Roger that Capio, you're cleared to fuck things up completelyIt appears that the government's illogical and ideologically driven policy is running aground, ISTCs are the latest to be finding the going more than a little thought. Dr Rant has obtained a leaked email that was sent out by a PCT, that may or may not be somewhere near Oxfordshire, in order to 'encourage' trade in the direction of a failing ISTC:
"I am working with the PCT to look at ways to increase the utilisation of the Treatment Centre.
There are a number of new initiatives underway which you and the team might want to hear about.
I am however more concerned to hear your views and ideas concerning this facility, and would like the opportunity to visit with you and your clinical team.
Please advise some suitable dates.
In the meantime if you would like to discuss any aspect of the ISTC do please call me - 0845 PCT-NUMPTY."
It seems that the PCT are desperate, the ISTC is desperately unpopular with patients who would prefer to use the excellent local NHS services; thus the PCT is trying to force trade in the ISTC's direction in a rather underhand manner. The behaviour of the PCT is starting to appear rather pushy, if not aggressive, whatever happened to that thing called 'choice™'?
Maybe this is because the PCT was pushed into an expensive contract with the ISTC by its top-down fathead controllers at the DoH, as part of the government's dogma driven reform agenda. However this does not excuse the shockingly bad value for money that ISTCs represent, not to mention their unknown and unaudited safety records; certain anecdotal cases are actually rather scary. The way in which the DoH's little PCT monkeys are behaving cannot be condoned as they may just be doing what they are told; however throughout history this kind of nonchalant compliance has resulted in great crimes being committed. The greatest evil may be resident in Whitehall, however PCTs are certainly providing a local resident evil of sorts.
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13 comments:
Julian Le Grand must be very proud of himself.
(headbutts poorly-specified and cheaply-built PFI hospital wall)
Some of these ISTCs seem dangerous.
ISTCs are basically over
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6915601.stm
so it is interesting that some PCTs are pushing them...
Hi Dr Rant,
I did a piece on the termination of the West Midlands Diagnostics contract with Mercury on my blog. There are a number of interesting comments too. It seems the people being made redundant won't be getting compensation as generous as Mercury (£84 million of taxpayer money I have been told).
Last year they tried offering GPs a bung of £30 for each referral to an ISTC but the GMC ruled the practice illegal.
"When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion."
C. P. Snow
I can't take much more of this bollocks. I'm a final year student and I live in terror of the ghastly potentialities that await the profession and the service I have aspired to become part of.
I fell I'm being bundled into practive in a time where the NHS - both body and soul, practice and policy - is sliding towards the abyss and I'm being carried with it. The private companies muscling in on the NHS have their eye only on the main-chance and not on what is right for the public of this country. God damn them for their selfishness and God damn the government for abetting them.
I've spent nearly six years training and I can't stop now, not after investing so much - even though I sometimes think I should. 'I am stepped in blood so deep that to turn back would be as tedious as to go o'er' - or something like that.
I don't even know my own career structure anymore - private sector workers have far more control over their destiny.
Oh well, whinging will never get me into that coveted FTSTA position back to the books for me.
Best of luck with them Dr Rant. You know you need it...
anonymous,
Some of the more lunatic schemes which Alan Milburn dreamed up before getting a job with the private imaging companies are being unwound now. It may be that Nulabour has got more finesse now and doesn't want a confrontation with NHS staff - I don't know but don't lose heart. Get you degree and look to working in the States or Australia where the medical profession still commands respect and a decent wage.
Could I ask you to add your comments above on my blog because there is a very one sided argument going on with one of the failed private companies (ps, with respect, could you ensure the spelling is better than the average (now)unemployed Hungarian immigrant)
I think, dr ray, Labour's backing away from privatisation. Too little, too late, but still, backing away. That may be partly because it can't afford to continue bankrolling them while also subsidising failing banks (yes, banks plural), it may be because of a subtle ideological shift.
and doesn't want a confrontation with NHS staff
may well be; it's in enough trouble as it is
Jayann,
I am totally confused about Labour now. Is this Labour Classic replacing Nulabour? So far Alan Johnson seems to have made all the right moves.
The wage settlement has irritated people but people in the NHS were willing to work for less when job security was better and they did not see management consultants and private investors skimming vasts amounts of money from the NHS.
The NHS is said to employ 1.3 million people. Thats a lot of voters to antagonise when the polls show a reduced or absent lead.
Even one of the NHS consultations I went to last week was a lot less confrontational. Perhaps they are just getting craftier.
dr ray
Is this Labour Classic replacing Nulabour?
I think it may be. That's certainly what I expected to happen -- an attempt at that, anway -- once Blair was gone.
Perhaps they are just getting craftier
I don't think so. But I think they'll find it impossible to roll back to Before Blair.
Well that does pose a problem for me. Here I am, a committed free market supporter, who would consider supporting the most incompetent, illiberal, vindictive and high taxing government we have had in a generation because they are too weak and afraid to carry through the reforms they started.
One of my consultant colleagues said he would vote Labour too now because although their policies are totally contrary to his views he is confident they are incapable of carrying them through.
A comment about a particular ISTC. On the Bath and North East Somerset PCT website there is a report dated last September which states that there was an under-utilisation of their contract with Shepton Mallet Treatment Centre to the tune of £750,000. In other words, their had bought services that the general public did not choose to use. So this PCT hopes to tout the unused contract round to other PCTs in the hope that they can sell it off.
The Save Frenchay Hospital Group recently supported a legal aid applicant in a legal challenge, which ended up in the Court of Appeal in July 07, to ensure that the public were informed of any proposals for an ISTC in their area PRIOR to implementation. The outcome was that their Lordships confirmed that a PCT has a duty and an obligation to inform the public about ISTCs from the earliest proposals. Our PCT only informed 'key stakeholders', which their Lordships unaccountably deemed to be complying with the PCT's obligation. We disagree. (See Leigh Day & Co's website and search under 'Fudge')
Clearly the public are voting with their feet, as they cannot express a view, and they are not leaping to use ISTCs, (or hospital shops, as I refer to them).
The moral of the story is,they should have asked us before committing our NHS insurance contributions.
Frenchay
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