19 January 2011

Think Tanks and Lobbying

Have you ever wondered why the policies of the three major parties for the NHS are so similar? If this is something that puzzles you, please watch the video.


Posted by Dr Grumble

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I watched this, but didn't learn much that was new to me.

Male presenters have a natural advantage. They learn from an early age that pissing into the wind is unwise. Better hair control in a breeze is an automatic spin off.

There are businesses out there trying to make a quid. They lobby - as advised by the awful Ms Hewitt.

Our political masters are drawn from the political and chattering classes. Few, if any, have actually held a proper job. They are all equally useless, but choose different coloured rosettes to wear. Lobbyists and other 'experts' are to politicians what a one eyed man is to the blind.

There are other vested interest groups out there, lobbying with the rest of them. Product providers, service providers, 'experts' and many others.

Where do organisations representing clinical staff sit? I presume that the BMA & RCN will be in there somewhere, but I have lost track as to whether they are simply 'trade unions' or 'professional' organisations. Are there others? Either way, they seem to have done pretty well on the lobbying front, their members having absorbed most of the (huge amounts of) cash dished out to the NHS over the past 13 years. Pity they allowed training & education to be dumbed down, but that goes for many other fields, such as engineering. Perhaps they felt they were contributing to harmonisation.

Not being religious, I don't have a problem with 'private' versus 'public'. There is good and bad in each. Surely the important thing is to have good contracts for service provision, where the customer (i.e. the taxpayer) stays in control. Isn't that where our concerns should be directed? I have seen the crazy consequences of a bad contract manifested in hospitals with dirty windows, bad cleaning, waste and so on under the existing system.

A lot of the existing NHS management just don't seem to be capable of getting a good contract result. Is this because they are a long way from the front line? Or are they simply useless too?

Ray.

20 January 2011 at 09:49
Sam said...

Dr G

This video sort of says that every single person in the land is corrupt! Simply because they are running after their own interests, but don't we all, you and I included? Does that make us cons too?

You know, I can't live with that level of distrust, thinking that everybody is a vulture out to get me! Nor do I think that all those clever enough to be asked, and be paid, to advise are twisted, which is what this film is trying to make you believe.

Like Ray, I have no problem with the private sector, in fact, I wouldn't be happy working in a public sector environment where the closed culture where most of my energy would be spent attempting to fend off gangs and covering my back, instead of being relaxed enough to concentrate on doing the job and having the opportunity to better it too. However, I agree with Ray, keep the NHS in public hands, which doesn't seem to be the current thinking now. I also don't believe that can be the result of lobbying alone, but deep seated ideology.

And Ray ...

"A lot of the existing NHS management just don't seem to be capable of getting a good contract result. Is this because they are a long way from the front line? Or are they simply useless too?"

... or corrupt? :-D

20 January 2011 at 15:53
No One said...

dont have the energy to watch this past the fist 30 seconds

what is so good about private enterprise organisations? they put the food on our tables and earn the money that pays the bills for everything in the country public sector included

the NHS "as is" is in NO WAY ACCOUNTABLE TO THE PUBLIC AND THIS IS THE BIGGEST LOAD OF BOLLOCKS I HAVE EVER HEARD

frankly the government is not going far enough, instead of handing "buying decisions" to GPs they should have handed them direct to patients

turn the NHS into an insurance fund, people pay in according to what they can afford, and they get out according to their needs ACCCORDING TO SOME CLEAR RULES AND NOT A RANDOM ACT OF "CHARITY" BY SOME TOSSER IN THE NHS

let the people take the payouts to any dam provider they like and watch the shit service in the NHS collapse, if a site cannot attract customers let it close THAT IS ALL THAT KEEPS THE WHOLE EFFICIENT

it staggers me that people defend what shit service we have, the lazy arrogant attitudes

the entire rest of the Western world does it better, why oh fucking why do you blinkered fools think the shit service you provide can survive

sure have a go critically analysing the govt proposals BUT PLEASE DO NOT DEFEND THE STATUS QUO OR ANYTHING THAT HAS BEEN CALLED THE NHS IN MY LIFETIME

you cunts are RESPONSIBLE for my Dad being dead, my wife going blind, do you want me to go on? just be simple cheap failures

now reconsider

20 January 2011 at 22:07
Anonymous said...

For serious analyses of the behaviour and intent of the private health industry, you might wish to read John Lister's book, The NHS at 60, Colin Leys and Stuart Player's Confuse and Conceal, or their very soon to be published, The Plot against the NHS. There are serious problems with the NHS responding to patients and there are serious problems with private companies letting people down where there isn't a profit in it. It's particularly problematic when those people aren't able to adequately represent themselves, due to ill-health for example.

20 January 2011 at 22:38

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