END GAME


Hacked off


UK healthcare has witnessed a press conference so bad it is set to go down in the annals of communications history. The Medicines and Healthcare


products Regulatory Agency called the emergency media briefing to announce new guidance on what to do about a type of all-metal hip implant revealed to be dangerously leaking particles of metal, after having been put into around 49,000 UK patients. The only problem: The MHRA did


not seem to know what its new or current guidance was. Hacks present were treated to a


short history of hip implants and their benefits, before the problems were even mentioned. When pressed on what


investigations and treatment patients affected could now expect, clinical director Susanne Ludgate, charged with explaining, kept contradicting herself. The MHRA tried to bring the


briefing to a close but BBC medical correspondent Fergus Walsh played


THE NHS LEXICON Brought to you by @PCTCassander


● Darzi Centre: Centrally mandated shiny GP clinic, staffed by doctors lured with the promise of one of Lord Darzi’s robots to play with. ● Information Prescription: Cost- saving measure allowing GPs to prescribe patients a box containing only a medicines information leaflet. ● Summit: High ground, often remote and inaccessible, upon which only a very limited number may gather at once.


NEXT WEEK


hsj.co.uk


the hero and spoke up to declare it one of the worst he had ever attended. Journalists had not even been given written information on how the rules were changing, he complained. Bemused officials disappeared for


20 minutes to try to clear up what was actually happening. But the briefing was not a


complete failure: Mr Walsh promises to use it as a case study in media training for professionals, as the perfect example of how not to convey a message.


● Controversy erupted in February when John Ashton, Cumbria’s director of public health, was disciplined for criticising the Health Bill. It is fair to say Professor Ashton


has not been silenced. At last week’s Save Our NHS rally in


London, Professor Ashton urged those present to attend the Liberal Democrat spring conference in Gateshead, three


Leadership What are the most important qualities displayed by emerging clinical leaders? We find out in Resource Centre


days later, in order to make their displeasure heard. He claimed it was easier to register to attend the Lib Dem conference than other such gatherings and suggested the NHS could be saved by Tyneside picnics. With any mentions of the yellow


party booed at the rally, it’s fair to say Professor Ashton was not being entirely helpful to the Lib Dems. End Game eagerly waits to see if


there will be renewed attempts to discipline the director, or whether his bosses will back off after the pasting they received last time. Professor Ashton had started his


address by saying: “Brothers and sisters – I don’t know if I’m allowed to call you that without someone called Paul in the Department of Health briefing the media that I’m an extreme lefty.” End Game cannot imagine to which


shadowy Paul, skilled in the dark arts and close to Andrew Lansley, he might have been referring.


Outside the Box Former BBC chair and public service expert Sir Michael Lyons on the parallels between healthcare and broadcasting


HSJ online Check out hsj.co.uk for the latest breaking news, comment and blogs and best practice advice from Resource Centre


A PCT’S LOT IS NOT A HAPPY ONE


hsj.endgame@emap.com


By Cheshire Cat, adapted from WS Gilbert’s original text in The Pirates of Penzance


When a manager is facing unemployment And his all-too-premature retirement plan, The day provides no measure of enjoyment As the curtain falls on his allotted span.


Personal feelings you with difficulty smother With commissioning duties to be done, Taking one NHS body with another A PCT’s lot is not a happy one.


,


When commissioning duties to be done, to be done A PCT’s lot is not a happy one.


When the conscientious commissioner’s not a-QIPPing And setting up our aspiring CCGs, He finds targets are inevitably slipping With the local health providers on their knees.


NHS managers are hated more than bankers Berated in the Mail and The Sun, When you might expect the government to thank us A PCT’s lot is not a happy one.


When commissioning duties to be done, to be done A PCT’s lot is not a happy one.


When the commissioning board establishes its branches And PCTs are finally laid to rest, Redundancies are likely in large tranches As they’ll only take the brightest and the best.


While the staff await their chosen destination As the redundancy process starts to run, Y


ou could conclude without any


hesitation A PCT’s lot is not a happy one.


When commissioning duties to be done, to be done A PCT’s lot is not a happy one.


15 March 2012 Health Service Journal


IAN BAKER


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