No David Miliband in this story but the Guardian report that 11 ministers have actively campaigned against changes to the NHS in their area. We’re undergoing a review of health provision in our borough right now. So far, after a rocky start, the direction of travel is quite sensible. If it goes wrong though, there will be the mother of all fights. Had I still been a defence minister, they’d have been a 12th name on the Guardian list.
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Dear Tom
Thanks for letting us know about your concerns about the NHS which might not be in line with government policy.
Can you tell us more? As a former NHS Community Health Service Trust chair I worry about Labour MPs being obliged to support local campaigns to protect outdated and poorly located NHS services due to a lack of full information in local communities about service needs and provision.
If you are not sure what I am talking about – one million signatures were collected to save Barts in the City of London. The A&E closed anyway. What was saved was a specialist cancer unit. That’s great for the consultants that were there. But will it really matter to the patients whether they are at Bart’s, Tommy’s, Guy’s or the Royal London – all of which are within a mile or so?
I appreciate that those of you who hold elected office want to continue to represent local people after the next election. But do we really have to go on seeking votes on the back of fear and possibly misinformation?
Looking forward to hearing the sound case in your constituency
Peter
Guardian says 11 in the headline but now unlucky 13 in the first sentence … the question has to be why do these people accept the ‘direction of travel’ i.e. the concept of review and consolidation/concentration then protest the details. That’s not that hard really. One can support concentration and oppose local results. I blogged about Haze here a couple of days ago. A Dr is bleating because she’s now on the same side as him, when 8 or 9 years on a different matter she was not.
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