Good stuff from the new Government thus far, but don't get too comfortable, warns Copperfield.
Blimey. Never a dull moment.
Darzi's plans are flushed down the khazi . Revalidation remains exactly where it belongs, in limbo. And the Government sounds like it's about to give the two fingered salute to the patient survey .
All good stuff. And it makes you wonder just how much of a nudge we'd need to give Cleggeron, Lambsley et al to really make our day by blowing other sacred cows to smithereens.
I'm thinking in particular of the self-indulgent quasi educational fluff-brained plate of cack that is the appraisal system and the patient-indulging quasi empowering hare-brained plate of cack that is NHS Direct.
I'm sure other plates of cack will spring to mind (in fact, they have already: Choose and Book, two week waits and so on), but I won't get too excited.
After all, the coalition has already shown it's capable of producing monstrous U-turns back down the road to ruin when it had appeared to be heading in a sensible direction – such as its inexplicable and bonkers volte-face about Summary Care Records.
Which leaves me with three thoughts, each of increasing levels of despair. One, I've no idea what will happen next.
Two, Governments abhor a vacuum, which means new strategies will be developed to replace the ones the politicians have just scrapped, making us more change fatigued than ever; or there will be more new policy U-turns to leave us where we were, only more exasperated.
And third, what a criminal waste of finances: the easy scrapping of many of these initiatives is testament to how dumb-arsed they were in the first place. If a fraction of the money spent had been diverted into something worthwhile, the NHS would now be a much better, less cack-filled place. It wasn't, so it isn't.
'Sick Notes' by Dr Tony Copperfield is out now, available from Monday Books.
More CopperfieldSick Notes by Dr Tony Copperfield is out now, published by Monday Books.
