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We may well need 'strong leadership' but do you honestly think any one of the options will deliver it? The first one to admit that will be making a start! It is easy to blame the Government but perhaps we, the users of the NHS, need to have a few things spelled out. The time for truth is upon us. Some drugs cost in XS of £100 per day. Some badly burned patients can cost over £7 000 per day and can be in hospital for 100 days or more. HIV treatment costs over £400m anually. Everytime someone enters A&E the tills ring up between £59 and £117. No one ever makes this explicit. Until they do people will keep expecting more. We cannot have more, more, more for less, less, less.
You could have the best commissioning and or management in the world but once all the evidence has been weighed, stakeholders consulted and a decision made (often on the grounds of safety or sustainability or better outcomes) along comes an MP and a newspaper, grossly distorting the facts, and everything is stopped in its tracks!! David Cameron has ruled out the forced closure of A&E and maternity wards in the party's manifesto for England. I am not saying whether it is a good or bad position but it is yet another example of politics and spin getting in the way of decision making. Rant over!!!