It is very difficult to make junior's lives better, however much you may want to. I wanted to increase my SHO
establishment to make a rota less awful, and simply got turned down flat by the post-graduate Dean. So where are all
these Consultants promised by 2004 coming from then? It seems to me to make a lot more sense to start training now
rather than expecting people to flood here from elsewhere because the NHS is so much better than wherever they are
from. With the exception of a handful of very poor nations, the brutal truth is that it is considerably worse on almost any
measure one wishes to use as a comparator. There is this terrible smell of colonialism about the Department of Health
these days which would be quaint if it wasn't so serious.
Who else remembers the days throughout the '80s when the health service was being steadily dismantled by the
Thatcher government? Time and time again doctors' leaders would warn of the consequences of cutting investment in
infrastructure, cutting investment in technology, destroying R&D, the infamous year after year 3% 'efficiency savings'
and most pernicious of all of course cutting beds? They were turned away with claims of self interest. Of course they
were not soothsayers, they were right to warn. But nobody wanted to listen; the Government didn't, and the punters
were too busy delighting in their tax savings to give a toss, as of course young well taxpayers don't need much in the
way of health care. There really was no such thing as society with that shower, and it is proving very difficult to undo
their appalling damage. Money now coming in is simply disappearing like rain on parched earth - and anyone who
believes Alan Milburn when he says, "Money is not an issue in the health service" is probably certifiable.
Best wishes,
Rowley Cottingham
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http://www.emergencyunit.com
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