Category Archives: pro-NHS

“Institutionalising Altruism” –  an interesting phrase used by Lord Hennessy in this interview on the BBC this morning. His Lordship holds the view that any changes to how the NHS operates that would mean that the lines of responsibility do not lead back to the Health Secretary are most unwelcome. It’s a perfectly valid view albeit one that I take issue with. However my question is WHY the BBC only chose to allow this singular point of view during the interview slot? Why was no one allowed on to argue that the NHS desperately needs to have responsibilities devolved downwards, away from politicians and towards people trying to make decisions on what patients need? The fact is that Hennessy holds the same view as the BBC – namely that the NHS is good for our health whether we like it or not! Any challenge to the NHS is an indirect challenge to the BBC which is one reason it so defensive of the status quo.

I guess it is predictable that the usual vested self interests in the NHS would use today, the day when Health Minister Andrew Lansley addresses  the Conservative Party conference, to try and undermine him. It is equally predictable that the BBC would row in behind this politically directed criticism! I listened to one of these NHS uber alles types being interviewed on Today and his assertion that competition was “doesn’t work” was left unchallenged. It appears that the NHS, along with the BBC, is one of the unique models that magically provides the optimum service level to consumers without any need for vigorous competition or free markets. What a stroke of luck.

The NHS and the BBC have much in common. Both are anachronistic, grossly overstaffed, massively inefficient and in need of major surgery, if you’ll pardon the pun. However the BBC is a major defender of the NHS and nowhere is this more evident in how it has been running a campaign to endlessly undermine the attempts by David Cameron to introduce at least some sort of modest reform into the NHS. Listen to this interview this morning, the predetermined conclusion of which is that you can’t really change the NHS and you shouldn’t really try. In truth, this is how the BBC feels about itself, but it channels the NHS as a proxy to let Government know how difficult if not dangerous ANY attempt to bring change will be.

Following his whipping in the recent local Council elections and the heavy loss in the AV poll, Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg evidently feels that he must be seen to be more hostile to the Coalition in which he sits. So he takes that unadulterated object of BBC worship – the NHS – and says he is opposed to the Coalition plan to improve it. The BBC lines up with Clegg on this one since it sustains the meme that the evil Conservatives want to introduce competition into the NHS and as we all know the BBC does not like the concept of competition. It continually misrepresents the very concept of free market competition in true neo-Stalinist style, always suggesting it is about fat-cats trying to make as much money as possible without delivering any advantages to anyone. There’s an interesting debate here on Today you should listen to if you get the chance. I thought Peter Bone did well, mind you. At heart, we all can see the BBC doing what it can to bring about the fall of the Coalition fall – so any chance it can get to chisel out cracks within it are taken up with great relish.

The BBC elevates the NHS to the position of unassailable criticism. I suppose there is something about this anachronistic monolith that absorbs vast amounts of cash that appeals to the State Broadcaster and all who work within it. This morning, David Cameron was on the Today programme for an interview concerning the planned changes he wants to make to the monolith. The BBC had already set the mood music for the interview by running interviews with all those interested parties with vested interests in maintaining the status quo.  One could have been forgiven for thinking that Cameron was seeking to..PRIVATISE the monolith, rather than simply devolve power from the top to closer to the patient. You should listen to the interview if you get the chance. Cameron plays the BBC game by telling us how wonderful the NHS is and then tries to glance aside the fusillade of criticism from John Humphrys. I’d love some Conservative to find the courage to just once tackle the BBC’s pro NHS bias – here is where the data lies that merits such criticism. But instead, this was all about Cameron being seen to be nice and caring and seeking a better socialised healthcare system.

I caught an interview on Today this morning at 7.34am with Jo Webber, deputy director of the NHS Confederation. The issue for the BBC was why the % increase of pay awards for NHS bosses was so much higher than for nurses. Ms Webber kept repeating how “complex” a job it is to run an NHS Trust, she must have used the word at least a dozen times! At no point did the BBC interviewer ask her should we not therefore simplify this complexity so reducing costs. The impression left was that only the most highly skilled management can run an NHS trust (Equivalent to a FTSE 250 company and less well paid, she claimed)) and that they do so from a vocational yearning!!Just so much nonsense and, as ever, the BBC shies away from challenging NHS orthodoxy.

The BBC covers the decision by N.I.C.E. to deny those suffering with liver cancer the opportunity to be treated with a drug that will alleviate their pain and hopefully extend their lives by some months. Professor Littlejohn from N.I.C.E. was allowed to get away with blue murder in his attempt to shift the blame onto the Pharmaceutical company behind the drug. Socialised health care, as manifest in the NHS, does not work and the not so nice quangocrats in N.I.C.E. merit much more intense scrutiny from the BBC. I shan’t hold my breath awaiting this.

How interesting. The UK is “tantalisingly” close to winning the battle against swine flu, the chief medical officer says. The BBC trumpets this good news and makes it seem like the Government plan has been an absolute triumph. The idea that this has been all much ado about nothing gets no mention, no alternative opinion. The Government and the NHS has saved our lives – rejoice!

Well, I picked up some flak yesterday for my criticism of the NHS but it seems that MANY people feel similarly, based on their direct experience. One correspondent suggests to the BBC that the standard of care delivered in some of our hospitals and nursing homes would shame a third world country. So, in fairness, Today picked up on this issue yet again today, and interviewed three nurses on the subject. However, and this is just a thought, maybe the BBC should have found three patients to interview on the subject? Maybe those at the receiving end of NHS “cruelty and neglect” should have the priority of attention? And just how representative are the three nurses selected by the BBC for this interview? Certainly the last nurse interviewed made points running against the meme that the NHS is the envy of the world but Humphrys then did his best to try and ameliorate her points be suggesting that it is the patients with more chronic conditions that are the root of the problem. To be clear, I am sure that there are many caring and professional people working in the NHS but that does not stop it being a monstrous unfeeling bureaucratic socialist folly that swallows up £££billions – a bit like the BBC.

The BBC is obsessive on the need to tell us how wonderful the NHS is as a health-care system. It does so as a not so subtle battering ram to force the Conservatives into wasting the same huge sums of OUR taxes on it as has Labour when they come to power. This is all about positioning for future years. You can understand why the BBC admires huge taxpayer funded monopolies. Anyway, I listened to this “debate” this morning on Today.

At first I thought it actually was going to be a real debate. Leading cancer specialist Karol Sikora suggest that the NHS is “doomed” and he was on to debate this with Dr Michael Dixon who is Chairman of the NHS alliance. However it turns out that Dr Sikora was simply pointing out that the demographics that support the funding of the NHS are unsustainable, a very fair point. Dr Dixon simply ignored this economic reality, as one would expect from an NHS apologist. Dr Sikora went on to praise much that is good in the NHS, including the “jewel in the crown” – the GP service. Sorry, but I don’t think the GP service is anything of the sort. If you are unlucky enough to need a GP after hours, at weekends, or on bank holidays you will find such reality rather different. Labour has put in place with GP’s perhaps the most anti-patient contract one could devise, though GP’s are richly rewarded! Why can’t the BBC allow someone on who believes that socialised healthcare provision is morally wrong, financially unaffordable and anachronistic in the 21st Century? Perhaps the analogy to State Broadcasting is too close for comfort?