by After the British Medical Association voted to request a halt to the government’s planned overhaul of the NHS, ministers have admitted that despite what they said a couple of weeks ago, GPs and doctors clearly don’t know what’s best for the NHS after all.
Much of the government’s planned restructure of the NHS is based on the premise that doctors and GPs know how best to run the NHS and its limited resources, but government sources say today’s vote casts doubt on that premise.
The BMA meeting – the first of its kind for 20 years – was called to take advantage of the government insisting that Doctors should have more say in how the NHS is run, by telling the government how not to run the NHS.
A department of Health insider told us, “We previously suggested that the people who best know what the NHS needs were the doctors themselves, but it seems clear to me that this vote shows that actually they don’t know what they’re talking about. At all.”
“I know it’s a bit surprising how such a well-educated group can go from everyone agreeing they know what’s best for the NHS, to not having a clue what they’re talking about, but that’s clearly what’s happened here.”
“I think it best if us politicians in the government stick to deciding how the NHS should be run, and the doctors should stick to doing as their told.”
“Well, unless they think we’re right, of course. Then they can have a say in it again.”
BMA rejects NHS overhaul
Doctors at the meeting spoke at their excitement of having a bigger say in the way the NHS is run, and how they hoped they would be able to stop it being ripped to pieces by the private sector.
One doctor told us, “The Government said they wanted us to have a bigger say in how the NHS is run, and this is us doing just that by expressing our outright rejection of the plans put before us. I’m not sure we can be any clearer on this?”
“But just in case we can, let me say this to the government, ‘The people you said know best about the NHS are saying that the plans you’ve got for the NHS are a load of old bollocks’. Great, thanks.”
