Bankers being the lowest and worst form of human life, a committee set up by the Chancellor has proposed that those responsible for any future financial catastrophes should be sent to prison; this would, presumably, be after they'd spent some time in the stocks and been dragged naked round the streets of London for everyone to throw eggs or rotten tomatoes at.
At the same time, yet another shocking NHS revelation has come to light. Not only has there been an unusually high rate of infant deaths at the Furness General Hospital in Cumbria, but the Care Quality Commission, the supposed watchdog of NHS quality, has suppressed a report into the issue due to its potentially damaging effect on itself. It seems that the report was critical of the Commission and its regular inspections of the hospital, presumably suggesting that the Commission should have noticed the hospital's failings and told them; it's said that the report was actually destroyed by some CQC 'senior manager', though no one has been named.
To me, there is a bit of a disparity in all of this. The actions of a very few senior bankers may have been disgraceful and some were probably illegal, but no one died; a number have lost their jobs and titles and some may yet go to prison, though that's problematic. In the NHS, we have seen a similar catalogue of failures around the country though no one seems to have suffered the public ignominy meted out to the bankers; this, despite the facts that it's quite likely that we have so far seen only the tip of an enormous iceberg and that at least hundreds if not thousands of people may have died prematurely as a direct result of the failings.
In the banking world, it seems that once a problem is uncovered, it's difficult for the perpetrators to hide. However, in the NHS, there's a culture of buck passing which has to be experienced to be believed. The bureaucracy which has been built up over decades is self-sustaining and more interested in protecting itself than in resolving problems; this is a direct consequence of its position in the public sector, with all of the attached political aspects.
Today's news stories prove this in stark terms. Bankers who live and work in the private sector and are easy to vilify have been roundly condemned, again, while no one is quite sure where the blame for the recent failings in Furness should lie. Is it the Trust or is it the CQC; perhaps it's the DHSS ? The current head of the CQC has apologised for its failings but I've seen nothing from the one man who should surely be out of a job, the head of the NHS in England, Sir David Nicholson.
Nicholson has now presided over umpteen NHS catastrophes and yet still seems to be supported by the Government. The Chief Executive of the Trust of which Furness hospital is a part, was allowed to resign last year, presumably without any effect on his pension and certainly without any suggestion that he should go to prison, even though people died unnecessarily on his watch. Why is this ?
I'm no supporter of the bankers who've made such a mess of things and have no problem with some of them losing jobs, titles and even their freedom. However, I fail to see why the likes of Sir David Nicholson seem to be immune from similar treatment; they are, after all, being paid by the taxpayer and are failing repeatedly in much more damaging ways. Their incompetence and negligence is killing people and, if anyone should be in prison, it is they.
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