News from nowhere

Mighty fallen 1?

Two stalwart champions of the NHS spoke off the record in NfN mole’s presence recently, describing with some hurt and even bitterness how they were let down by the health service. It’s still the envy of the world, of course. The personal is political? Nope, the personal should subordinate itself to the political every time.

Mighty fallen 2?

The legendary Professor Brian Jarman (now crunching numbers in Boston for the edification of star-struck American health economists) is going to be the next president of the BMA. It’s a figurehead position, of course, but even so, why? Why would a wise and politically astute academic want to be president of a craft guild with more restrictive practices to its credit than there are numbers in a deprivation index?

Public money down the drain

Here’s a story for the legal minded. An NHS manager takes early retirement on health grounds because of the stress of working for a bullying consultant, and the employing trust pays her a handsome sum.

Then she sues the trust for not disciplining the nasty piece of specialist work, so averting her stress-related illness and premature departure from the understaffed NHS. The trust offers her the same amount again, but she declines, and the solicitors letters start flying. The trust has twice disciplined the public school oink, but on another related issue, and has always run into the solid wall of BMA intransigence when thinking of more substantial action. So it will raise the offer, seeking to settle out of court.

If it does Crown Indemnity will mean that the offending doctor will carry on working (and maybe bullying), the public purse will pay the hush money, and yet another disgruntled citizen will have learned how to milk the system.

NfN counsels the trust to go to court, invite the press, tell the whole truth about how hard it is to take any action against a senior doctor, no matter how badly they behave to other staff, and – win or lose – give the legal bill to the villain. Bet they don’t take this advice, though. Repeat after us: ‘the envy of the world.’

The BMA – a statement

Readers may erroneously believe that NfN does not much like the BMA. Untrue! Most of our moles are members, and we love it dearly.