Health Matters | Paul Corrigan's blog

The dust is settling on the Government’s U turn on NHS reforms (referred to by my old boss Alan Milburn as the biggest car crash in NHS policy history). As the view becomes a little clearer it’s possible to see what was there before the winds blew dust in our faces. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week Whitehall was awash with rumours about the policy deals that had been completed with their resulting amendments to the redrafted Health and Social Care Bill. Parliament too was full of rumours about the political changes that had been completed in order to get the Bill through (or alternatively kill it off).

Others are better placed to blog about this gossip, what I want to do this week is to try and work out two political and two policy issues. Read the rest of this entry »

I was pleased to notice that the Guardian, in its editorial on the Tuesday 17^th, picked up on the odd way in which the Prime Minister talks about how much he loves the NHS.

Back in April I mentioned the very strange leaflet that was produced by the Government (using public money for what was a profoundly political leaflet) which went on rather oddly about how much they love the NHS. Read the rest of this entry »

This ‘listening exercise’ – even if it is not a serious attempt by the Government to change course – does give the rest of us two months to mobilise both policy and argument for sensible reform after this 11 month disaster. Read the rest of this entry »

Luckily this blog does not have to engage too deeply with the politics surrounding the Coalition Government’s policy on public expenditure cuts. That means the efficacy or otherwise of last Saturday’s TUC march and the Labour Opposition’s policy on the cuts is not a core issue for us. Read the rest of this entry »

As I said in my blog on July 26^th “Liberation through conscription will not work.” Making GPs do something that they don’t want to is and was a recipe for disaster. Since there are some GPs who are , in the current Secretary of State’s words, ’enthusiastic’ about commissioning working with them will move the policy forward. Making those who don’t want to commission was daft then and is daft now. Read the rest of this entry »

Friday saw the clearest media analysis I have found of what is right and what is wrong with the Government’s NHS reforms.

The FT doesn’t allow me to simply copy any of their articles so I must respect that, but if you can find a copy of it, or are registered with the FT, it’s really well worth a read. Read the rest of this entry »

Another post from inside the world of politics about the next steps in the Government’s NHS reform plans. A number of my friends in the NHS have asked me to explain the impact of the Government not having a compelling narrative on the reforms. How can something as seemingly flimsy as a narrative have an impact on something as seemingly powerful and concrete as a new organisation which is central to the reform? Read the rest of this entry »

The best way of explaining what I mean by the “politics of position” for the politics of the NHS is to give a stunning example of the politics of manoeuvre.

On Wednesday February 23^rd the TUC ran a story detailing how 50,000 jobs would be lost in the NHS. The Government contested the figures as an exaggeration. This is typical positional politics. It is not surprising that the TUC run such stories, or that they will regularly campaign on it. It is not surprising that the Government will contest the number as “exaggerated”. It’s not that this is unimportant but it contains nothing new. Read the rest of this entry »

This week I would like to explain what a “war of position” means. Today I’m looking at politics in general and tomorrow I’ll outline how that relates to the politics of the NHS in March 2011. Read the rest of this entry »