Ed Miniband seems to be trying to develop not understanding into an art form. If you had a room full of people who are given free meals every day and then someone came along and said it had to stop, how many people in the room would object? I'm guessing, most of them. Miniband thinks they would all support it.
You see, as proof that the NHS reforms proposed by the Coalition are wrong, he says that health care professionals almost all disagree with them. No, really, do they? I am sure that these excellent people are fed up with constant demands from central government, after 13 years of New Labour. But two things are necessary as a result; some proper, well thought-out reform is absolutely needed and the culture needs to change.
It is undoubted that the rise in deaths within the NHS, the increased inefficiencies and the entrenched resistance to lose benefits gained is rooted in the culture that NL infused this great institution with. Trust in the NHS was embedded in the bureaucracy, the bit politicians generally come into contact with (thus confirming to both sides the absolute nature of its importance). Doctors were given more money and nurses saw their status elevated, something they jealously guard by no longer seeing actual patient care, bedpans, food, drink as any part of their role.
The Managers, distracted by the mirror, constantly fiddled to 'achieve' the targets set by the unthinking politicians, whilst health care professionals set about killing ever more of their 'customers'. Whilst watching 'Junior Doctors' on BBC the other night it struck me that what I was seeing was two distinct and separate communities existing side by side, in the same building, the same room. Nurses stations, their huddles of conversation, the planning charts on the wall, all the machines and equipment, scattered as if suggesting temporary intention and pervasive, all conspire to create a world of work, of process, of form filling and routine.
Alongside this hive of activity was the patient, unknowing, quiet, thankful, in no way part of this buzz of busyness except is some seemingly tangential way. This is not to say some are not providing excellent care and do their job well, just that the whole thing seems to operate as a divide, that at some point everyone 'at work' in a hospital forgot that the patients are actually people. And the fact is these people are often in the worst condition to be able to cope with the modern concept of a hospital.
It has to be this subtle cultural desert that NL cast wide across our society that afflicts the NHS too; it has always been too monolithic and capable of killing its charges too regularly, but the attitude that seeped out of NL was one of an absolute lack of care, at the most basic level, for anyone else. Greed and personal greed, was good. Reporting to the centre was what mattered in any walk of life. NL told you what to do and knew what was good for you. Trust the state.
Who would not be corrupted by such siren voices? And so, no I am not terribly surprised that the people inside this monster do not want to see change. This resistance even extends to the simple premise; does the NHS kill too many people. 'Yes, I'm afraid it does' a Consultant would honestly admit. 'And what are you doing about it?' comes the enquiry (which inherently suggests 'change'). Now all our honest Consultant could say would be, 'er well let me see. I get paid quite a bit more now, does that help?'
Not forgetting of course, that most of the 'august bodies' objecting to health service reforms are now nothing more than trade unions.
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