Quangos Cost More Than Our Armed Forces.

Alan Duncan today announced that Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), are evolving into an executive arm of government instead of being “a business-led force for good”. He fears RDAs have become “increasingly politicised” and that the government’s plans to give them strategic planning powers is “a huge mistake...ingraining a tier of regional government with no mandate, no legitimacy and no accountability”.

To me RDAs sound like yet another unaccountable, unelected, undemogratic quango. Perhaps it's worth remembering that the Labour government spend more on quangos, than on our own armed forces.

Gordon Brown's NHS

Gordon Brown celebrates 60 years of the NHS.
Check out this clip - a must see episode of Yes Minister with a hospital full of administration but no patients. Is this an example of life imitating art?

Why Lawyers Should Surf

The book 'Why Laywers Should Surf' was reviewed this week in surfing magazine Drift.

NHS - Happy 60th

Yesterday I was at Guy's hospital, celebrating 60 years of the NHS. David Cameron spoke about how the Conservatives were going to reduce targets and focus on outcomes. He also gave a personal account of how his son Ivan has frequently used the NHS and how grateful he was to the hard working health professionals.

A Lost Labour Generation?

Today I started my day by buying breakfast and a latte in local coffee shop. A pleasant young lad served me and said “£6.50 please”. I handed over £10 and then gave him another 50p. The extra change made him look nervous, and he called over to the girl making the drinks. He said, “So, how much change do I give?” The reply “£4” was spoken in a Polish accent. Has anyone else experienced a similar situation recently?

This simple but telling interaction is on the same day as Sir Peter Williams, (chair of the ‘Government’s Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education’) expressed concerns over how poorly equipped primary schools are to teach maths. He raised concerns that a quarter of eleven year olds are failing to meet the expected standards of numeracy. He highlighted the importance of combating the “can’t do” attitude to mathematics that appeared to be unique to Britain.

I concluded this morning that Poland must have a “can do” mathematics attitude and wondered if we need to open the doors of his proposed ‘summer mathematics courses’ to all the children who were educated during the last ten years of Labour administration. Their slogan ‘education, education, education’ seems to be over ten years behind schedule.

Polyclinics annd Health Localism

Today I wrote a piece about Polyclinics over at Conservative Home.

Prisons and Drugs

This clip is of Mr Djemil who will launch a blistering attack on current drug prison policy on Monday. This is his first ever television interview where he says that drugs in prisons are "everyone's problem and no-one's priority". Lets hope everyone can make it a priority to tackle the drug problem within the prison service.

Blogging Friends

The other day I had the pleasure of meeting fellow blogger Ellee Seymour. I’ve always been a fan of her blog and she’s even more delightful and kind in person. Today she reports about the state of mental health provision.

Gordon Brown: Time for Palliative Care

A necrosing, fungating, pungent mass may be excised by a surgeon’s knife, using a wide margin excision. The histological report and analogy with Crewe and Nantwich could return terminal for Gordon Brown; as the Labour stronghold was voted out in favour of the 165th target Tory seat. A wide margin of resection, by any measure.

So, does that signify the end for Gordon Brown, or will more surgical misery ensue? Surgeon Lord Darzi, has suggested that traditional GP surgeries could soon be replaced by new ‘polyclinics’, which house GPs alongside other health professionals, all under the same roof. If a trial of these new centres in London is successful they could be enforced across the country. However, if they take after Gordon Brown any honeymoon period they enjoy will have no happy ending.

The Blair days of “24 hours to save the NHS” have long since departed, and the time has come to stop squandering billions of taxpayer pounds on NHS white elephants, such as electronic records that still don’t work. Despite Labour’s abysmal mismanagement of the NHS, they are pushing full steam ahead with the polyclinic idea. Yet, for many patients, losing their GP is not as easy as it sounds. Rapport and trust between doctor and client is built gradually and develops over time. It’s not always possible to pick up the nuisances of an illness in a ten minute consultation, especially if the service user is unknown to the GP and suffers with multiple chronic illnesses.

As Eamonn Butler suggests in ‘The Best Book on the Market’, if we trust the market, then polyclinics would not have to be enforced, but would naturally develop in areas where the local community wanted them. Although nobody expects markets to be perfect; it’s often their imbalances and imperfections that make them work. If information is the grit in the market oyster then GPs may be the black pearl. GPs already have access to the local information and health needs, so why not trust the professionals to be entrepreneurs? Trust them to lead and respond to changes within their community. Free them from bureaucracy, red tape and the centrally-dictated targets.

Rather than the institutionalised ‘learned helplessness’ of the NHS professionals, free them to build their GP practice like a business. Allow market forces to naturally develop according to need. For example, let services and client’s needs develop symbiotically; where the client dictates the opening hours and the surguries perhaps charge patients who do not attend and waste precious appointment slots.

In conclusion, I believe the NHS needs to encourage innovation, open the market and end central control from a dictatorial Prime Minister. Until that day, Gordon Brown is offering as much depth to the NHS debate as a flat screen television. He’s doing nothing more than imposing regulation like a sledgehammer that misses the nut.

Crewe and Nantwich

A necrosing, fungating, pungent mass may well be excised by a surgeon’s knife using a wide margin excision. The histological analogy with Crewe and Nantwich seems unmistakable. If Gordon Brown's party are excised in the Labour stronghold, in favour of the 165th target Tory seat, the voters would have excised him with a wide margin resection, by any measure.