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COMMENT
 
How the NHS is flatlining

ANDREW Way mounts, at first glance, a reasoned case setting out how he intends to deal with the enormous deficit facing the Royal Free Hospital.
But when dealing with the almost seismic changes now in store for the staff at the Free, he can be accused of leaning too heavily on the side of spin.
He claims he is not “firing anyone” (See page 4). But that is only true in the sense that none of the staff in closed departments will receive a final letter of dismissal or a statement that they are to be made redundant.
But, in practice, certain staff, certainly nurses, on those wards that are to be closed, face a tortuous future.
They will have to apply for and be interviewed for posts on other wards – and if they fail the interview their tenure at the hospital will come to an end. If that isn’t the same as facing dismissal, it is difficult to know what is.
The retrenchments announced by the Royal Free last week amount to the most draconian economies ever documented by a hospital in Camden for decades.
It is little wonder the hospital’s staff are demoralised and frightened as to their future.
The full scale of the crisis hasn’t yet sunk into public consciousness.
It is this which is allowing the health secretary Patricia Hewitt and the Department of Health to keep the debate within the confines of the health industry.
That is why Camden Council is to be congratulated for stepping into the breach with an investigation by its Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
The council’s inquiry – and we hope it will be tough and relentless – is a step in the right direction. Above all, it will begin to put the crisis under the public spotlight for the first time.
We trust questions will be asked about what Frank Dobson MP described as the out-of-control “paper chase” involving managers endlessly ticking boxes. There is a potent ring to his charge that the “paper chase is now swallowing up to 15-16 per cent of NHS spending” compared to four per cent in under the old non-market system. But the real causes of the present crisis are not be found in the various diktats either of Patricia Hewitt or the Department of Health.
They can be traced to Tony Blair’s rush to privatise the public sector, and that includes the NHS. This in turn is driven by the need of transnational conglomerates to maximise their profits. Under their pressure Tony Blair simply wilts. An example is to be found in the tender ‘won’ by a large US company to take over a GP practice in Derbyshire.
The NHS could soon disappear.

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.
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