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The German Ocean Bulge...

...that’s what we are here in Norfolk (and Suffolk of course). When Whitehall mandarins draw up their plans for forays out of London into the mist ridden caverns of the outback that is the rest of England, they conveniently slice off the bulge so they don’t have to enter our cul-de-sac of a county.

They also don’t bother because they know Norfolk is Tory-Verging-on-Feudal. People here still doff their hats and curtsey to their betters, kissing boots and nether extremities. Unfortunately, that extends to our county LINk, the public watchdog for health and social care (soon to be Local HealthWatch). What I see - and this is naturally denied by those who do it - is some LINk members, far too cosy with NHS trust and local authority managers; including some members and the chair of the “Strategy Group,” the now seven person Star Chamber which decides everything that happens in the whole of Norfolk. There was horror and consternation when I suggested in a discussion about the objectives of a new group, that we should send reports on evidence we find to the Care Quality Commission. “Oh no!!!! we can’t do that: we will write to the trust and point things out to them.”

This is the way to the Titanic. We know NHS trust self-reporting is flawed - Staffordshire, Basildon & Thurrock, Milton Keynes are glaring just-yesterday disasters and should be steep learning curves for us. Where were the LINks there? We (I do anyway), from that learning curve, know writing to a trust will have the same effect as poking an elephant with a matchstick.

And ‘independence?’ Ah hahahahahahahahahaaa - Ah hahahahahaaaaaa!

We have a member of the trust board and a member of the local authority Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee on our new LINk acute services group. The chair of the LINk, puffed out with pride, has regular warm and cosy get-togethers with the Chief Executive of the trust - and our chair thrives on power. How about that for conflicts of interest?

Let’s hope the transformation into Local HealthWatch will tighten up on this three ring circus.

The Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee is little better, gumming organisations into line.

Mike.

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