Next Labour Leader....

[all new Phil]

Personally it would be a great loss as I REALLY fancy David Miliband and I would rather have his influence in the shadow cabinet.

I've corrected your post for you.

YOU'RE WELCOME.

[Cache]

Well I'm not at all surprised that David's gone, especially after the comment he made in Ed's conference speech. It would have just been the new Blair/Brown anyway.

[Alexia]

So instead of helping his brother beat the bullies who've ganged up on him and his friends, he's picked up his football and gone home?

The brotherly thing was little more than usual newspaper tittle-tattle. David was beaten fair and square - the whole progressive/socialist/left-of-centre movement as a whole chose Ed. I put more trust in the Labour election process than the Tories'. David Miliband, however slimy and insincere a man he may be, is a strong political force and had a real chance to bolster the Labour front bench. Instead he's shrunk back into the shadows, where his political force will be as effective as Diane Abbot's, frankly.

[marksi]

Ed Milliband brings a new greyness to dull.

He makes John Major look interesting.

[tillyoshea]

GPs will be able to commission private consortia if they so wish (they're not obliged to do so). It's nothing like the dismantling or privatisation of the NHS.

You're wrong. Once you put spending power into private companies hands - who operate for profit - you are fundamentally changing the NHS from a non-profit organsiation into a commercial one. You will NEVER be able to put the genie back into the bottle, as from the TOP DOWN the NHS will operate as a private enterprise.

Then the genie is already well and truly out of the bottle... There is already a large number of private companies working for the NHS, from companies like Assura providing specific services (from property management to a full-blown Sexual Health Service which has been outsourced in the North East), to companies like BK Health operating chains of GP Surgeries. PCT Commissioners already can and do put NHS Services out to tender and can and do appoint private companies where appropriate. The White Paper just puts this power in the hands of GP Consortia, rather than PCTs.

Those GPs who do not "commission" private companies (who, incidentally, are from the US and helped bank roll the tory party campaign) will have to set up their own private companies. Either way, their incentive will naturally be profit for shareholders or company directors.

I don't get what you mean here. All GP Surgeries are already independent businesses contracted to provide services to the NHS. The focus of GP Surgeries is already naturally on making profit for either the Partners in a small business or the Shareholders in a larger one. This isn't a change.

In terms of Commissioning, the GPs can either commission the local NHS Foundation Trusts, which may make a profit, or private companies. This is what already goes on in Primary Care Trusts. If the GP Consortia want to set up their own company to provide these services, then of course they may (I actually think, from memory, that Assura was set up by a handful of GPs), but there is no black-and-white requirement to appoint another private company if they don't want to do it themselves - the default position would be to appoint an NHS Trust.

I'm not in any way defending the Coalition's White Paper which, as you say, appears to have been brought in hurriedly and has some alarming gaps, but I felt I should clear up some of the above...

[Alexia]

So instead of helping his brother beat the bullies who've ganged up on him and his friends, he's picked up his football and gone home?.

Paraphrased by Paul O'Grady tonight. Proof he reads Metropol methinks

[Sput]

"damned if you do, damned if you don't" springs to mind...

[Chie]

£50 million kick-starts greater access to cancer drugs

Cancer patients will from today (1 October) have greater access to cancer drugs that their doctors recommend for them due to an extra £50 million in funding being made available by the Department of Health.
Clinically led panels have been set up in each region, putting doctors in charge of deciding how this funding is spent for their patients locally, together with advice from patients’ cancer specialists. The funding will be available from the 1st October until the end of March 2011 when the cancer drugs fund is introduced.

[Sput]

I see that the Tory strategy is to point out that Labour don't say how they'd cut the deficit. I'd like to think this is mistaken but it seems like whenever a party is in opposition they never feel the need to be specific or constructive. Instead they waste all their time on hyperbolic attacks to try and tear down the existing government. Maybe this is why people hate politics.

[Gavin Scott]

In terms of Commissioning, the GPs can either commission the local NHS Foundation Trusts, which may make a profit, or private companies. This is what already goes on in Primary Care Trusts. If the GP Consortia want to set up their own company to provide these services, then of course they may (I actually think, from memory, that Assura was set up by a handful of GPs), but there is no black-and-white requirement to appoint another private company if they don't want to do it themselves - the default position would be to appoint an NHS Trust.

I'm not in any way defending the Coalition's White Paper which, as you say, appears to have been brought in hurriedly and has some alarming gaps, but I felt I should clear up some of the above...

The significant difference between the incoming consortia and the existing PCTs, Strategic Heathcare Trusts and NHS Trusts is that the latter are generally required to meet in public, and are subject to FOI requests.

The proposed consortia are closed shops, and meet behind closed doors. When we come to slashing £20bn from the budget in 2014, how do we find out where they're making these cuts when, as "social enterprises" these decisions are shielded from any kind of scrutiny?

NHS plc?