Coda from Day One
I managed to grab a quick question with David Nicholson yesterday after his content-lite speech.

Good morning from Manchester, where the NHS Alliance's 12th annual conference kicks off - and let's hope it does. As mentioned in my interview with Alliance chief executive Michael Sobanja, the event has an honorable history of straight talking. (And it's interesting to compare the agenda for 2009 with this interview from this time last year, with Alliance chair Michael Dixon. It's also a bit depressing that the key issues have seen little change in the past year.)

Bill Moyes has had a good war as executive chair of independent foundation trust regulator Monitor, a job he will stop doing in January 2010.

Governments get tired and stale. The media and the electorate grow used to their tricks. They are the focus of blame for those who like to blame the government: so much easier than blaming oneself.

Lo! The Care Quality Commission has spoken on quality. Look upon their works, ye 47 underachieving trusts, and despair.

Last week, the second Wellards annual conference - ‘Looking ahead to 2010/11: healthcare beyond the next general election’ - was held in London (declaration of interest - I do some work for Wellards, including writing and marketing / PR support).

A few strong statements were made, and I've themed a few quotes together below here to give you a taste. My full write-up can be found here, in our features section.

On the need for NHS cost-cutting and savings:

Private Eye is one of the most free bits of the free press. Regular readers of that esteemed organ will have had little difficulty decoding the article on today’s Guardian about the latest work of Carter-Ruck solicitors.

“The NHS is safe with us” was the infamous line of Margaret Thatcher’s, in response to the leaking of a Cabinet discussion paper proposing a private health insurance system for the UK, to break up the NHS.

Many people did not quite believe Mrs Thatcher’s line, even though the NHS saw real growth in spending every year (if not always above inflation, and far behind the levels of comparably wealthy countries).

There is an intriguing story on The Guardian website about antitrust proceedings by the EU against certain pharma companies, on the back of previous reports about generic gerrymandering.

Markets and healthcare are a combustible mixture.

I wanted to wait until shadow chancellor George Osborne had spoken before writing anything about Andrew Lansley’s speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester yesterday.