The NHS chief executive, Sir David Nicholson, has defended the appointment of a highly paid “head of brand”, saying that in the new era of increased private healthcare it was necessary to protect the service’s distinctive blue and white logo from unwarranted use.

Absolutely right. People trust and value the NHS; we don’t want some US private health company masquerading as our beloved NHS.

So why does he go on to say that with the growing number of private healthcare providers it’s important that they “understand what it means to be part of the NHS, the culture and the values, and treat their patients accordingly”?

‘Why we don’t we just adopt the successful McDonald’s business model? We could have an NHS university for healthcare managers’

When the chief executive of the NHS talks of protecting the blue and white logo, he seems to mean that we need to ensure any private company using it has signed up to the culture and values of the NHS.

Just like McDonald’s then. If you want to use their distinctive golden arches you have to sign up to their company values and treat customers accordingly.

Well why we don’t we just adopt the successful McDonald’s business model? We could have an NHS university for healthcare managers and the NHS distance learning programme for customer facing staff. Services are franchised but with strict compliance to size, colour and location of logo − and of course the NHS’s company values. 

Have a nice day now.

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