Morning. No time for anything much yet today, so here are some links:

to a response piece I wrote for Guardian Public about not assuming entrepreneurialism will solve every NHS problem

In a recent Public Policy Projects discussion breakfast at the House of Commons, two speakers – a management consultant and former DH director and a current acute chief executive (anonymised on the Chatham House rule) – discussed their thoughts on the next stage of UK heath reform in economically straitened times.

The first speaker outlined four prerequisites for recovery:
1. building public consensus for political prioritisation of public spending
2. spare no sector from cuts of 10-15%

I have taken my eye off what is happening with Darzi centres - or polyclinics - or 8-8 GP-led health centres - or APMS centres. Which was unwise of me. The profusion of names should have given me a clue.

The basic concept - of creating something to enable improved access to GPs, primary care and diagnostics, particularly in poorer and traditionally under-doctored areas - was a good one. The roll-out - with the Sir David "look out to your communities, not up to Whitehall" Nicholson DH ordering every PCT to create one - was guaranteed to put some in the wrong places.

I'm not wildly bothered about homeopathy - or magic medicine, as its opponents term it. If water had a memory, it would be thoroughly reluctant to come out of the tap and pass through our bodies again. (Yes, I do live in London.)

I've only been offered it once - ironically, in medicines-mad France, when I was looking for a product for a teething daughter.

A loud bravo for The Guardian, which in this article, outs disparities in mortality rates for vascular surgery across the NHS in England.

The article shows that "some hospitals have unacceptably high mortality.

"It demonstrates the case for the closure of small hospital units, which the government has put on hold. Death rates vary from less than one in 50 in some hospitals to more than one in 10 in others".

In the new report, Axing And Taxing by the Social Market Foundation, there are three new ideas of varying quality.

The good ...
Their good idea is that public sector workers should contribute and extra 1% of salary into pension contributions. It would be reasonable to see further incremental contributions over a long timescale, but this is a sensible start on a massive problem for future generations.

... the bad ...

You probably could make this up, but you'd need a scriptwriter who'd taken some pretty hefty narcotics.

In the new interview podcast for Doctors Net UK, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley CBE MP makes one of the most unintentionally hilarious promises imaginable.

There has been much question over whether and how Lansleyism would keep its pre-electoral promises that, in David Cameron's phrase "those targets you hate, they're gone".

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear.

The BMA's LMC conference has escaped, into the real world.

Whatever is said at the LMC conference has to be taken with a pound of salt. This is where the BMA talks to itself.

Unfortunately, they invite or press release all of the trade press; not just Pulse and Healthcare Republic

Former Conservative Health Secretary 1995-97 Stephen Dorrell MP is the new chair of the influential House of Commons Health Select Committee.

Dorrell was elected by a big majority of the vote among MPs, beating Nadine Dorries in the second, transferable voting round.

"Bring me sunshine ..."

During his statement on the new Mid-Staffordshire inquiry, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley CBE MP gave the Black Spot to the 4-hour maximum waiting time target in A&E – with the proviso “as it currently stands”.

It is a fascinating decision, and not one without political and clinical risks.