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Choice? What does it mean?
• CHOICE? This is the latest buzz word for politicians of all parties. But what sort of choice, many parents may be asking, have they been given when it comes to the site of the borough’s new secondary school (See page 5).
In a bit of political sleight-of-hand, the Lib Dem/Tory coalition will no doubt attempt to comfort critical parents by arguing that their choice of a site – in Swiss Cottage – is not the final word on the subject. That, they say, will only come after the fullest of consultations – and one which will take a year, involving parents, teachers and schools, according to the decision taken last night (Wednesday) by the council’s cabinet.
But can a consultation be full, frank and fearless if it does not pose alternatives to the one being paraded by the council?
Parents in school-starved south Camden understandably would prefer a new school to be sited either at the rear of the British Library or on the Eastman Dental Hospital site in Gray’s Inn Road.
Why not there, they ask? Why not test this idea with a feasibility study, they plead? Pointless, say the Lib Dem/Tory coalition. We’ve looked into it – and it’s too costly, they add.
And all this without adducing any hard information for public scrutiny.
But when minds are made up in this fashion – can the proposed consultation be said to be fit for purpose? And if it isn’t, the coalition should be aware that damaged and improper consultations could well end up before a court, as happened with parking in Primrose Hill in the late 1990s, when a judge ruled against the Town Hall.
Catch-22 for the Free
• BOTH the Royal Free and University College London Hospitals were given reasonable marks today (Thursday) by the government’s watchdog, the Healthcare Commission.
But, nonetheless, the Free has found itself in a Catch- 22 situation.
To meet its deficit of £30 million – not entirely of its own making – it decided to cut a total of 480 jobs. Job cuts can be hazardous for any institution. Now, the hospital, faced with complaints from overworked nurses, admits it needs more volunteers to help feed elderly patients (See page 6).
Readers may recall that an investigation by this newspaper uncovered the serious shortage of nurses in the wards for the elderly.
We are sure that when Tony Blair and health secretary Patricia Hewitt advocate more ‘local’ involvement in the running of hospitals they do not mean that volunteers should be used to replace nurses or do they? |
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