I psyched myself up to write a blog this Friday (28 August) welcoming the Cooperation and Competition Panel’s report due out to day. Its notice of possible recommendations, a couple of months back, encouraged me to write about its positive findings, and how it agreed with the HCSA argument that the government can’t have patient choice yet deny NHS consultants the right to deliver it.
And anyway this is a free country, and if consultants want to work outside NHS contracted hours then any such denial would be a breach of human rights. If consultants can stack shelves in Sainsbury’s (or more likely Waitrose) to ease recessionary pressures then why can they not also treat patients in their spare time?
I got ever so excited and looked forward to writing in sheer praise of the panel’s prescient consideration, its robust rebuttal of any counter view and a rollicking endorsement of a basic human right. But then I got nervous…
It is now 3.30 pm on the Friday afternoon its report was due. Its web-site remains silent. This is a bank holiday weekend; the perfect time to bury bad news. My nerves eased a bit when I asked myself whether actually the possible bad news might actually be possible good news for consultants.
While I wait for the answer I looked around for something else of national health significance to blog about. I found the Department of Health’s earth shattering research suggesting that people drink more whilst on their holidays. I gave up.
Have a good Bank Holiday.
Tags: CCP, Privatisation
