The result of last week poll deemed, not surprisingly, that the NHS online recruitment system was the biggest loser of the post-Blair, pre-Brown era. Expect Patricia Hewitt to be shown the door when Brown announces his first cabinet; she has been the latest in a long line of disasters at the Department of Health. However, you have to ask - is it fair or more to the point sensible to put someone in charge of the third largest organisation of the world who has absolutely no experience or expertise in the industry they are leading? They wouldn't do it at Tesco and I reckon Bill Gates wouldn't employ a technophobe to run one of his departments either. So, in a way you have to feel for Hewitt, she had an impossible job - only she managed to balls up the easy stuff too! Whoever is past the poisoned chalice in a few weeks by Gordon Brown will also fail and until the NHS is no longer run by the government and financed by tax payers' money it will continue to fail.
I was heartened to see the Freedom of Information exemption for MPs come second - this must not be allowed to happen and I have a suspicion Brown won't want this to tarnish his "non-spin" open honest government era too early on.
Don't forget to vote in this weeks poll - here.
Comments
Patricia Hewitt
I agree that the NHS online recruitment system has been a complete balls up, though I have no sympathy for Patricia Hewitt, especially when it too so long for her to admit that mistakes had been made and she's still in the job (with that condescending, grating voice. Aaargh). I also don't agree you necessarily need experience in the industry you work in - there are enough doctors around her who can supply that - but it helps to be a world class manager and politician, which she is not.
General, not specific competence is needed
James, I'm with you on the need (or otherwise) for Hewitt to have experience in the health industry. PMs are going to be rather constrained if their Ministers all have to have a background in the field covered by their Department. And people will be appointed for their background, rather than their capability.
Of course, if things weren't being run from the centre, she would not even need the world-class managerial skills that you rightly identify as a requisite for the boss of one of the biggest bureaucracies in the world.
Still, I'm glad MTAS came out top in the poll. The other stories were pretty bad too, but each of them had a slight redeeming feature, whereas the MTAS fiasco has absolutely nothing to be said in its defence.
Indeed, I was not implying
Indeed, I was not implying that all ministers should be chosen on their expertise in their department's field, rather the NHS specifically is such a massive and complicated organisation that it can not and should not be run by a government department.
So...
Quote: "such a massive and complicated organisation that it can not and should not be run by a government department"
Are you saying the NHS should be privatised or the health requirements of the country should be completely met by the private sector?
Privatised
Some form of privatisation - there will always need to be some government involvement in these issues and also some sort of support for the particularly vulnerable. However, the only realistic way for the health service to resist massive financial waste and to promote customer care and to ensure a sustainable system is to remove it from the target driven, headline grabbing world of politics. While the NHS is supposedly "free at the point of use", I do not feel it offers good value for money.