As Roy Carr-Hill remarks, the grounds for (dire) suspicion are the plans to
abolish CHCs.
I've just been watching BBC News 24's coverage of the Alder Hey affair show,
successively,
(1) Milburn prattling on about how this demonstrates the need for an open
accountable NHS (contra, presumably, a vast body of previous opinion that a
secretive, unaccountable NHS would be a good idea?)
(2) a press conference by the Alder Hey relatives group where they
specifically called on the government not to abolish CHCs.
I suspect and hope that item (2) may put a big spanner in this particular
piece of managerialist paternalism, but -- turning now to Sally Ruane's
message passed on by David Byrne:
>> Interestingly, the woman I spoke to beforehand in the public
>enquiries
>> office seemed rather out of her depth. she put a different gloss on
>things,
>> saying the Secr of State believed league tables 'represented
>the whole
>> truth' and that understandably the Secr of State was unhappy with
>one-sided
>> reports (she mentioned the Dr Foster case as an
>illustration). However,
>**she
>> insisted the Secr of State would not be able to make
>independent scrutiny
>a
>> criminal offence - 'it couldn't happen'.**
Possibly not, but since Jack Straw has already managed to get Parliament to
pass a law making it a criminal offence to tell anyone that the authorities
are bugging your e-mail, I rather think it could.
Julian Wells
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