Rob Wilson's Westminster Diary, July 15, 2010
Rob Wilson MP • Published 15 Jul 2010 22:30
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THE Pace of the Coalition Government is quite breathtaking and I must say a little unexpected.
With all the strains and stresses of two parties working together, it’s surprising that a revolution across the public sector is under way so quickly.
Announcements on schools, health commissioning, the police and much more has demonstrated that this Government means business. I assume the Treasury is driving the pace of change because it has to make huge budget savings, so the economy doesn’t end up like Greece where interest rates have risen on their borrowing by 5%.
Could you imagine how devastating that would be to our economy in the present circumstances? Unfortunately, the last government made such a monumental mess of the economy we are between a rock and a hard place.
The scrapping of Building Schools for the Future (BSF) was long overdue. A huge amount of money was wasted on bureaucracy and consultants with very little getting built in return.
Reading and Wokingham were getting no money from BSF, but capital retrieved by the Department for Education should now go much further and we might get some of it. Visiting schools in my constituency many teachers raise concerns about problems with their buildings. Scrapping BSF will give us more for less, which should also apply to health reforms.
GP fundholding, which the last Government abolished despite its huge popularity and success, is back in a new form.
It will focus money where it’s most needed and removing strategic health authorities and primary care trusts – two layers of largely unnecessary bureaucracy stopping money reaching the frontline.
An extremely hardworking and dedicated staff were often failed by the system and management.
I particularly disliked how the PCTs hid behind bureaucracy to refuse life-saving drugs.
One of the hardest parts of my job is telling someone with a terrible illness their request for life-saving or extending drugs has been rejected.
I’m only too aware of NHS limits, but it should focus more on the drugs than the systems.
I expect all sorts of organisations to beat a path to my door as budgets are cut and the public sector is reorganised.
All I ask is that they are realistic and understand the mess the country is in.
It will be good if they have a few suggestions of their own on reorganisation and savings - they should be in a good position to know!
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