A small victory for common sense?

One of the team saw this news item in Pulse magazine this weekend. For reasons best known to the Party it is scrapping its target that 90% of referrals should be made via the hugely expensive and failed Choose and Book (C&B) system.

Now this does not sound like an earth shattering story but look at when this target was supposed to have been met. Look to the article to see what the latest figures for percentage of referrals being made by C&B. 53% in June of this year (2010) and in June 2009 the figure was the same and that was down from a “high” of 56% the previous October.

res ipsa loquitur?

GPs know C&B is crap, anyone who uses it, predominantly medical secretaries in GP practices, know it is crap which gets crapper with every upgrade made to it. It is nothing more than a Party sponsored bean counter and a means to control access to secondary care. It is the prime denier of choice within the NHS as we know it and is still Party sponsored.

We said it was a small victory and that it is all it is. We know of some Soviets that are still forcing GPs to use C&B using the well known Soviet principle of Hobson’s choice.

More worrying is the bit in the article which says:

“The DH has indicated that GP consortia should maintain and invest in the system as they take over from PCTs and this week backed the system despite dropping the 90% target.”

Given the choice of investing in real healthcare for an ill patient, or investing in a very expensive failed piece of Party enforced IT, we wonder what our patients would want any GP commissioners to spend their tax pounds on?

What will the free from top down interference new Party allow? Will a certain percentage use of C&B now be a NICE new “outcome” to reflect “quality” practice and thereby tick another box instead of a top down “target”?

Praise be the Party for appearing to realize the error of their ways but in practice it is business as usual.