Election Whistle Has been Blown

The Tories have dominated the starting agenda of the build up to the election, launching posters today of Dave "this is my honest face" Cameron, making a personal promise to you the voter, how thoughtful.

I do find it interesting that they're making the Tory party the Dave party. Though polls do show people like Dave more than the Tory party itself. It does leave Labour a lot of room for attacking them, which in turn could leave people disliking Dave as much as the Tory party. Certainly they can only distract from the party as a whole for a short while, I can't see it working as a long term tactic. Yet turning it into a personality contest is a fairly sneaky tactic. As it does remind people that the alternative is Brown.

NHS "Debate"

I've been trying to avoid this health care "debate", largely because when politicians jump on the bandwagon you know it's a) getting hysterical b) in bad taste. I don't agree with Daniel Hannan's view point, yet he's not making policy he's stating an opinion, which he is perfectly entitled to do.

What bothers me about this "I love the NHS" campaign is now the word "unpatriotic" is being used, by all people a Labour MP Andy Burnham. It's a health service not the British flag, the founding principle however is something quintessentially British, a sense of fairness, something a little amiss now.

"Unpatriotic" is a word that gets used like a trump card by governments, it is irrational and feverish. Yet patriotism is not blind devotion it is as Alexander Solzhenitsyn said:

unqualified and unwavering love for the nation, which implies not uncritical eagerness to serve, not support for unjust claims, but frank assessment of its vices and sins, and penitence for them.

Criticism is not unpatriotic, the lack of criticism is.

Tories Plan Access to NHS Files

Now this is an interesting idea, allowing NHS patients to be able to access their own medical records on-line. I've long thought one of the problems with the NHS is how secretive Doctors and medical care is. Information is almost sacred and you as a patient are for some reason overlooked in the process.

To really address what's wrong with the NHS, the way information is shared needs to be looked at. That isn't by any means the only problem, it is just symptomatic of the centralisation that has happened under Labour. It's oblivious that putting a politician in charge of the NHS is an issue, as what does a politician know about running a health service? It needs to be run by the people the work within it.

Yet the problem with the Tories idea is - will the they be as inept as Labour are at IT projects? Microsoft being suggested doesn't fill me with confidence. As the privacy issue this idea provokes will seriously need to be addressed, as though I want access to my files I don't want every hack out there looking at them.

It is enviable that all medical records will be digitalised, as written ones are passed there sell by date. Storing them, loosing them, damage and with people moving around the country a lot more than they used to, written records can be spread between the places you've lived. Yet how it's implemented is the big question or perhaps how well it's implemented is more accurate.

Social Care - "New and Improved"

'Old Persons Home' by Sun Yuan

Three new options are being proposed by the government for social care. Andy "I can't believe this guy is in charge of the NHS" Burnham said:

For too long politicians have avoided this issue. We have an opportunity to grasp the nettle and confront the debate. If we fail to do that we face the prospect of a diminishing quality of care being provided.

What have they been doing then for 12 years? Oh that's right, turning social care into a disgraceful scandal. More than £23,00 in your home or savings, tough luck, sell your home and spend your savings. Work all your life to pay for your death, disgusting. He should go to a piss stinking care home before speaking of the "prospect" of diminishing care.

What does this say about our society when we can't care properly for the most vulnerable. The shameful audacity of it, how do these people sleep at night?

New Labour Groupthink

I was reading article on PsyBlog about fighting groupthink with dissent. Essentially for a group to be effective there must be a critical voice within, otherwise it becomes self for filling and enforcing.

I've commented on Brown being in this position several times on this blog. If you don't have people around you to challenge your views and ideas, you create artificial world around yourself. That's not productive as no one is right 100% of the time. It's also good to have to defend and refine your views, as you can discover weakness in them and sometimes realise you are missing a point or the point.

There is a wonderful article by Jenni Russell about Labour's views on public services. She writes on the NHS:

people don't emerge from the system thinking how brilliant and well resourced it is. They come out grateful for having survived it, and conscious of how anxious and threatened they felt within it. They care less about gleaming new buildings than about the human relationships that take place within them – and those have been made less warm, less good and less likely to flourish precisely because of the reforms that Labour has pursued.

Their steadfast views on public services are a good example of groupthink. They sat in a room looking at figures, everyone congratulating themselves on what a good job they've done. Using statistics to prove there points and enforce them. No one challenging the idea of box ticking, bureaucracy and the effect that's had on people and services. So they've kept on doing it.

What disappoints me and really angers me about this is, what a waste, a completely wasted 12 years. They could have done anything yet look where we are, it's even worst than it was in 1997. Now what was their pledge again?

New Labour to Cull NHS Targets Regime

Do Labour have any of their own policies? Andy Burnham said today:

The new health secretary today promised a purge of the NHS targets regime and a refocusing on a "people-centred" service that empowers patients.

In April 2009 David Cameron said he would:

End Labour’s culture of top-down targets and tick-box adherence. Put power in the hands of people.

It's a bit rich accusing the Tories of having no policies when they're stealing what they do say, while U-turning on policies of the last 12 years, which were shoved down our throats and statistics that were rubbed in our face, in order to pretend nothing was wrong. Anyone that uses or works in the NHS, if they bothered to listen, could of told them it was damaging the NHS.

What really angers me about this belated U-turn is the cost of their "targets" hasn't just be financial.

Nurse struck off for whistle-blowing NHS

A nurse who secretly filmed for BBC Panorama to reveal the neglect of elderly patients at the Royal Sussex Hospital, has been struck off for misconduct by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. The panel ruled that Margaret Haywood "followed the behest of the filmmakers... rather than her obligations as a nurse" they went on to say:

Although the conditions on the ward were dreadful, it was not necessary to breach confidentiality to seek to improve them by the method chosen.

Margaret Haywood was a nurse for over 20 years, it was clearly a decision she didn't undertake lightly. She said that she'd expressed her concerns both to her immediate line manager and to her ward manager, but they did nothing. She would have been failing in her duty of care as a nurse, to close her eyes and keep drawing her salary, as the other nurses and managers did at that hospital.

More importantly she wouldn't have had to risk her job if management listened to staff concerns, if this culture of "there are things will don't speak of" didn't run through the NHS. It's completely disgraceful that it's cost Ms Haywood her job, her intentions clearly were for the right reasons. As sadly would conditions at that hospital have improved, without Panorama doing a programme on it.