Government Health Changes Ignore The Real Problems
January 19, 2005 8:42 PM
The Government is playing with the choice agenda in the NHS, rather than giving patients the clean hospitals they need.
That is the conclusion the Liberal Democrats' parliamentary spokesman for Rugby & Kenilworth draws from the most recent audit report on the NHS. The report, Patient Choice at the point of Referral, discusses the latest Government computer project to fail to meet its targets.
The auditors report that the project will cost £196 million to set up, and then cost £122 million each and every year to run. However three out of five doctors feel negative about the project, and it is running months behind schedule.
Richard Allanach echoed Lib Dem MPs in Parliament when he said "The fact that nine out of ten GPs feel that this project will make consultation times longer is extremely worrying. Ministers must listen to front line NHS staff and ensure changes do not offer false choice, but actually deliver the improvement in treatment that patients want."
Mr Allanach continued by saying "New Labour is obsessed with choice in the NHS. They are spending millions on grandiose new posts such as the 'National Implementation Director for Choose and Book' rather than ensuring that hospitals are kept clean. The people I speak to want to see investments made in their local hospitals, not in having the right to choose to have surgery in Sunderland."
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