[john horscroft]

I read an interesting fact the other day (from Ben Goldacre's blog)...

There have been 15 major reorganisations of the NHS in 30 years so how the fuck does anyone know whether one is better than another when there has been insufficient time for each reorganisation to take effect before the next one is ushered in and more importantly little to no effort has actually been done to objectively quantify the "performance" under each of these.  Healthcare is clearly an emotive subject for a lot of the electorate at any given time, but it shouldn't be used as political leverage as thats a huge disservice to those its meant to be helping and healing.

Interestingly, I heard a piece on Radio 4 t'other day, some expert or other explaining that there have been detailed studies of previous 'reorganisations'.  The most important point was that competition based on price, the coalition plan, is nearly always bad for the patient.  Competition on outcome would seem to be the obvious way forward, but god forbid logic played a part in this fuck up.....

[slackline]

Be interesting to know where the assessments have been published as the linked article suggets otherwise and that reorganisations aren't routinely assessed for how effective they are.  Do you remember what show it was on Radio 4 you were listening to?

Given that the "coalition" is trying to save money this makes for grim reading (cited in the BMJ article) as it shows that reorganisation is very expensive (and with no proven benefit in a lot of instances).

[john horscroft]

Sorry Slackers, I'm being a bit vagur here, but I'm pretty sure it was on Today.  I've had a search and found nowt, but then I am a numpty.

I think you're right though.  The research is decidedly patchy and I think the general drift was that the work that has been done was generaaly damning.  Can't be any more precise than that which I'm sure is going to make your evidence based head spin   

[i.munro]

Given that the "coalition" is trying to save money

[Ru]

Sense at last.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12399845

[slackline]

Sense at last.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12399845

Thats great news, strange that their not registered as charities though if they run off of donations, as I thought charities get tax-breaks.

[slackline]

What the fuck is he on? (So I know to avoid it)

Linked in the comments is lobbying by private healthcare company at tory conference 

[SpanishJuan]

Paul Mason - Twenty reasons why it's kicking off everywhere

[aLICErOBERTSfANkLUB]

Twitter.

Apparently, crap anyone publishes in a public forum, for public consumption...

is in the public domain.

Who'd ever've thunk that, eh?

http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2011/02/09/press-complaints-commission-says-tweets-arent-private/

[Jaspersharpe]

Paul Mason - Twenty reasons why it's kicking off everywhere

http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,10191.msg300953.html#msg300953 

[Jaspersharpe]

"I'm a big fan of you – are you Tony Blair?"

[Jaspersharpe]

http://thefriend.org/article/an-exploited-generation/

Disgraceful.

[Jaspersharpe]

Take that Gove you cunt!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/11/gove-school-building-court

[aLICErOBERTSfANkLUB]

Don't you get the impression that the *really* important news stories get missed by the agencies and the wires?

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2011/02/12/212161_ntnews.html

[aLICErOBERTSfANkLUB]

Sometimes things are just beyond satire


http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/britain-gets-comfy-as-melanie-phillips-explains-'biblical-sexuality'-201102143539/


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1356699/David-Cameron-Tory-Prime-Minister-upholding-traditional-morality-bigotry.html

[Jaspersharpe]

Littlejohn........twat.....moron....etc.....

http://primlystable.blogspot.com/2011/02/littlejohn-plagiarises-self-still-gets.html

[jamiev]

Littlejohn........twat.....moron....etc.....

How he gets away with just making up his bilious putrid garbage astounds me. I suppose he's trolling for reactions & playing to the gallery...but lots of his readers take him seriously. Time for a press complaints commission which has some teeth

[slackline]

Listen to the numbers not the spin

I'll raise a glass to that 

[slackline]

We want transparency....but not ours

Fucking dicks trying to make up shit, resorting to "Its too expensive" and basing that on unrealistic proposals (e.g. no one has said electronic voting or counting is required) basically shows that they haven't got much of a case to make as to why the Alternative Voting system shouldn't replace the outdated first-past the post.

I seriously hope the referendum a) has a good turn out; b) is a win for the "Yes" camp.

[slackline]

Let the right rich ones in  usual Tory bullshit of looking out for the rich and everyone else can fuck-off.

[ChrisC]

Anyone from the East Midlands will probably recognise this one...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357830/BBC-weatherman-court-brandishing-shotgun-road-rage-incident.html

[slackline]

Someone at the Daily Mail appears to understand what risk and probability means.

If only this could be applied at the editorial level to stem the flow of nonsense stories about how everything causes/prevents cancer. 

[Jaspersharpe]

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/17/why-havent-the-banks.html

[superfurrymonkey]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/18/barclays-bank-113m-corporation-tax
Paid just £113m in UK corporation tax in 2009 – a year when it rang up a record £11.6bn of profits. Thats just 1% 

[aLICErOBERTSfANkLUB]

So. If, say, I become unemployed for a year, and need to take out loans and go into debt.

Then the next year, I get a job - I don't have to pay the full rate of PAYE as I "lost" money the previous year?


Oh. If only there were accountants (tax, personal finance, or otherwise) on hand to advise us...