Inconsideration from Cameron continues over NHS reform

News today that David Cameron has failed to consolidate with NHS experts opposing his plans, only highlights further the complete mess the coalition has made over NHS reform. The British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing, which want the bill to be withdrawn, say they have not been asked to attend Mondays event.

It strikes me that Cameron is only interested in negotiating with those who are already in favour of his proposed reforms. Despite widespread criticism, he is failing to take into consideration opinions of two major bodies representing health officials.

Furthermore, increasingly I wonder whether now is the right time at all to introduce NHS reforms, when the government instead should be focusing more upon issues such as welfare reform and unemployment. 

QT's NHS debate gets lost in the detail

With the resignation of Liam Fox on Friday, it was the debate on the NHS which I focused upon on this week’s Question Time. Arguably, it was a fitting panel to have discussing the NHS, with the health secretary Andrew Lansley as well as the media savvy doctor, Phil Hammond. Eagerly anticipating a balanced and level debate, I was disappointed to witness a rather heated discussion which did not prove to be nearly as insightful as I had imagined.

Clearly here were two men who were incredibly knowledgeable and indeed passionate about the NHS. For a spectator however, it meant a far less open and informative debate. Hammond was continuously grilling Lansley about his reforms even stating that they were ‘incomprehensible’ as well as pointing out that the word ‘competition’ appeared 85 times, within his reforms. In short, the real problem was simply that they knew too much about the topic, and got bogged down in minute detail, whereas what we needed as viewers was a broader brush approach.

At times the debate got overly heated, with David Dimbleby appearing to almost lose control. However he did show good chairmanship eventually by cooling the mood down with a more light hearted question on MP’s tweeting in parliament, brining the debate back on track.