One of the more inflammatory press releases to hit the GP email inbox over Christmas was headlined: Double payment of GPs in Cameron’s new NHS bureaucracy.
Today GPonline reports what we consider to be the most relevant element of the research: the huge variation in pay for GP commissioners.
Last night at the Lords Labour’s shadow health secretary John Healey explained to journalists why he was leaving his post.
When I met him a year ago at a similar meet-and-greet function he was new in post and said he had much to learn about the health brief. Whether he ever quite maximised his position is a point for debate but the most important thing to remember is that this is now a crucial time for the NHS. Read more »
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m a bit bleary-eyed today. Fuelled by the election hype (and a late night toast binge) I stayed up – pointlessly – until 2am, when only a handful of results had been called. By the time I staggered out of bed some time after 7am this morning, I had no idea what was going on. I still don’t to be honest. Is anyone in charge? Apparently Gordon’s asleep.
The DoH described the launch of the National Care Service in England on Tuesday as ‘the biggest change to the welfare state since the creation of the NHS’. Not underplaying its importance then.
The interview everyone was talking about last week (or at least that’s how it seemed to me) was GP newspaper’s exclusive with health secretary Andy Burnham.
I joined GP in November 2000 and it’s the first time since that we’ve had half an hour with the person at the NHS helm.
The dreary month of January has been enlivened considerably by some proper snow and some political intrigue, taking our minds off our diets and our debts.
On the snow front, we’ve heard heroic tales of health professionals going above and beyond the call of duty at a time when all too many people opt to ‘work from home’ at the mere hint of a snowflake. (Our news editor is currently ‘stranded’ in Cuba – in a five-star hotel – or at least that’s the story he’s sticking to.)
Last night was the annual DoH Christmas media reception in Richmond House, Whitehall, and potentially Labour’s last as hosts after 12 years in power.
We were warned early on that the department was expecting some stick from the nationals today for its festive spending but the 18ft focus of the criticism was actually out of our view in the DoH south London base a mile or so away where 950 staff work.
I’m going to begin by coming clean: I have been registered with the same GP practice since I was seven years old. It is in Sussex; I am in London, where I have lived for more than ten years. There’s little excuse for not having moved to a local practice, I’ve just never quite got round to it.
When health secretary Andy Burnham is not twittering his
love for the NHS or ignoring expert advice on Tamiflu, he busies himself
running the DoH.
But he’s taken a break to write an article for The Guardian
this week, slating the David Cameron’s plans for the NHS. Apparently the Tories
are going to turn the NHS into the ‘world’s biggest quango’, whatever that
means.
A rather gloomy mood seems to be engulfing the NHS at the moment. The general consensus is that things are looking pretty bleak in terms of finances, post 2011.
NHS managers are racking their brains for ways to rein in spending – apparently ‘nothing is off limits’ in the quest to save a few bob. What all this means for GPs and nurses remains to be seen, but it seems inevitable that PCTs and NHS trusts will be doing their utmost to get more for less.
‘Productivity’ and ‘efficiency’ are the new buzzwords, and I fear frontline clinicians will get sick of hearing the phrase ‘it’s about working smarter, not harder’ – it is sure to get a run out at every meeting you attend in the coming months.
Everyone, it seems, is prepared for the worst.
Except health secretary Andy Burnham.
In an interview in the Daily Mirror yesterday, Mr Burnham made the bold claim that ‘Labour will never cut the NHS budget’. The government is not talking about cuts, apparently – it’s ‘not in our lexicon’, the new health secretary says. Phew. That’s alright then. No need to worry.
But he must have had his fingers crossed behind his back when he said this.
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