Darzi report on NHS means so much more to me now
This morning I handed in my notice at work, as I have accepted a new job. At the moment I work for Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council as a Senior Performance Improvement Officer, but the time has come for a change and I am leaving local government as a career to work for the NHS. I am joining Pennine Care NHS Trust as their Business Planning Manager.
Pennine Care provide mental health services for most of eastern Greater Manchester, including Bury. I am glad to be staying in the public sector, and now with my professional and Council work I can keep working for both the NHS and local government, which are both areas of huge importance to me and to the country.
The future of our NHS is vitally important, and it will be hugely exciting to be joining it at a time when it is perhaps more than ever at the forefront of political debate. Lord Darzi’s interim report Shaping health care for the next decade has been in the news this week, and already the signs are that its publication may be more to do with political expediency than carefully thought-out policy planning. I hope not, but like many others working in the NHS I am sceptical that this report may turn out to be nothing more than another political stunt ahead of a possible General Election.
Remember that it has only been three months since Gordon Brown launched this review, promising to talk to those on the frontline in the health service. How much can he have listened while engineering all the talk about elections?
The key to providing better services to patients is making the NHS more responsive to local communities, not a plan imposed on the whole country by ministers sitting in Whitehall.
As the weeks and months go by I will learn more about the NHS from the inside. Although I will be sad to leave Oldham, I will remain active in local government through Bury Council (without being restrained by the conflict of interest of being a local government officer in Oldham, which is a bonus), I am already looking forward to December when I can start this new challenge.
Rick
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