Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Were Massive Reforms necessary to Save the NHS? No.

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

“Summary
Overall, we concluded that the NHS did not need a wholesale restructuring. We were also oncerned at the cost of the reforms, 2-3billion (Kieran Walshe, professor of health policy at Manchester Business School) in light of the Government wanting the NHS to save £20bn by 2015,
However, with much of the reorganisation underway despite the Health and Social Care Bill still being debated, our recommendations are to minimise the disruption to NHS patients and we hope that what emerges from the reforms helps deliver a more efficient, patient centred NHS that is sustainable long into the future.”
All Parliamentary Group on NHS report (PDF)

Mind you, I thought the tumour of management was destroying it. Alas, I don’t see a reduction occurring, planned, or likely.

NHS: Health and Social Security Bill

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

Tribal and astroturf: http://www.spinwatch.org/-articles-by-category-mainmenu-8/70-british-politics/5422-revealed-government-secretly-uses-doctors-to-spin-tribal-war-for-nhs-hearts-and-minds-oh-and-p80-billion

Breasts and money at the Open University

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

Cosmetic surgery tourism and anthropological thoughts on the institution of credit antedating that of money.

Meanwhile in London (Bevan’s Run)

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

Clive Peedell et al arrive in Whitehall protesting the mess being made of the NHS. I’d be there if I wasn’t a long way away.

Here we go again?

Saturday, January 14th, 2012

Gruaniad article by Cardiology Registrar on the badness of the Health and Social Security Bill.

I’m old enough to remember the previous time we had a Department of Stealth and Total Obscurity. It was split because, I think, it was too big and unwieldy. Are we better at handling such masses? Is the total amount of trouble to handle in it no larger? I think not. So is it going to work this time? Optimism would be nice, but realism seems safer.

10 years on: constraints added

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

Since I wrote this brief piece on what happens after the NHS collapses: http://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/10/28/apres-deluge-moi a raft of constraints have been introduced – or are asserted to be about to be introduced.

It wasn’t something I said that set that off was it?

Removing a patient from a gp list is a last resort

Saturday, January 7th, 2012

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/01/05/removing-patients-from-gp-lists-is-a-last-resort/. Indeed so. Rare. We are trying to make our lists bigger, for various reasons, and losing a patient doesn’t do that.

EOS 7D

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

Canon EOS 7D review on photo.net

Cameron on EU seems inconsistent

Sunday, December 11th, 2011

The Economist: http://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2011/12/britain-and-eu-summit

What’s Occupy Wall Street about?

Saturday, December 10th, 2011

“let me tell you about what they’re talking about. They’re complaining that Wall Street wrecked the economy three years ago and nobody’s held responsible for that. Not a single person’s been indicted or convicted for destroying twenty percent of our national net worth accumulated over two centuries. They’re upset about the fact that Wall Street has iron control over the economic policies of this country, and that one party is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street, and the other party caters to them as well.” Grayson, L.