NHS in tatters @ No 10

"Of course, it's now a matter of pride that this shambles of a Health & Social Care Bill gets through." Arturo said knowingly. "'Boy David' Cameron has done so many U-turns, during his time as PM, that he must be giddy! He's now convinced he has to pretend he's a man. Everyone's going to Hell and Back but he won't worry. So long as he looks strong, that's all that matters to our PM."

"Well, he is an ex-PR man!" I replied.

"Ex! Ex! There's nothing ex PR about him!" Arturo exclaimed. "Cameron is only PR. He'd do or say anything to get a round of applause!"

Arturo is right! The problem is that 'Boy David' Cameron is not only a PR man - he's a stupid PR man! He doesn't have the sense to understand what he and 'Silly Ass' Lansley are doing with this Health and Social Care Bill. Cameron should read, or if it's too difficult for him, get someone else to read to him, the various editorials and reports in the Press during the last week or two.

On February 6, Polly Toynbee wrote in the Guardian:

The NHS bill could finish the health service – and David Cameron
The market ideology of the health and social care bill shows that the pragmatic prime minister is on another planet

That really says it all, doesn't it? What really clever PR man would want to read a headline like that? It proves - Cameron is just plain daft!

Polly Toynbee continued:

All but abolished are 151 primary care trusts – replaced by 279 clinical commissioning groups – while strategic health authorities are to become four hubs. The new national commissioning board already has a chief executive and finance director with seven board members recruited on salaries of up to £170,000 before the bill is passed. Brass plate shifting has squandered £2bn, while the NHS suffers cuts of £20bn. McKinsey and KPMG already have fat contracts to take over much commissioning supposed to be done by GPs. Which sector will they instinctively favour for contracts? Yet none of it has yet passed into law. The health economist Professor Kieran Walshe says £1bn could still be saved by stopping it now.

Maybe 'Silly Ass' Lansley does know what he's doing. But that is really sinister, isn't it? Just think about it for a moment or two!

Polly Toynbee concluded:

The bill is so contradictory that it will end up challenged in the courts. Cameron seems to be on some other planet when he sends out orders to his devolved and fragmented system instructing nurses to check every patient every hour, or calling suddenly for "integration" between NHS and social care, when his bill prevents it.
Will the voters understand? They know one big thing: Cameron promised to protect the NHS, yet hundreds of units will go bust as waiting times soar. Ed Miliband put it crisply: the money wasted could pay for the 6,000 nurses the NHS is cutting. On the NHS Labour did well, eliminating long waits, with its highest ever public approval; the OECD named it the one of the best performers in the world. This is Labour turf. Cameron will regret digging it up.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/06/nhs-bill-finish-cameron-ideology

I looked at my pal, Arturo, and commented to him: "There's a saying that,

'Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad'"

Arturo thought for a moment and nodded: "Perhaps, that's the explanation!"

'Bye' from us both.