Taking the pith out of the Health & Social Care Bill - “Integrate my chutzpah”: Andrew ‘Not Looking For A Fight’ Lansley

Wow. That was insane.

Really, properly insane. Insane for grown-ups. That, ladies and gentlemen, was Insane 2.0.

The hog-whimperingly reality-free nature of the goings-on of recent weeks slightly defy belief - let alone summary and analysis.

However. It’s time to catch up on the funniest show in town. Fill your glass with something warming; down it in one; refill; repeat. Deep breath. OK. Here we go.

This guest editorial from Irwin Brown of the Socialist Health Association raises an eyebrow laconically at the refusal to publish the Risk Register for the Health And Social Care Bill.

The spectacular chaos that surrounds the Health & Social Care Bill is increased by the Government’s refusal to provide the Risk Register for the transition programme – the programme of activities which will deliver The Nicholson Challenge and the Bill ‘reforms’ (the Health and Care Reform Transition Programme).

The recent discussion paper from the Clinical Commissioning Federation and Urgent Care Network of NHS Alliance (COI dec - I do some paid comms work for Alliance), NHS 111 - Getting Lost In Translation?, is worth a read.

It is based on a poll of CCG clinicians and leaders about the implementation of the new 111 urgent-but-not-emergency number, and also on data from the 111 pilot project.

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Hat off to Robert Winnett of the Telegraph for this story, based on an authentic-looking email from Lord Owen to Labour's Lords health team leads Jeremy Beecham, Glenys Thornton and Philip Hunt.

Owen offers the Labour team (which once upon a time was his party) strategic advice in the email, raising the possibility of a confidence vote on the Coalition Government in 2013. He suggests that a Labour campaign on a 'save the NHS' ticket would require four 'red line amendments'.

Westminster Village humour
Q: What's the difference between Chris Huhne and Andrew Lansley?
A: Chris Huhne can get his points across.

The health select committee's report on The Nicholson Challenge (aka NHS public expenditure) is now available. It is an accurate portrayal of what seems (according to various contacts across the NHS) to be happening.

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It's been an interesting few days for the Health And Social Care Bill's tortuous progress through Parliament.

A leaked draft of the Commons Health Select Committee's forthcoming report on NHS expenditure found its way to Toby Helm and Denis Campbell of The Observer.

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The Guardian splashes this morning on the proposals by Monitor to allow credit ratings agencies to assess the financial viability of hospital providers in the private and NHS sectors, encapsulaed in the Developing the Continuity of Services licence conditions: stakeholder engagement document.

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Fans of being underwhelmed who have some spare time should watch the recording of yesterday's evidence session to the Health Select Committee, which featured a star turn from Minister Who? himself, Paul Burstow.

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A friend of my wife's and mine is in intensive care in a London hospital, at the sharp end of healthcare.

You'd like Jayne if you met her. She is bright, courageous, warm-hearted, funny and sharp-witted: full of life. Altogether, she's a hard person to imagine being seriously ill. But that is what she is.

A machine is breathing for her.

So. If we were going to have a debate about priorities in the healthcare landscape, it might be a timely thing, no?

And it might be useful to have a range of experts?

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Click here for details of 'Be jolly, bottom-up”, Comrade Sir David tells NHS - 'tis the season to, apparently', the new issue of subscription-based Health Policy Intelligence.

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