Dear Ed ... ( what I should have said when our MP packed my shopping at the Supermarket)
Yes its true, Ed Balls, the last Normanton MP, packed my shopping at Sainsburys on Saturday. Ed was packing shopping to raise money for Levi's Star a Wakefield charity that is raising money for children with brain tumours in memory of Levi Ringer who died from a brain tumour. You can see a picture of Ed packing his shopping on his twitter page.
Ed said how impressed he was with our new surgery premises and how it has made the top of the High Street much smarter. I told Ed how helpful some of my patients had found advice and support from his consistituency office and I said how we were going on holiday on Monday but unlikely to fly due to the Icelandic ash cloud.
But what I should have said was that I would like to cherry pick from all of the parties manifestos:
1) All the parties have expressed support for continued financial support for the NHS but I would trust Labour the most to deliver on this promise. I am particularly impressed by some of the NHS targets; two week wait for patients with suspected cancers, 4 hour wait in A&E and the 18 weeks treatment target from GP referral. Our hospital consultant colleagues often criticise these targets saying that they skew clinical priorities and indeed the Conservatives say they would remove them, but I think that this would just allow Trusts to backslide on these important targets.
2) I would support the large number of business leaders (and the Conservatives) who oppose the rise in employers national insurance. Just over 60% of our costs are staff costs. We are likely to get a 0.8% increase in the value of our contract with the PCT - this will be wiped out by this increase in employer NI - makes no sense to me. The government clearly needs to increase its tax take to reduce the budgetary deficit but it should tax profit not jobs.
3) As I have previously blogged about I would abandon the national Summary Care Record. The Liberal/Democrats are the only ones to say that they would do this. The Department of Health announced last week that it was stopping uploading patient details to the Summary Care Record to allow more consultation with patients. The current situation where consent is implied is unacceptable in my view and much more consultation is needed. I am actually not sure we actually need such a programme and would support its abandoment.
So, Dear Ed - can I get you to change your manifesto to tackle all my concerns?
(PS these opinions are mine alone as some of my colleagues are Daily Mail readers ...)
Ed said how impressed he was with our new surgery premises and how it has made the top of the High Street much smarter. I told Ed how helpful some of my patients had found advice and support from his consistituency office and I said how we were going on holiday on Monday but unlikely to fly due to the Icelandic ash cloud.
But what I should have said was that I would like to cherry pick from all of the parties manifestos:
1) All the parties have expressed support for continued financial support for the NHS but I would trust Labour the most to deliver on this promise. I am particularly impressed by some of the NHS targets; two week wait for patients with suspected cancers, 4 hour wait in A&E and the 18 weeks treatment target from GP referral. Our hospital consultant colleagues often criticise these targets saying that they skew clinical priorities and indeed the Conservatives say they would remove them, but I think that this would just allow Trusts to backslide on these important targets.
2) I would support the large number of business leaders (and the Conservatives) who oppose the rise in employers national insurance. Just over 60% of our costs are staff costs. We are likely to get a 0.8% increase in the value of our contract with the PCT - this will be wiped out by this increase in employer NI - makes no sense to me. The government clearly needs to increase its tax take to reduce the budgetary deficit but it should tax profit not jobs.
3) As I have previously blogged about I would abandon the national Summary Care Record. The Liberal/Democrats are the only ones to say that they would do this. The Department of Health announced last week that it was stopping uploading patient details to the Summary Care Record to allow more consultation with patients. The current situation where consent is implied is unacceptable in my view and much more consultation is needed. I am actually not sure we actually need such a programme and would support its abandoment.
So, Dear Ed - can I get you to change your manifesto to tackle all my concerns?
(PS these opinions are mine alone as some of my colleagues are Daily Mail readers ...)
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