The NHS reforms do have some supporters in the medical profession, as is seen in this article, warning of the dire consequences of the reforms not going ahead.
So who exactly are these people? The article reveals that the signers of the letter are mostly doctors who are already heavily involved in setting up the clinical commissioning groups, and who will be prominent in them once set up. In other words people with a very significant financial vested interest.
The letter has been organised by the “NHS Alliance” an organisation heavily promoting the reforms, but which has no formal or official standing whatsoever. A considerable proportion of it’s members are not doctors. And it, and some of it’s members are enthusiastic proponents of “complementary and alternative medicine”, that’s woo to you & me. One of the Alliance’s high ups is Dr Michael Dixon (OBE) who was president of the Princes Foundation for Integrated Health before it went tits up. Dr Dixon’s surgery is a centre for quack therapies.
I have no doubt Lansley will make the most of this support to claim major support within the medical profession, but in reality they are very much a splinter group, made up of self advancing doctors on the make, and a bunch of medically qualified quacks and loons.
If this is the only real support that Lansley can muster then I think he is on very shaky ground.
If you check the signatories to the letter, you will see some double-counting. This bunch of goons can't even get a list of 50 or so signatories right. And yet they think they can run the NHS!
ReplyDeleteHeaven help us all!
Good Lord, really? Where is he getting this stuff from, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's playbook? Sounds more ridiculous than some of my excuses for skipping class.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thanks for the blogroll add Dr Z - I've put you on mine!