Burnham Bollocks

Health secretary Andy Burnham addressed NHS chief executives last week, and he used the opportunity to outline a five-year plan for the NHS. He described it as upbeat, gritty and realistic given the consequences of the downturn.

It contains the usual platitudes and “pie in the sky” promises:

“First, we will improve the payment system so that it rewards quality and puts patients first. A growing proportion of hospital’s income will be linked to patient satisfaction, rising to 10% of their payments over time. This is a symbolic shift towards the people-centred service I want to see, a service which at times thinks about how things look through the eyes of the patient their family. Poor or unsafe care will not be tolerated - and payments will be withdrawn if care does not meet minimum standards.”

“Second, we will provide more choice for patients, giving them the ability to register with a GP wherever they choose by abolishing practice boundaries, an option of seeing a doctor in the evenings and weekends in every area, and more access to services - like chemotherapy and dialysis - at home or in the community”.



And no word of scrapping the over paid, arrogant Foundation trusts:

“Fifth, we will provide more freedom for hospitals. The best NHS foundation trusts will be free to work across a wider area. We will encourage high-performing foundation trusts based in one area to provide both acute and community services in other areas, if the PCTs in those areas want to commission from them. And we want to see more integrated provision across the entire patient pathway. We open the possibility of acute trust providing GP services, if safeguards can be found.”

Burnham finished by offering chief executives one of his trademark deals: “As we go through this change, we will support them and empower them to make the changes we need. I will explore whether we can maintain frontline employment across a locality or region - in return for flexibility, mobility and sustained pay restraint.”

The parting message - play ball or face cuts.


But who will suffer? It won’t be the chief executives, or the Director of Nursing, or the HR director, or the Estates director, or any of the other directors or boards, it will be the patients, cutting funding to hospital that do not perform well is not the answer, the answer is to sack the overpaid underworked management and put in place a system that actually makes patient treatment a priority rather than Kudos for the £150,000+ CEOs and medical directors.

The full report can be downloaded Here.


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