The end is nigh for Johnson

Alan Johnson, aka the Fonz, has officially started the NHS game. He said yesterday "The reality on the ground is that there is a gloomy mood. There has been an awful lot of change in a short period. Staff feel overwhelmed by it. They feel it all flowed down from Whitehall." This is a moment I feared, but I'm afraid Mr Johnson, today is the start of the end of your credible political career, such is the suicidal nature of the DoH and its demand to make credible MPs spout absolute crap.

Let's get something straight for a start. The reason the NHS staff are in a gloomy mood is not because of the rapid change in a short period of time. That would imply it's their fault for not keeping up; or at least that when they have caught their breath they will adjust fine. Wrong. The reason for the gloomy mood is because there are 34,000 doctors who applied on a system that was not fit for purpose to an organisation with only 18,500 places due to poor planning. The reason they are gloomy is because the government is spending £12bn on an IT upgrade system, whilst claiming it has "balanced the books" and also dumping thousands of doctors on the streets without a job. The reason an air of gloom sits over these poor souls is because come the 1st August they will have to turn patients away from hospitals because of patient safety issues associated with the MMC junior doctor synchronised change over day. The reason for the gloom, Mr J, is that they are working in an organisation where frontline patient health care is a secondary priority.

So now the new Secretary of State has announced an 11 month review of the service. A sort of gloom busting report, I suppose. Johnson described it as" once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure that a properly resourced NHS is clinically led, patient-centred and locally accountable". He really has picked up the obligatory NHS bullsh*tting speak very quickly. Whilst the rhetoric may sound good (or not) there will most likely be no change whatsoever from the path our dear Patricia Hewitt sent us ambling down. All this is, is another part of the "Gordon Brown will say change to everything yet not actually be changing anything" plan. This is yet another money wasting review of the NHS and I will eat my hat if it produces anything near solutions. Gloom indeed.