Dear Ralph

You paint a bleak future for the profession within these isles with your
abject dismissal of a dedicated regulator. Whilst you might make the claim
(again) that you do so from the point of view as a realist, I would have
hoped that you might have injected some optimism into your thinking by now.
When one hears of senior members in this profession holding their hands
aloft in defeat, without even engaging in battle, what inspiration and hope
will others take from that? If I were a six-form pupil considering my
career options just now and I happened across this discussion forum and
read your pessimistic outlook, would I be enthused about a life in
podiatry? Would anyone?

Your argument against setting up a General Podiatry Council is that the
Government and the Department of Health would not be in favour of such a
body; therefore it would be pointless for the profession to act in
isolation. Last August I supported your position on the basis that such a
move, without a supporting strategy for improving clinical delivery, would
be viewed as hostile by the incumbent administration, and might very well
produce the opposite of the intended action. However, during the last
fourteen months, the reality of the HPC Act has finally come to bear, and
it wouldn’t be terribly difficult to highlight the failings of the
legislation in providing the public with an informed choice from within the
available competence. You take the view that this is best done by working
with the HPC; others take the view that an independent regulator is the
best way forward. I personally favour the latter but acknowledge that this
cannot be achieved, in England & Wales at least, without the support and
backing of the Society. Is your view, therefore, consistent with that of
your membership?

Finally, I note this morning that the Society of Radiographers has rejected
the NHS ‘Agenda of Change’ for a second time with an overall 83% voting
against acceptance. The Society is organising a rally in London to protest.
Their press release yesterday reports;
<<“This further refusal to accept the proposals will put pressure on the
Department of Health to address the key issues that radiographers find
unacceptable,” said Ann Pollard, the Society’s President.
“No one wants us to take industrial action, least of all the government,
but they must understand that issues such as increased working hours for no
additional pay is unacceptable to our members. The failure of the
government to address this has led to a total lack of confidence in the
system and continuing misgivings over the unsatisfactory on-call and
emergency duty payments, as well as a structure that does not allow staff
to progress smoothly through the profession,” she continued.
“We are expecting significant concessions.” >
I also note today that the Sunderland results are out for podiatry with the
Senior II rate being pegged at band 5 – seven points short of the expected
band 6. This represents a pay freeze for many podiatrists for the
foreseeable future. Will you be following the radiographers’ stance?

Yours sincerely

Mark Russell


The point of living and of being an optimist is to be foolish enough to
believe that the best is yet to come.   – Peter Ustinov

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