NHS prescription

SO far, the NHS election debate has been characterised by the number of bureaucrats who should lose their jobs – and assertions by Edward Leigh, the outgoing chairman of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, that patients would not notice any difference if many non-medical staff were laid off.
By The Newsroom
Published 29th Mar 2010, 23:24 BST
Updated 29th Mar 2010, 23:24 BST

Disappointingly, it has not focused on the savings that could,

potentially, be accrued if patients did not face a continuing "postcode lottery" over the time that it takes to diagnose a serious condition, like a stroke, and for effective treatment to begin to enhance a victim's recovery prospects.

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This is borne out by today's perturbing report which reveals stroke victims are likely to be seen within three hours in London while some patients locally have to wait up to 48 hours – increasing the

likelihood of complications, long-term disability and all the additional care costs that this entails.

It simply does not make sense that some hospitals, such as the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby, had unacceptably high waiting times for scans because some scanners were being locked away out of hours, even though there were radiographers present who could operate them.

Presumably, this is because an administrator without clinical expertise – rather than a senior doctor – was left in charge of the decision-making. This culture needs curing. Yet are any of the main parties able, or capable, of prescribing the necessary medicine?

Related topics:NHSParliamentLondonGrimsby