Over the last few weeks I have written about problems with NHS procurement. Since becoming Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock has centralised NHS procurement and cut Trust budgets to save money. This, plus a failure to adequately prepare for a pandemic, has caused shortfalls of PPE across the NHS. One of the bright… Read More PPE | NHS getting better: Government getting worse
This is the last in a trilogy of posts from the era of Big Government. A cautionary tale of NHS procurement. Harold Wilson came to power in 1964, ending over a decade of Conservative Governments. He inherited a long running dispute between the NHS and the Pharmaceutical Industry over the price of drugs, dating back… Read More Harold Wilson gave me bad teeth | Why the NHS is short of PPE
Remploy was started by the Attlee Government to provide sheltered employment to people with disabilities. It opened it’s first factory in 1946 making violins. Only 15 years ago it operated 83 factories across the UK. The sheltered employment model became less popular as years went by and the emphasis changed to supporting disabled people into… Read More Remploy | Ian Duncan Smith & John Cooper Clark
Most people will have seen this graph, or a variant of it over the last few days showing the spread of Covid-10 Coronavirus: It’s clear from this graph and lots of others in the media that some countries are doing much better than others at controlling the spread of the disease. Some of these numbers… Read More Why are some health systems doing better than others?
The old myth that foreigners are coming to take your jobs has a new rival – Americans are coming to steal the NHS. Both are equally silly. Why the immigration myth is nonsense One of the great myths spread by right wing politicians is that somewhere in the world there is a hoard of foreigners… Read More Americans aren’t coming to privatise the NHS | Immigrants aren’t coming to take your job | Stop being gullible
This is a quote from Jeremy Corbyn at today’s launch of Labour’s election manifesto. A completely nationalised NHS, with no scope for private sector involvement. I realise that this is an emotive issue for many, but when the NHS was set up by the Attlee Government it was established with a mix of public and… Read More Labour vs NHS | More bad policy
In the mess of Brexit a rather good news story slipped out. DH have finally agreed a deal with Vertex Pharmaceuticals to give NHS patients unlimited access to Orkambi, Symkevi and Kalydeco, life changing drugs for Cystic Fibrosis. Just a shame it took so long. https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/Health/Correspondence/2019-20/19-10-24-letter-from-NHS-England-cystic-fibrosis-drugs.pdf Six months ago I wrote about the rather shabby… Read More Pharmaceutical Companies | A good news story