NHS BILLIONS SQUANDERED

The tens of billions of extra cash poured into the National Health Service by Labour has been “largely wasted”, according to a study by the think tank Civitas to be published this week. It says that while the government has mainly succeeded in meeting its NHS targets, the underlying picture is one of “little or no evidence of improvement in NHS performance, which ranks among the worst in the developed world”. Most damningly, the Civitas report finds that any improvements in healthcare in Britain have lagged behind other countries, despite the fact that money has been injected into health in Britain at a much faster rate than elsewhere. “In the vast majority of areas improvements in the NHS have in no way increased in proportion to the vast sums of money ploughed into its coffers,” said James Gubb, the report’s author.

The study shows that spending on the NHS has almost doubled from £44.9 billion six years ago. Even allowing for inflation, the increase is still one-third. Ministers boast that the extra spending means key targets have been met on improved facilities, waiting times, cancer care and coronary heart disease. But the emphasis on targets has resulted in what the report calls “gaming” — other services being neglected in order to achieve targets. In some NHS trusts patients have been kept waiting in ambulances until managers were confident they could meet the four-hour waiting-time target inside the hospital.

The policy has also been accompanied by inefficiency. Official figures show NHS productivity has been declining by up to 0.5% a year, implying that a significant proportion of the extra funds injected have not led to improved patient care. The report also highlights the continued poor performance of the NHS compared with other countries. Britain is virtually the only advanced country not to have recorded an improvement in mortality rates from strokes in recent years, and fatalities are twice the level recorded in Australia, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland and America. Britain ranks 24th out of 27 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development with comparable data in terms of the number of practising doctors per 1,000 population.

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Another scum foreign doctor yawned at by Australian authorities

Queensland Health failed to protect a vulnerable female patient following allegations of serious misconduct by an overseas-trained doctor. Toowoomba health service district allowed Indian-trained Shamshulhague Shaikh to continue working at the hospital following the accusations, transferring him to another ward where he again came in contact with the woman. He was deregistered by the Medical Board of Queensland for "unsatisfactory professional conduct" on July 20 and a brief of evidence containing the serious sexual allegations against him will be forwarded to the Health Practitioners Tribunal in the coming weeks. Police are also investigating the doctor, but would not confirm the nature of the allegation.

Under the terms of his working visa, Dr Shaikh must leave Australia within 28 days - today - or be in breach of immigration laws. Medical Board of Queensland executive officer Jim O'Dempsey said the board "will allege unsatisfactory professional conduct by an ex-registrant in connection with a vulnerable person he treated". A spokeswoman for the board said actions against the doctor would proceed if he were overseas.

A Queensland Health spokeswoman said the district was advised of the complaints last March. No action was taken by the district until they were advised by the doctor himself in June and the district manager and executive director of medical services advised the Ethical Standards Unit. "Once the district was notified of the serious nature of the allegation, arrangements were made to transfer him and interim working conditions were put in place," she said. "At this stage there had been no determination by the (Medical) Board as to whether the allegations were substantiated."

Member for Toowoomba South Mike Horan raised the matter in Parliament last week, questioning Health Minister Stephen Robertson over the "serious complaints" originally made in 2005 and why he was allowed to continue working at the hospital in contact with the woman. Opposition health spokesman Bruce Flegg said for the doctor to have remained working while the investigation was underway was "very, very disturbing" and called for the Minister to declare what he knew.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson said the matter had been referred to the Health Practitioners Tribunal and Dr Shaikh was no longer authorised to to practice in Queensland. "Both the board and Queensland Health are taking a very active interest in this matter to ensure all of the actions that were taken in relation to this doctor were timely and appropriate," he said. A spokesman said he became aware of the allegations in July and would not comment further. "The appropriate action was taken by the District and he supports that action - he doesn't politically intervene in these things," he said.

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation. Both Australia and Sweden have large private sector health systems with government reimbursement for privately-provided services so can a purely private system with some level of government reimbursement or insurance for the poor be so hard to do?

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