Royal College of GPs speak out against NHS reforms

Royal college of GPS speak out against the NHS reforms

Newly elected Chair of the Royal College of GPs – Dr Clare Gereda – has spoken out strongly against the proposed NHS reforms.  She has argued against the rapid pace of change dismantling current commissioning structures and placing responsibility with GP consortium. Downgrading the role of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence will lead to local variations about the range of treatments available – and will undermine the NHS as a national unified service. GPs will face a conflict of interest in making individual clinical decisions at the same time as having ultimate responsibility for the rationing of NHS resources.   Gereda argues that the new system will lead to an increased role for private healthcare companies.

Her views are echoed by the Kings Fund health think tank  - whose Chief Exec.  Prof. Chris Ham made the following statement;

“ with international evidence this week showing our health system performing well compared to other countries , and the NHS facing financial pressures over the next few years, evolutionary change building on existing arrangements offers a more promising route to improving the NHS than radical structural changes”.

Afghanistan

The Guardian reports that the US are escalating the assault on the Taliban in a shift from the previous policy that laid a heavy emphasis on protecting civilians. A further greater number of bombs and missiles are being used now by NATO forces, as well as plans to deploy a greater number of tanks – which will have the capacity to destroy buildings more than a mile away.   It is reported that American troops are now routinely destroying buildings that might have strategic advantage for the Taliban e.g to provide shelter for attack or hide roadside bombs.  Fears that the new approach will greatly increase civilian casualties have led to protests by the afghan government, and both Afghan and international NGO’s including Oxfam.  With this approach coinciding with the announcement of  plans for withdrawal by 2015 it is hard to see how Afghan citizens are going to be encouraged to ally themselves with the NATO forces – who are a) killing them in increasing numbers and destroying their houses and b) not going to stick around to protect anyone who might take their side now. Whatever our reservations the sooner the US and UK start talks with the Taliban the better.

Link to Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee | guardian.co.uk

 - 13:55

Polly Toynbee is a columnist for the Guardian. She was formerly BBC social affairs editor, columnist and associate editor of the Independent, co-editor of ...
www.guardian.co.uk/profile/pollytoynbee

good article in Guardian addressing the proposed benefit reforms.  Whatever the merits of the IDS plan by the time it is introduced £18 billion will have been cut from the welfare budget by a range of proposed custs.

Making sense of the proposed benefit reforms.....

I have been trying to make sense of the proposed benefit reforms.  The idea of simplifying the system and creating a universal benefit is probably a good one but there is an unpleasant moralist feel to the way it is is being described.  Yes, there probably is an underclass of people who chose not to work; yes the current system does mean that for anyone with a family taking a low paid job offfers no financial incentive; yes Ian Duncan Smith assures us that this is not about reducing benefit. But benefits will have been reduced significantly by the proposed cuts in Housing benefit long before the new system is introduced - this has been estimated at a loss of £12 a week from the almost a million claimants starting from next year. The same changes to Housing benefit which many fear will force people to move to areas of cheaper housing - away from London and the South where work is available.   As for the penalties for those who refuse work - I am concerned about introducing this regime when the choice of meaningful work is going to be greatly reduced by the  impact on jobs of the cuts in public spending.   It does seem that the whole complex issue of return to work for the long term unempolyed is being reduced to a simple equation - moral failings to be punished by  financial penalties. I have seen no mention of investment in training, when clearly many of the long term unemployed do not have the skills needed by the current job market. Introduce greater competition for any job due to rising unemployment and it is hard to see where the opportunities will be for the people who Duncan Smith is going to trying to hound back to work.  Finally - what about the children? What provision will be made to support families rendered destitute by financial penalties - I have not seen much about that either except for yesterdays news that hardship payments might be reduced by loans. I have a real concern that the new proposals may be creating more child poverty - by penalising adults regardless of the impact on their families. This fits with other elements of the proposals where there are fixed caps to the total amount of benefit recivieved with the accompanying message that the state will not support large families - but again - what about the children?

November 10th 2011 UK envoy to Afganistan resigns

http://gu.com/p/2hp4a

UK envoy to Afganistan resigns - see Guardian link - speaking on Today programme he argued fro a negotiated settlement including all parties - and made analogies with Vietnam - saying that history shows no insurgency has ever been beaten by military force alone.

The daily politics November 9th 2010

Iraq:

• See yesterdays link re: current court case taken by 200 detainees alleging systematic abuse by British forces in the  detention facility near Basra run by the Joint Forces Interrogation team - allegtions include starvation, sensory deprivation, electric shocks, threats of execution and sexual humiliation.
• For an insightful account of the early days of the occupation - read Occupational Hazards by Rory Stewart. ( Picador 2007) Stewart was a British diplomat given control of an Iraqi province after the invasion. Despite his good intentions his account portrays the failure to achieve any of the allies' stated goals - peace, democracy, freedom, economic development. Stewart concludes: " Iraqis are the only people who can rebuild their nation. We cannot. we have done what good we can do. It is not now our tactics but the very fact of our presence that is inflaming the situation. Our institutions are fundamentally unsuited to nation building, we do not have the personnel, the training or the political culture to do it, nor the sympathy for local politics. We are too unpopular to defeat the insurgency, stop a civil war, or create security. you cannot predict which policy will work but you must recognise when your policy has failed".

Iraqi prisoners were abused at 'UK's Abu Ghraib', court hears | UK news | The Guardian

Iraqi prisoners were abused at 'UK's Abu Ghraib', court hears UK news The Guardian

The daily politics November 7th 2010

Today the Libcons introduced the idea of compulsory community service for the unemployed. At the moment the only compulsory community service is as a part of the criminal justice system. This is a punitive and unworkable idea. In the first place imagine the cost of administering a system where hundreds of thousands of reluctant people are supervised to undertake tasks they have no interest in doing. Imagine the conflict and social unrest it will introduce into the benefits system. Imagine your loved ones being on the recieving end of such a service - care delivered by the unwilling possibly to the most vulnerable. think more about the impact on wages and employment opportunities - how soon before real jobs are replaced by compulsory volunteering. The Libcons need to get straight about volunteering - it is something we do by choice.

I was also very disturbed by the press coverage of alleged systematic torture and ill treatment of prisoners in Iraq. I think I had  naively been hoping that although I did not agree with the invasion at least our troops would behave with a bit of dignity and respect for human rights. If not it removes the last possible reason for being there in the first place.