Doctors bite back

Sky News : Doctors Round On Labour For GP Targets

Doctors have attacked the Government over targets forcing them to distort patient priorities.

The Prime Minister admitted to being "astonished" after voters told they were unable to make an appointment more than two days in advance because of Government targets.

Other people told Tony Blair they could not make an appointment more than one day in advance, so that surgeries appeared to be meeting demands.

But the chairman of the British Medical Association's GP committee, Dr Hamish Meldrum said the system had long been hated by doctors.

He said: "We have always felt that this has been a crude target which has distorted priorities.

"We are trying to get longer appointments, we are trying to give them more time.

"You have only got so much time in the working day and it's a fairly simple arithmetical fact that if you have to keep more appointments free for booking on the day, there will be less to book in advance."

Not the first time I have covered pointless NHS targets.

This whole issue has only served to make Bliar and his Government look like a bunch of incompetent idiots. Many people, including I'm sure, people within the NHS have been railing against the New Labour "targets culture" for years.

The New Labour attitude has always been "Targets are good. We know best. Shut up and go away." They have always taken this approach. When they announce a "consultation process", what they really mean is "We have already made up our minds, but I suppose we had better pay lip service to those directly involved - just to look good you understand". If they had actually listened to the Doctors in the first instance, they might have seen sense.

Did I just refer to "sense" and "New Labour" in the same paragraph? Sorry, I won't do it again.