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How the NHS is flatlining
ANDREW Way mounts, at first glance, a reasoned case setting
out how he intends to deal with the enormous deficit facing
the Royal Free Hospital.
But when dealing with the almost seismic changes now in store
for the staff at the Free, he can be accused of leaning too
heavily on the side of spin.
He claims he is not “firing anyone” (See page 4).
But that is only true in the sense that none of the staff in
closed departments will receive a final letter of dismissal
or a statement that they are to be made redundant.
But, in practice, certain staff, certainly nurses, on those
wards that are to be closed, face a tortuous future.
They will have to apply for and be interviewed for posts on
other wards – and if they fail the interview their tenure
at the hospital will come to an end. If that isn’t the
same as facing dismissal, it is difficult to know what is.
The retrenchments announced by the Royal Free last week amount
to the most draconian economies ever documented by a hospital
in Camden for decades.
It is little wonder the hospital’s staff are demoralised
and frightened as to their future.
The full scale of the crisis hasn’t yet sunk into public
consciousness.
It is this which is allowing the health secretary Patricia Hewitt
and the Department of Health to keep the debate within the confines
of the health industry.
That is why Camden Council is to be congratulated for stepping
into the breach with an investigation by its Overview and Scrutiny
Committee.
The council’s inquiry – and we hope it will be tough
and relentless – is a step in the right direction. Above
all, it will begin to put the crisis under the public spotlight
for the first time.
We trust questions will be asked about what Frank Dobson MP
described as the out-of-control “paper chase” involving
managers endlessly ticking boxes. There is a potent ring to
his charge that the “paper chase is now swallowing up to
15-16 per cent of NHS spending” compared to four per cent
in under the old non-market system. But the real causes of the
present crisis are not be found in the various diktats either
of Patricia Hewitt or the Department of Health.
They can be traced to Tony Blair’s rush to privatise the
public sector, and that includes the NHS. This in turn is driven
by the need of transnational conglomerates to maximise their
profits. Under their pressure Tony Blair simply wilts. An example
is to be found in the tender ‘won’ by a large US company
to take over a GP practice in Derbyshire.
The NHS could soon disappear.
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