Have the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) completely missed the point? They have recently criticised the Dept. of Health’s deal with Dr Foster, who provide the Good Hospital Guide. They have helpfully (and rightly) pointed out that the contract represents poor value for money due to a less than competitive tendering procedure.
While I am sure the PAC feels it has a very valuable role ensuring that us tax payers get value for money, it is left to us tax payers to ask why do we need a Good Hospital Guide in the first place?! Let me get this straight – we are paying for the PAC to tell us that a pointless guide is bad value for money, not because it’s pointless, but because the DH haven’t followed strict, bureaucratic tendering procedures?
What will the government pull from its generous pockets (filled with our money) next – the Good Supermarket Guide? The Good Newspaper Guide? No thanks – I’ll decide where I shop and what I read, I don’t need to pay for this sort of meaningless insight from our nannying PM and ever generous Chancellor. After all, hospitals are only offering a customer services, and as a customer I don’t need the government to waste money on telling me where to catch what superbug. Gordon is spending enough of my taxes on the NHS already, thank you.