April 28, 2006
Scotsman Prescription Campaign
The Scotsman has a campaign to get free prescriptions for sufferers of life-threatening and chronic diseases. A related Scottish Executive consultation closes on Sunday.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=633042006
news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=57&id=634662006
Posted by Simon Holledge at 08:46 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 19, 2006
Foreign doctors: change of status protest
Serious illnesses are indicated by multiple symptoms. So it is with the NHS. Despite government protestations we have one public issue after another, affecting every aspect of the service. Rarely has the breakdown of a system been so comprehensive.
One issue which has not yet hit the middle pages is the position of junior foreign doctors. For years, they have helped fill gaps in the NHS, coming to Britain for both career advancement and (increasingly in recent years) for higher pay.
In order to facilitate the employment of these doctors, the Home Office invented a ‘no work permit required’ category. They were described as being in ‘training’, while typically earning net salaries of around GBP 20,000 to 30,000 per annum. (I suppose one of the purposes of bureaucracies is to create interesting anomalies.) Those wishing to get this status had to take the so-called PLAB (Professional and Linguistic assessments Board) test, organized by the GMC - a large industry in its own right.
Now there are too many doctors. Not too many from the point of view of patients who can’t get treatment, but from the point of view of overspending NHS officials. One reason for this is that the training scheme for young doctors has been changed (shortened) in such a way that those at the beginning and middle of the process have suddenly had to chase fewer and fewer jobs. Over the past six months it has been common for hospitals to get hundreds of applications for a single job. (This has also affected young British doctors as well and many have left the country to try to get jobs in places like Australia and New Zealand.)
The response from the Home Office has been to end the ‘no work permit required’ status for foreign doctors from July. Unfortunately many young doctors have been caught in the middle of the changes. The BAPIO (British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin) is organizing a protest march on 21 April. They explain:
“We are international medical graduates, who have passed PLAB, and are trying to get fair treatment. Many of us are already here in the UK and are in training posts, but are being treated unequally. Why are we protesting? Because the rules have been changed suddenly, without proper consultation or warning and unilaterally.”
UPDATE 21 April 2006
This story has now been taken up by the BBC and press.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4928954.stm
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4929902.stm
Posted by Simon Holledge at 07:33 PM | TrackBack
April 15, 2006
Malcolm Kendall-Smith and the legality of the Iraq War
Malcolm Kendall-Smith, an RAF medical officer who refused to serve in Iraq, has just been court-martialed. He was given an 8 month sentence, a dishonourable discharge and a legal bill for GBP 20,000.
The RAF prosecution made a statement that:
“British troops are operating in Iraq under a United Nations mandate and at the invitation of the Iraqi government. The judge advocate ruled that the court would not accept his defence that the war was illegal and a panel of his peers have convicted him on that basis.”
Many people would not recognize that version of the situation in Iraq. I hope we hear more from Kendall-Smith.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=567932006
Posted by Simon Holledge at 11:12 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 03, 2006
Will Labour block Lords reform?
Peter Riddell in the Times believes that “Lords reform is doomed to fail”. He writes:
There is an inherent conflict between defending the supremacy of the Commons and making the composition of the Lords more “legitimate”, less aristocratic and more democratic.
Of course real democracies, whether unicameral or bicameral, elect all (yes, all) their representatives.
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17129-2110315,00.html
Posted by Simon Holledge at 10:50 AM | TrackBack
April 02, 2006
Buy a virtual peerage!
Using an idea pioneered by the Labour Party, Elect the Lords are selling virtual peerages. Starting from just GBP 10 for a virtual barony (your choice of title, latin motto, coat of arms, certificate of authenticity etc.) prices are competitive with the domains sold by Network Solutions, GoDaddy etc.
Sales are completely clean and above board. The small type says “The Elect the Lords campaign regrets that it cannot accept a loan as payment.”