic news stories stand out as a testament to the period in office of a party whose record will one day mark it as having been among the most destructive of the once great institutional fabric of this nation.
One of these stories concerns health; the other pensions.
On the first matter, we read today of the resignation earlier this week of Professor Aidan Halligan from the position of NHS director of clinical governance. His resignation comes hot on the heels of that earlier this year of Sir Nigel Crisp as the chief executive of the NHS and Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health.
Apparently, at present no fewer than nine senior NHS positions are occupied by temporary replacements or new appointees following staff resignations. To lose one such senior NHS executive is a misfortune. To have lost as many as this number is more than carelessness: it is downright scandalous and suggests there must be something truly rotten in the state of the Department of Health today.
What that might be is indicated by the following comment Professor Halligan is reported as having made last month when interviewed for a health service journal:
‘We have learnt that throwing money at the problem only allows us to do more of what we have always done. Any suggestion of real reform has been a deceit. Working patterns, practice and custom are at the heart of many capacity issues [in the NHS] and have never been challenged.’
The NHS was given extra cash by this Government over a significant period ostensibly to put in place new systems that would deliver improved front-line services. For a time, the increased money bought additional staff that allowed the government to claim it had improved services. But the extra cash has now run out and the NHS now faces a funding crisis that is causing it to shed staff.
Indeed, we read today that -- presumably due to lack of adequate numbers of nursing staff or to their adequate deployment which signifies equally as worrying managerial inefficiencies -- as many as one in three patients who need help eating while in hospital does not receive regular assistance. This cannot be an insignificant number, given that, of 80,000 patients who stayed overnight in an NHS hospital who were surveyed, a fifth said that they required assistance with eating. Of these, over six thousand said they never or only sometimes received any help with eating.
Last year, so the Government announced, more than 17 million meals were thrown away untouched in NHS hospitals, a 50% increase since 2002. Given that, as is also reported approximately 40% of patients admitted to hospital are suffering from malnutrition and that more than half of hospitalised patients lose weight or become undernourished while in care, something is going badly wrong somewhere with the NHS.
The extra cash which was pumped into the NHS to create the illusion of greater efficiency
was obtained by the Government through ruining a second great set of institutions that, when it took over from the Tories in 1997, were in glowing heath but which have now been taxed to death.
These are the private pension schemes.
Details of the long-awaited reform of pensions that the Government’s poor custodianship of them has necessitated form the other deeply depressing story in today’s papers. That the retirement age in the private sector is being made to rise to 68 is not in itself a cause for sadness, given increased longevity of Britain’s workforce. That private sector workers will see so little returns for their increased labours is.
Meanwhile, the present parliamentary labour party and the public sector workforce which forms the core of that party’s support will each, in their own way, walk away the winners from this mess: the former enjoying the very generous pensions they have voted themselves while in power; the latter having won the concession to continue to retire on full-pensions at 60.
The Times financial Editor, George Searjeant, delivers the following withering indictment of the present Government’s handling of pensions when he writes in today’s issue:
‘In the private sector, company pensions as we now understand them will fade away. The UK’s private occupational pension system was built up over generations to be the envy of Europe. In ten years, by taxation, by regulation and now by legislation, this Government will have destroyed it.
‘This [last] round [of pension reform] was meant to encourage private retirement saving to reverse the costly upward march of means-tested benefits. It will instead end the system that has financed so many millions of comfortable retirements.’
What a sorry spectacle this third term of Blair’s administration is proving to be. But what a vindication it is providing of those who persistently complained about its profligacy and its failure to undertake the radical public sector reforms that were and still remain so badly needed.
Comments (3)
I'd go along with Steve's comments. If we want a competent, all embracing system of health care then it has to be taken out of the hands of government. At the same time it has to be recognised that a system of health care that includes all of the developed elements of medicine and surgery, has a cost. Currently, governemt refuses to recognise those costs and as a result, hospitals are incurring large deficits in their attempts to provide adequate patient care. There should be compulsory health insurance with the rate being left to the insurance and health care professionals to work out. There will be plenty of competition to protect the public from profiteering and government's involvement should be limited to monitoring the overall concept.
Posted by Henry Kaye | May 31, 2006 11:00 AM
Posted on May 31, 2006 11:00
Can I offer a two stage reform process for the NHS
Stage 1 to be implemented immediately - Privatise every last part of the delivery system, every hospital, surgery etc. Fire every civil servent now employed by all departments related to health.
Get GP's etc to charge for each visit (and each non cancelled missed visit).
Let all hospitals, clinics compete to treat people and pay through a voucher type system.
Reorganise national insurance to encourge private contributions.
Stage 2) Once the goverment mis-selling of "insurance" under the NI banner is controlled or at least accurately measured everyone pays for themselves by a choice of whatever systems the market creates
Posted by steve s | May 30, 2006 12:31 PM
Posted on May 30, 2006 12:31
David Conway correctly suggests throwing money at the NHS will not build a 'world-class' public health system. Yet the NHS will be increasingly stretched for resources as baby boomers begin to retire given the lack of working youth to replace them.
What is the solution? By way of a new on-line health petition, OurPetition.org has asked policymakers to undertake to always to use the NHS and never seek private medicine.
22 MP’s to-date have signed the petition since its launch on 3 April 2006. These MP’s are not just issuing visionary statements, they are leading by way of example.
Behind the health petition lies the simple idea that policymakers must first win the support of NHS staff and consultants in order to successfully drive through painful but necessary reforms. The reform prescription parallels an effective change management strategy often employed by top CEO’s seeking to turnaround poorly performing corporations. The technique involves those at the top demonstrably supporting frontline staff with deeds rather than words alone.
The public has a right to be governed by a party and leadership demonstrably committed to NHS reform. Those who want access to 'world-class' health care in their old age should sign the on-line petition. With enough signatures the issue of health reform will be placed squarely on the political agenda prior to the next general election.
The public can sign the petition by visiting the OurPetition website at www.ourpetition.org.
Posted by Richard Solomon | May 27, 2006 4:46 PM
Posted on May 27, 2006 16:46