The Information Commissioner has finally ruled that Andrew Lansley has broken the law on two occasions in the last year by refusing to issue information properly requested under Freedom of Information Requests.
As the Guardian reports:
The information commissioner, Christopher Graham, has ordered the health secretary to publish the Department of Health's own risk assessment of the potential pitfalls involved in his radical restructuring of the NHS in England.
Lansley's Department of Health had refused to disclose, saying to do so would:
deter from full, candid and proper deliberation of policy formulation and development
That's utterly absurd. As Clare Gerada of the Royal College of General Practitioners (disclosure: my wide is a member) said:
The RCGP, among others, have been concerned for a year about the risks associated with the DH's plans to 'liberate' the NHS; risks such as the increased costs involved, fragmentation of services, and widening of health inequalities — all things that poll after poll has showed that health professionals are worried about. I'm looking forward to seeing what this document says because it could vindicate people like myself who have been speaking out for patients for a year now.
I agree entirely: what Lansley's actually saying is that he wants the law to go through without knowing just how destructive it will be for the NHS. The fact he was so keen to hide the risk - keen enough to break the law twice - is sure indication of how destructive he knows his plans are, and makes me even more worried for the future of healthcare on this country.
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The health care outcomes of the conservative govrrnment’s top down restructuring are completely beside their point. They are designed to re-route public spending into private pockets. No more, no less.
As carpetbaggers, their main concern is getting away with it, nothing else.
It’s instructive to observe the conservatives’ priorities, rather than trying to make sense of the guff they spout.
NHS – an institution which has not failed must be railroaded into the privateers’ hand as quickly as possible.
The Banking system, which has failed catastrophically, well that can wait until 2019 for some window dressing.
What is unforgivable is the silence of the loyal opposition on this matter.
Milliband’s pointless search for some vaguely appealling set of ‘values’ while an institution of great value is ripped off, like so much network rail copper, is an act of complete cowardice.
I share your wish for a much, much more trenchant opposition and am baffled as to why it is not forthcoming
Don’t suppose there is much chance of getting information of the Compass Health deal under the Freedom of Information Act. There must have been due diligence investigations, other suitability assessments and checks on the company subsidiary structures, financial and tax status etc.
The deal is almost bound to be excluded as ‘commercially confidential’
That’s the way to privatise by stealth
“the silence of the loyal opposition on this matter”
From where I’m sitting, it’s worse – allowing privatisation of NHS services here.
I had hope a while ago.
Now I can never forgive
I no longer know what to tell my patients
I have nothing left to say
I am looking for work outside of the ‘NHS’
I am gutted
That would be really sad
But the conflicts of interest Lansley is creating will be too hard for many honest people to bear
That’s how corrupt his “NHS” is