© Photographer Juha Tuomi Agency: Dreamstime.com

The Government’s NHS Bill is causing more unrest than any other bill I can remember…and yet it appears that it’s being pushed through far too quickly for something as important as this, leaving outsiders and insiders alike feeling railroaded.

The recorded aims of the Bill is to: create an Independent NHS Board; promote patient choice; and reduce NHS costs seem reasonable; so what’s going wrong?

Firstly, Mr Lansley’s approach to consultation has yet again got stakeholders’ backs up.  The Government seems to have learned nothing from the last major upheaval following the formation of the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in April 2005.  By August of that year, health sector bodies were complaining about the lack of consultation, an issue which dogged the life of the Programme and made every change unpopular with front line staff regardless of its expected benefits.

And now history is repeating itself…the latest news is that David Cameron has organised a summit with healthcare professionals to discuss how to implement the reforms excluding his critics.  Press reports say that some of the Royal Colleges such as the Royal College of General Practitioners have been excluded.

In life, most successful people learn that it is better to engage with their dissenters and work through the issues patiently and methodically…or face challenge at every step.  Half-hearted attempts to “listen” won’t cut it, especially where an institution as precious as the NHS is concerned.

The Government have already had one “pause for thought” and are saying that they are not planning a second indicating that they will be pressing on with what seems to be the most unpopular reform to hit the NHS…even in the light of an e-petition on the government website attaining 120,000 signatories calling for the bill to be dropped.

Secondly, what are we all missing in the small print?  I have been hearing the arguments for and against, but I am now beginning to feel uneasy enough to see for myself.  I thought I’d have my own reading of the Bill, which seemed like a good idea, except that the bill has over 350 pages, containing over 280 clauses.  Not many people will have read the Bill and I doubt whether those voting on it will have put in the time and effort to understand the consequences of its reforms.

My suspicions have increased…in situations like this my key thought is “follow the money”…who will be benefiting financially from this? Is that why it needs to be so complicated?

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be reporting on my findings.

Watch this space.

The news about Poly Implant Prostheses (PIP) implants has been breaking like waves on the shore over the last few months.  It’s a worrying situation if you happen to be an NHS patient who has had implanted material, but at least the NHS will stand by its responsibilities and offer you treatment if you have concerns that an implant is failing.

As for the people who have chosen to pay for implants, while I wouldn’t want to detract from their concerns the situation is different.  Let’s consider the scenario without the pathos.

If we were talking about, say, a tattoo instead of an implant, both a matter of choice, both carried out by a skilled operative, both using products to enhance a “look”, there is a strong parallel…

…and then let’s imagine that we found out that the ink used could break down in 10% of cases and slowly poison its host…how would we apply the logic?

Firstly, anyone that became ill as a result would still be treated on the NHS.  Anyone who did not become ill would probably still look for someone to sue for damages.  Now that the focus is on “whiplash” scams, it would be an ideal cash cow replacement for the personal injury lawyers.

So, let’s now revert back to the implant clinics who claim they “can’t afford” to compensate the people they have helped to injure.  Where is their surgeons’ Professional Indemnity Insurance?  Why is no one making a claim against it? Why should the Tax Payer foot the bill instead?  If it was a tattoo it wouldn’t even be suggested…

Well, if surgeons do have successful claims made against their PI Insurance, then their premiums would rise enormously to prohibitive levels and they would be unable to practice…is that their fault or should they have an implant approvals body to fall back on?

Funnily enough, we have an option in Wales, the Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory, based in Bridgend will approve medical products, but England has no such approvals agency.

England seems to rely on the European CE marking…pip, pip!

I hope your New Year has been less eventful than mine…sort of through the looking glass for me as I moved to the sharp end of the NHS instead of the cloudy world of NHS Spine connectivity.

My Mum had a DVT on Boxing Day and as we sped to hospital with the blue light flashing, I had time to reflect on the service that our software supports.

So far so good. The paramedic and the ambulance crew were excellent, even though they were working under difficult circumstances, it being the “holidays” and all.  With an ambulance headlight out and no maintenance team to fix it…crew working out of their area so no directions for the hospital…skeleton staff only, so we had a team leader attending our call out (this turned out to be a good thing)…we had a smooth passage into NHS land.

The A&E was an eye-opener.  The staff were jogging along, the assessment was soon underway…in fact all surprisingly acceptable considering the regular reports in the Press of poor treatment in hospitals.

The problem I had wasn’t the staff at all…but the patients and their entourages of moaning relatives.  When did our society turn into such a surly, ungrateful bunch?

In the end, I stopped engaging with anyone but medics to avoid, as best as I could, the waves of negativity swirling around the beds and waiting areas …but how on earth does it affect the staff?

I can only assume, from the blank faces, that they cope by turning off any external emotion and therefore any ability to communicate using the interpersonal skills available to them.  No tone of voice, no pace, no smiles, no frowns, guarded eye contact…a kindly bedside manner is out of the question until they work out what you are…a pain or a patient?

…and who can blame them?

The behaviour I saw was often rude and verging on aggressive…one chap was loudly complaining that his 9 am appointment the next day meant he was going to have to get out of bed far too early…the rest were complaining about having to wait, the prescribed treatment, having to smoke outside or not getting a mobile signal…on and on…

Yes, I know people are under stress in a hospital environment, but are we now so self-absorbed that we can’t have empathy with the NHS staff? The people who are trying to help us within the constraints of the resources available to them?

The answer seems to be no, we can’t.

Two news items last week caused me some thought…firstly, expectant mothers are to be allowed elective caesareans on the cash-strapped NHS because women are too scared to give birth naturally in today’s maternity wards and secondly, the Human Rights Commission finds that care of the elderly is abusive.

Two extremes of life and we can’t seem to get it right at either end…

As a society, we are extremely short of “care” and “kindness”. So what’s behind it?

A look at our animal roots could provide an insight which is over simplistic (hopefully)…when resources are scarce, animals isolate the old and restrict births to preserve the strongest in the herd…

Please prove me wrong…random acts of kindness needed urgently.