View From The House - 3rd August 2000

Reprinted From The Lichfield Mercury

Reasonable Force. The law is becoming an ass. It has come to something when political correctness (PC) means that a headmistress is sentenced to a 3 month suspended prison sentence for slapping an unruly child who was attacking her. At another level, I know a policeman who has been suspended from duty after trying to restrain a drunk in a pub. The yob had already hit someone and (while lashing out at the arresting police officer) the drunk fell over and cracked a rib in the process. The drunk was fined, the police officer awaits a verdict on his future career in the service. Note that PC means we cannot say "Police Force" anymore. It's now the Police Service. When the law becomes an ass it needs to be changed. Police officers are now cautious of making arrests; teachers are uneasy about how to restrain aggressive pupils. And, a different matter, teachers are equally uneasy about putting a comforting arm around a distressed child's shoulders lest the teacher be accused of sexual assault.

I am recommending to the Home Affairs Select Committee, of which I am a member, that this whole area of the law be re-examined. It really can't carry on as it is.

The NHS. The Statement made in the House of Commons by the Prime Minister may herald a rebirth for the NHS. The acid test will be what it means to patients here in Lichfield and in the country at large. Frank Dobson (remember him?) when he was Secretary of State for Health announced extra funds for the NHS and plans to reduce waiting lists. The result? South Staffordshire, in common with the majority of health authorities, now has more people waiting for over a year for operations than since the last general election.

Part of the problem is the way in which the NHS is run. It is now the second largest organisation in Europe: second only to the Russian Army. Instead of giving the freedom for the NHS to be run locally, Labour are centralising control. This old fashioned and socialist technique just doesn't work. I for one am surprised that Tony Blair has reverted to this old discredited tax, spend and centralise policy. Instead of allowing GPs to choose where their patients are treated, ensuring that money follows the patients, the abolition of GP Fundholding in 1998 has resulted in patients having to follow where Government allocates the money. This in part is why the future of the Vic and its Maternity Services are now in such peril.

Although the extra money promised for the NHS by the PM is to be welcomed (though beware: the figures promised for years ahead and announced dramatically as one lump sum is contingent on the economy in the future), most of it is earmarked for eye catching - some would say 'vote catching' - projects which will not affect the future of hospitals in Lichfield and Burntwood. Of course, some of the targets are very worthwhile. There are plans to increase cancer screening and to reduce waiting lists to under 6 months. It remains to be seen whether these can be achieved and without nasty side effects. (The last unsuccessful attempt by this Government to reduce waiting lists resulted in easy and quick operations being performed first while more serious and complex procedures such as heart by-passes were delayed still further. When that failed to reduce the waiting lists enough, a new list was started: the waiting list to see a specialist before referral for an operation). Some other plans are more gimmicky: to provide payphones and televisions by each hospital bed.

It would seem that very little new money will be made available for the South Staffordshire Health Authority to save local services. But we can but hope. In the meantime this uncertainty is causing staff recruitment problems let alone anxiety for local residents.