Has our PCT gone mad?

Written by David Chappell and published in Letters to the Bury Free Press on Fri 26th Oct 2007

First they decide to put out to tender the 'personal medical service' contracts of our GP's; then they decide there are enough NHS dentists in Bury St Edmunds and refuse to fund more!

Who are these people who just don't seem to have a clue? They are the same people who refuse to pay up if more patients are given treatment than the PCT expected to need treatment!

Their priority is not patient care, or patient needs, it is purely budgetary. When we pay our taxes to government to provide us with a health service there is not a caveat that allows us to reclaim our taxes if we do not get the service! No other organisation can demand payment for services it does not deliver. Except of course your local council who you can boot out in the elections if they fail to deliver.

Why can't we boot out our PCT? Or is it ours? Our taxes pay for it, both the monies they pay out for services and the salaries and costs of the PCT, but they are not responsible to us. The government has made them a Quango. Convenient for the government that as they can blame someone else, even when they set unrealistic and unnecessary targets, and don't provide enough money. The PCT relies on money passed to them by the government, so it's response to the government is "Three bags full, Sir!", and less dentists and less treatment for you and me.

Is that the way we should run things in the fourth wealthiest democracy in the world?

It is time to end this Quango, and for the government to get their hands off our health service and give it back to us? Did you know that the government allocates nearly 20% less money on health care in Suffolk per person than it does for the rest of the country. It rests it's case on the grounds we live longer, therefore we don't need so health care healthcare. "Que?" as Manuel would say in Fawlty Towers!

We need a process that is democratically accountable either at County or Regional level, raises its own money, and spends its own money to meet the needs of the people of the area.