Stop rearranging the deck chairs (From Harrow Times)

Stop rearranging the deck chairs

1:34pm Friday 5th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

Yet again we are seeing threats to A&E services in and around London in the latest “rationalisation”

exercise.

We are being told we are “likely to keep the A&E” at Northwick Park Hospital. Sorry, but “likely to keep” just doesn’t do it for me. “Will keep” and “guaranteed” are the only words that will suffice, and only on a signed piece of paper.

We are told no decisions have been made, which I do not believe.

Any competent medical professional will tell you that with any emergency, time is of the essence. Any reduction in A&E could have disastrous and tragic consequences.

What would have happened if swine flu had been the epidemic it was made out to be, or if there had been a major disaster?

There are approximately 31 A&E departments within the London area, but 31 buildings for a congested city comprising several hundred square miles and about eight million people, brings it into perspective.

Here are some suggestions to control budgets and improve efficiency.

Get rid of much of the top-heavy management and clerical over- manning of all departments, clinics the primary care trust (or whatever it’s called this week).

Scrap the parasitic quangos that feed off the system to no real benefit.

Ignore centrally imposed targets and “initiatives” that distort service provision.

Set priorities based on local requirements. Put doctors and nurses in charge of clinical practice and get rid of the political appointees and cronyism that seems to be rife in the NHS.

Set up a proper and slim business structure to manage the finances, contracts and paperwork.

Can we call a halt to the constant “reorganisations” and pointless consultations that are little more than rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic and cost millions?

And most importantly, the public — the ones who seem to be least considered, who are clobbered with a compulsory lifelong 12 per cent income tax in the form of National Insurance — deserve better.

Councillor Jeremy Zeid, (Conservative - Kenton West)