An appreciation of my new hero "Minder Bill from ASLEF"

Dear Reader,

you should have seen "Minder Bill from ASLEF", aka Bill Rodgers, in action during yesterday's march in Enfield Town and at the occupation of the possibly doomed hospital of Chase Farm, Ridgeway. Bill has massive charisma and leadership skills. The envisaged closure follows problems involved with the "Social Chapter" or European Workiing Directive, whereby medics can't work more than a set amount of hours per week. So to have a fully functioning A and E, is very expensive with three shifts of doctors, nurses etc. Also, to have an operational accident & emergency unit, the hospital needs a proper service for children
patients.

Other problems comprise British doctors liking 9-5 lifestyles, being money mad and lacking compassion.

There is also a concern over the "feminisation" of the doctor system. In the old days virtually all medics, who passsed their training, went on to become doctors. This percentage is getting lower. There is the suspicion that this is what the authorities want: cheaper women doctors like in Russia, where there are loads of them and they get paid at a discount rather than receive premium pay.

However, one advantage of the old (lets called it English) system of the 100 hours plus a week work total for junior doctors was that they learnt a lot in a very short time.

Apparently, there is statistical evidence that there are more
deaths in hospitals when a new cohort of doctors comes on aboard the merry ship called the National Health Service (NHS), (a service very different in Scotland and Wales). Also, it is not advisable to get ill
during the weekend when the consultants are practising their golf swing or have gone yachting.

To get the medical coverage with the working directive means the consolidation of Accident and Emergency services in bigger sites. This means doctors get wide experience of doing loads of operations etc (ie Portuguse health reorganisation) While often financially stable hospitals have in England been sacrificed to prop up PFI (Private Financial Initiative) disasters. (The entrance to Barnet General goes into a Holliday Inn style area while the car parking is a MAJOR HEADACHE).

So this makes for a paradox. Rather than being a tinsey weensy left wing (Workers Revolutionary Party WRP) wanting to smash the capitalist system and bring in revolution to sleepy old UK, picket guys like Phil, whose only defect I can see is that he is a Spurs fan, should really be
joining UKIP on the other side of the political spectrum so as to get out of the European Union. I have told Phil to worry less about Lenin and hope that Bale stays with Spurs.

I am personally a soft Tory but even I had a sneaking admiration for Old Labour like Woy Jenkins,
who could not keep his dick in his pants, or Denis Healey, who nearly drove the United Kingdom to bankruptcy with his ultra taxation policies. (Healey was a quartermaster on one of the major Italian beach invasions during WWII, so I suppose he was a war hero.)

The operation of a picket outside the main entrance for so long is testament to the organisational abilities of "Minder Bill from ASLEF". I have also met some really admirable people such as Bill from Elephant & Castle. Indeed one of the problems of the picket is the relative lack of people from Enfield. I suppose they are looking forward to going to North Middlesex and Royal Free, Hampstead.

The idea of superhospitals is seen in other countries like Portugal and I think I (and I could be mistaken)
came from consultants at an American investment bank. However, if you are dying from a heart attack near Chase Farm in future, you just hope the "blue light" ambulance makes it to the Harefield or the London Heart Hospital in time.

Sorry for the long blog but there must be a special mention to former Labour MP Joan Ryan, who
forced through a merger of the financially and operationally strong Chase Farm with the PFI mess of
Barnet General. However, I am really impressed by local Conservative MP Nick de Bois, who is trying his best to remedy the mess where a major borough like Enfield, with a growing population rate putting pressure on schools, is expected to provide some kind of medical access.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5336436/Joan-Ryan-expenses-switch-after-4500-spend.html
www.nickdebois.com

PS> The good old British National Health Service (NHS) lost literally billions on IT systems, which never meshed. While I read in one of the Mail newspapers an article that claimed the NHS chief might have been allegedly a bit naughty claiming 41 first class rail trips to Birmingham to bonk his bint.