Cheating – no other way to stay within target
Polly Toynbee writes on The Guardian Comment Is Free website that she has been contacted by Carol, who tells of cheating waiting lists at an NHS Foundation trust. They have a target; they are bound to cheat. That is what people do. Carol told Polly that, She was told to cancel operations for anyone who [...]
Youth cuts could lead to crime rise
The Redditch and Alcester Standard has a nice local piece on cuts to youth services where the council have decided to sell off a building that houses a youth club. The article nicely poses the question of cost cutting versus the unintended effects of those cuts. Councillor Jane Potter is quoted as saying, “I welcome [...]
Elderly care cuts are incredibly short-sighted
This report about cuts to elderly care has much to make you angry. There are the obvious inhumane outcomes where “elderly people with crippling disabilities are being left to fend for themselves” and “elderly people have been left in bed for 17 hours at a time, abandoned in soiled bedding and clothing, while others had [...]
Not enough incentive to treat patients
There is a bit of a tizwas about whether there are people waiting too long on waiting lists and whether this is a legacy of Labour’s policy or the fault of the coalition government. Some say waiting times are going up and others point to new measures coming in from the government that will address [...]
Indiana Lansley and the 18-week NHS target
As Indiana Lansley approaches the altar sweat pours down his face. Lansley tries to control his pounding chest and rattled nerves as he eyes his prize. To get to this precarious spot he ducked the poison darts from the opposition benches, he rolled past the whirling blades of the BMA, he outwitted the deadly collapsing [...]
Defence cuts lead to cost rises
The BBC reports that defence cuts ‘led to MoD project cost rise’. In the article, the head of the National Audit Office is quoted as saying that, “These circumstances were largely, however, of the department’s making and the resulting cuts and delays to capability are not value for money.” This is a classic case where [...]
To save public services we must think in Russian
SPOILER ALERT: This post gives away all the exciting bits from the film ‘Firefox’. ————————————————————————————————- I like the film ‘Firefox’. I recognise that it is not a great film but it has Clint Eastwood and I like that kind of watchable, post-cold war thriller. The basic plot is that Mr Eastwood plays Mitchell Gant, an [...]
Unions and government are both wrong about cuts
Yesterday at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference, Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, got heckled when he suggested that the strikes in June shouldn’t have happened while negotiations with the government were still in progress. Those strikes were about pensions but there is talk of much larger strikes about cuts in the [...]
Openness is the new constraint
We live in a closed world. Even though they deal with tax payers money, government contracts are shielded by ‘commercial confidentiality’, we only get to hear about MPs expenses when they are leaked to a newspaper, Apple won’t let applications it doesn’t fancy onto its iPhone or iPad, scientists and commentators like Simon Singh are [...]
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