What I don’t want for the NHS in Manchester

I know nothing about writing blogs – but I know what I don’t want for the NHS in Manchester;

1.  I do not want the NHS to be “devolved” to a bunch of Council Leaders with no clinical knowledge whatsoever of healthcare, treating patients and saving lives.

2.  I do not want accountability and responsibility for the “National” Health Service to be “devolved” from the Health Secretary to a cabal of “unelected”  Quangos like Monitor and NHS England (and its 9,”Commissioning Support Units”?) stuffed full of their “free-market” acolytes, “privateers”, “McKinseyites,” Accountants, and Management Consultants – hell bent on using the NHS as a “cash-cow” to line their own pockets!

(Note: A recent FOI request by “Private Eye” to NHS England about its spending on “Management Consultants” whilst slashing health budgets was rejected on the grounds of “commercial confidentiality”!  However it must show expenditure over £25,000 which revealed that in 2013/14 it spent:

*  £2.8 million on McKinsey (and its ‘sham’ “Healthier Together”)consultation.

*  £13 million to the Big 4 (“bent”) accountants PWC, KPMG, EY and Deloitte. (Deloitte pocketing – £7 million;  KPMG – £ 3.48 million and PWC £1.84 million).

I do not want the NHS budget squandered on even more “unelected quangos” of pointless bureaucrats like the proposed “new strategic body”:
The Greater Manchester Strategic Health and Social Care Partnership Board – supported by:

A joint commissioning board drawn from the 10 local authorities, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and NHS England.

Question: Where are the “Hospital”Representatives on the above commissioning boards? The Specialists, Consultants, Surgeons, Specialists, Oncologists, Cardiologists, Neurologists, Urologists,  Radiologists, Radiotherapists, Pathologists, Psychologists, Geneticists, Haematologists, Paediatricians, Clinicians, Doctors, Nurses, Midwives, Allied Health Professionals, Paramedics et al – THE FRONT LINE OF THE NHS WHO ARE TREATING AND SAVING MILLIONS OF LIVES DAY IN DAY OUT…???

I do not want the NHS budget to be squandered by a “Cabal” of uninformed, uneducated “non-medical” Councillors and their crony “Business Consultants” on local authority “vanity projects” commissioned by Bernstein, Leese and their “overpaid”, “under-worked”, money-grabbing cohorts!

I do not want an “unelected” Mayor to be foisted on Manchester – against the will of its residents who previously REJECTED AN ELECTED MAYOR IN 2012!!!  How dare George Osborne and Howard Bernstein override the will of Mancunians by “imposing” a Mayor we didn’t vote for and don’t want!  MANCHESTER MUST BE GIVEN A REFERENDUM TO VOTE ON THIS ISSUE!

I do not want the National Health Service to be turned into a Regional Health “Business Opportunity” for grubby Council Leaders, Quangos, Privateers and Accountants!

Is a National Health Service free at the point of use for everybody regardless of ability to pay – with responsibility for its administration, services and funding in the hands of the elected Secretary of State for Health and the Department of Health.

A Health Service, run by Clinicians, Specialists, Surgeons, Nurses and Doctors “WHO CARE FOR PATIENTS, WHO CREATE LIVES, REPAIR LIVES, SAVE LIVES” – AND WHO MAKE THE NHS THE GREATEST INSTITUTION  THIS COUNTRY HAS!