Defence reviews, the NHS and who is the real enemy?

This week in the UK there has been published a defence review which is a euphemism for defence cuts against a background of a bankrupt economy which must see things go.

Certain things here at ND Central struck us at how defence and the NHS ride a similar route to obtain the same result. While defence is about protecting us from without should we not be looking at the enemy within namely Government and Party ideologically driven incompetence?

One of the biggest things in the defence review is that the UK will spend £ 6 billion on 2 new aircraft carriers. Most excellent news apart from the fact that they will have no jet aircraft on them for many a few years to come.

This would never happen in the NHS. No-one would be daft enough to spend £ 12 billion on a failed computer system meant to do 90% of all NHS referrals by December 2006 that only now just manages 50% of referrals. Would they?

No-one would top slice budgets to fund privately run ISTCs (Independent Sector Treatment Centres) which run at below capacity but, at which whatever level they run, still cost the tax payer 100% of cost regardless of numbers of patients treated (or aircraft taking off from them?). Would they?

New defence threats have been identified like that of an influenza pandemic. Did we not have one of those PanicDemics last year whereby the collective incompetence of Government invented a nonexistent threat that almost took down general practice due to goading of the Public to panic in mass numbers? Nobody would be that daft, would they?

Cyber terrorism is identified as a “new” threat to the UK. This is made so much easier by incompetent but expensive IT provision at the behest of the State. NHS IT is a victim of its own incompetence as the drive towards centralisation of medical records leaves it open to being crippled by a few well placed pounds of explosive or a local IT idiot who knows nothing. No-one would design a central medical records’ system that vulnerable to being crippled on a regular basis by its own, would they?

All of these of examples of how poor the NHS/Defence departments are. All of the above of examples whereby there is an enemy which impacts on those on the front line.

Who is that enemy? Well in general practice it is the Department of Health and the local Soviets aka PCTs who for years have been mismanaging locally central policy and whenever they cock up it is our problem to sort out even though it is their responsibility.

And the MOD? Well far be it for us to comment given that locally jobs will go.

Praise be to the Party for all of their reviews. They serve us all so well.

We in general practice, and our colleagues in secondary care, will carry on picking up the pieces. The Party may not be happy for some “aircraft” may be forced to land on "aircraft carriers" that they should not be allowed to.

And that is less expensive and better than ditching in the drink . . . but GP commissioning should stop all of that by delivering empty carriers like the defence department?