British National Party Public Services News Bulletin w/c April 23, 2007
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1. POLICE HIRING INCOMPETENT POLITICALLY-CORRECT OFFICERS

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=448298&in_page_id=1770

One of the country's most senior policemen has admitted his force is recruiting unsuitable officers in its drive to be politically correct. Dyslexics, the physically disabled and those with religious beliefs which affect their work are apparently being given jobs - even though they are unable to fulfil their role. Steve Roberts, a deputy assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard, said there was a 'whole cohort' of inadequate officers coming into the London force because the force had 'shied away' from tackling the issue. His comments in the magazine Police Review follow a series of embarrassments for the Metropolitan Police in recent months. PC Alexander Omar Basha, a Muslim officer, provoked a political storm last year when he was excused from guarding the Israeli embassy on 'moral grounds' after he expressed concerns over the bombing of Lebanon. In another incident, a female Muslim officer refused to shake the hand of Commissioner Sir Ian Blair at her passing out ceremony. Other cases include a Seventh Day Adventist officer who wanted to take the Sabbath off, an orthodox Jewish officer who wanted Fridays off and a number of men or women with severe dyslexia.

Mr Roberts said the Met was 'letting its managers down' by failing to issue clear policy on recruitment. He said: ‘What is really comes down to is that it does not matter what it is that causes you to be incapable of fulfilling the full duties of an ordinary officer. ‘It does not matter if it is because you have a physical disability, dyslexia or a particular requirement which means you have to have every Sunday off - unless you are able to fulfil the duties of a constable, we should not be allowing you to think you can join in the first place. ‘And we should not, if that arises after joining, be saying you can make a good and efficient officer at the end of the probationary stage. ‘We have let our managers down in not making it as clear as we should do what our attitude to difference is and what we expect of them [in order to] give them the confidence to deal with people genuinely fairly.’ Mr Roberts said that the force was still able to adapt to an officer's specialist requirements.

He added: ‘For example, there was never actually a problem with the young female officer who did not want to shake the commissioner's hand. ‘She simply said, quite reasonably, 'Actually, I would prefer not to'. ‘Supposing it had been the case that normally the Commissioner kissed on the cheek every new recruit who came up to meet him and someone said 'I would rather he did not do that to me', we would not think that was a big deal. ‘We can adapt on those things that do fit in with being a constable and fulfilling the full range of duties but certain factors are not a condition of someone becoming a police officer, it is simply what a good employer does.’ Mr Roberts, who is deputy head of human resources at the Met continued: ‘This is not moving away from diversity and saying it does not matter any more. ‘But it is about setting proper limits to make sure we do manage it properly, without ever losing sight of the main point of delivering the right service. ‘Getting a diverse workforce is not a nice, optional thing. It is what we have got to do in order to be properly representative of London.’

2. PENSIONER MUST GO BLIND TO GET NHS TREATMENT

Situations like this are unacceptable, when resources are wasted offering free healthcare to immigrants and asylum seekers.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2481020.ece

A pensioner will have to lose his sight in one eye before health chiefs will consider treating him, a leading charity for the blind claimed yesterday. Leslie Howard, 76, from Acomb, York, was diagnosed with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in his right eye last November. He needs special drugs to save his sight but it is claimed the local primary care trust (PCT) will only consider funding them once he has gone blind in one eye and developed wet AMD in his second eye.

The Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) claims Mr Howard's only hope is to pay for private treatment - wet AMD can cause sight loss in as little as three months and requires prompt treatment. But Mr Howard, who has been in public service most of his life, says he cannot afford the private care bill of more than £6,000 a year. Mr Howard said: ‘I can't believe I'm being left to go blind in one eye. I've spent most of my working life devoted to public service - I was in the Army, police and prison service - and I've never failed to pay my dues. ‘I've paid literally tens of thousands of pounds in taxes and to know that I will now lose my sight because I can't afford private treatment is diabolical. ‘Has the Government lost all sense of compassion as well as economics? Is there no way I can get help to save my sight? ‘My wife and I have arthritis of the spine and if I lose my sight, we'll end up housebound, and that will destroy us.’ Steve Winyard, head of campaigns at RNIB, said, ‘This is a desperate situation for Mr Howard. His PCT is leaving him to go blind in one eye even though sight-saving treatments are available on the NHS. ‘It's unacceptable that older people can only save their sight if they can afford private treatment.

‘We hear of more and more cases where patients are being forced to use retirement funds or life savings to pay for sight-saving treatments that should be available readily on the NHS. ‘In cases like Mr Howard's, where people can't afford private treatment, patients face the prospect of going blind unnecessarily.’ Tom Bremridge, chief executive of The Macular Disease Society, said: ‘The so-called 'second-eye' policy is wholly unacceptable on ethical and practical grounds. People mustn't think that losing sight in one eye isn't that bad - it can affect coordination and increase the risk of falls.’ The society said not treating wet AMD in the first eye also carries other dangers because patients have a high risk of developing the condition in the second eye. If treatment is unsuccessful in the second eye, people may end up losing their sight in both eyes. Mr Winyard added: ‘The actions of the PCTs are simply unacceptable. There is a moral imperative to save the sight of people where we can.

It also makes no economic sense to deny treatment. The cost of supporting people with sight loss far outweighs the cost of treatment.’ In a statement, the North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust said: ‘The Department of Health issued revised guidance on managing the introduction of new healthcare interventions in December 2006. ‘This advises NHS organisations that until the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has published final guidance on a treatment, NHS bodies should continue with local arrangements for the managed introduction of new technologies. ‘Nice has published guidance for the treatment of AMD using Photo Dynamic Therapy (PDT), which uses light to activate a medicine that destroys the abnormal blood vessels which cause the disorder. North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust fully complies with this guidance. ‘However, there is no Nice guidance for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration with anti-VEGF drugs. In agreement with other PCTs in the region, North Yorkshire and York PCT has agreed to fund anti-VEGF drugs for patients for whom it has been evidenced that this will be an effective treatment.

This is based on an assessment of the patients against an agreed clinical criteria established by the PCTs. ‘If any patient feels they should be considered for treatment outside of the criteria the PCT has an agreed a process to consider their individual circumstances. ‘The PCT has committed to review this process following the publication of any Nice guidance.’ A spokesman for Nice said anti-VEGF drugs, such as pegaptanib and ranibizumab, were deemed safe to use, but an assessment of their value for money was still ongoing. The anticipated publication date for this appraisal is September. The spokesman added: ‘Nice cannot issue guidance on new drugs until they have been licensed. In the absence of Nice guidance, local prescribing arrangements are followed. ‘The Department of Health has, however, made it clear that it is unacceptable for primary care trusts to use the absence of Nice guidance as an excuse not to prescribe. ‘Equally, there is no ban on the prescribing of drugs that have not been assessed by Nice.’

3. NHS WORKFORCE SHRINKS BY 17,000

The NHS continues to shed staff who actually do something useful, like nurses, at the same time as its administrative ranks are bloated to an all-time high. Our solution: shift money out of paper-pushers and into nurses and doctors.

http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,,2066184,00.html

The NHS workforce has fallen by around 17,000 people in one year, according to a snapshot of staffing levels released today. The number of people working in the NHS fell by around 17,000 between September 2005 and September 2006, the Information Centre for Health and Social Care (ICHSC) said. This equates to 8,118 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff, when all the people working part-time are taken into account. The government defended the ‘small’ drop in staffing, in the face of criticism from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats over what they called the ‘appalling mismanagement’ of the health service. Analysis of the figures shows a drop of 5,826 in the number of qualified nurses working in the NHS between 2005 and 2006. However, this figure includes 3,370 duplicate entries for 2006, leaving an actual fall of 2,456. Equally, there were 18,342 fewer support workers for clinical staff, with a duplicate entry number of 2,719, leaving an actual drop of 15,243, according to the Department of Health.

There were 2,640 fewer managers and senior managers working in the NHS by September 2006 compared with the previous year, with 76 duplicate entries, leaving an actual drop of 2,564. The numbers of NHS staff in some areas increased over the year, leaving an overall drop of 17,390. Health minister Lord Hunt said: ‘This year's workforce census shows that there has been an increase in clinical capacity despite a small reduction in the overall numbers working in the NHS. ‘Whilst the number of doctors working in the NHS has increased by 3,267 since 2005, there has been an increase of 4,844 FTEs as more doctors are working full time. Similarly although there has been a reduction in headcount amongst qualified nurses, there has been an increase of 665 full-time equivalent nurses. This means that patients are getting an increased amount of clinical time from nurses. ‘These figures show that the NHS focus is now on strengthening frontline clinical capacity through increases in productivity and skill mix. And the small drop in headcount in the NHS must been seen against an increase of 279,454 since 1997.’ But opposition parties attacked the figures.

The shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley, said: ‘For a decade Labour have been telling us that increasing staff numbers is needed to improve services. Gordon Brown's appalling mismanagement of finances and organisation of the NHS has now meant that we have seen the largest one year fall in NHS staff numbers ever recorded. ‘This is a direct result of Labour's failures. Staff across the NHS feel badly let down and threatened by the impact of lost jobs and financial deficits. Patients will suffer especially as so many nursing jobs have been lost. As the next Conservative government we are determined to give patients the support and leadership needed for the NHS to succeed.’ The Liberal Democrat health spokesman, Norman Lamb, said: ‘Government spinning and denial cannot conceal the fact that frontline medical jobs have been lost as a direct result of this government's appalling mismanagement of the NHS. ‘Doctors and nurses are the heartbeat of the NHS. It is crazy that we are investing in training more nurses and doctors but then cutting back on posts.

This is a total failure of workforce planning.’ Steve Barnett, director of NHS Employers, said: ‘After several years of very significant growth we were anticipating a fall in overall staff numbers as the NHS workforce stabilises. Many employers have been reviewing their workforce needs because of new treatments and technology, reshaping NHS services, provision of more care outside hospital and the need to ensure they stay within budget. ‘It is important to remember that these figures represent posts taken out of the system rather than people made redundant. The number of actual redundancies in the NHS is small compared with the total number of posts that have been lost through vacancy freezes, reducing the use of agency and temporary staff and redeploying staff.’

4. COUNCIL CHIEF'S £130,000 PAY-OFF UNDER INVESTIGATION

This is just one case, illustrating how the permanent government of civil servants milks the rest of us, and feathers its own nest, while real public services suffer.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=636062007

Scotland's public spending watchdog has confirmed it has launched an investigation into the controversial redundancy and pension payment deal given to a senior council official. Audit Scotland is to study details of the £130,000 payment made to John Lindsay, the departing chief executive of East Lothian Council, on top of a £200,000 pension package. The payments, which were agreed by the Labour-controlled council, prompted complaints to the Accounts Commission - the statutory body that oversees local government - because Mr Lindsay himself recommended the redundancy plan to the authority. Until now, Audit Scotland, which examines councils' finances on behalf of the commission, had not made clear how seriously it would take complaints about East Lothian. But Caroline Gardner, the deputy auditor general and controller of audit, has now said there was no doubt it had the powers to investigate, even if there had been no complaint.

She said: ‘To clarify, the Accounts Commission and Audit Scotland are able to look at any matters which may seem relevant to the audit. ‘There is no need to wait for a complaint to be received, and we are currently investigating the situation at East Lothian Council.’ A spokeswoman for Audit Scotland said that investigations would be part of the annual audit of the local authority and the watchdog would also look at whether the deal provided good value for council tax payers' money. However, the results of the investigation will not emerge until well after next week's local government elections, when most of the councillors responsible will have stood down, many with pay-offs funded by council tax payer. Last night, David Berry, the sole SNP councillor on the outgoing East Lothian Council who raised the matter with the Accounts Commission, welcomed the investigation. He said: ‘I would have been deeply disturbed had Audit Scotland not considered this a proper subject for investigation. ‘I did not raise this matter lightly, as I realise it may appear politically motivated this close to a key election.

However, my patience has been strained by a cavalier attitude of East Lothian Council's administration over eight years as councillor to the point that this was the last straw. ‘What I find most perplexing is that the entire process will be complete - the outgoing chief executive retired, incoming chief executive installed and those who took the decision long gone with their severance payments - before any response can be expected.’ Mr Berry, who is seeking re-election, defended his actions, which have been condemned by the Labour leadership of the council and the Tory opposition group, which backed the redundancy package. He said: ‘If I have goal in this, it is to repair people's faith in their system of local government and its civic probity. I, and many people whose door I've chapped, see this issue as having damaged the council unnecessarily.’ Stuart Currie, a Liberal Democrat candidate for the council, also welcomed the investigation. He said: ‘I am glad that the disgraceful decision by the Labour-controlled council to make the chief executive redundant is being investigated.

The redundancy payment to Mr Lindsay should not be made until such times as the new council has had the opportunity to study the outcome of the investigation and, in light of that report, revisit the original decision.’ A spokesman for East Lothian said: ‘This decision was taken by the council as an efficiency drive and we are confident any investigation will confirm that.’ Norman Murray, the former Labour leader of the authority who took a £20,000 ‘golden goodbye’ after standing down as a councillor to seek election to Holyrood in Musselburgh East, said earlier this year that the decision had been taken by politicians, not Mr Lindsay. However, the paper sent to councillors proposing the policy clearly stated it was from the chief executive.