'It', whatever it is, if it involves people, is most definitely Political. What may generally be termed political with a small 'p', but is nothing of the kind.
It may only be me, as opposed to the 'generality', that holds that Politics IS entirely a matter of personality, not stardom nor fame, but of we each as voters.
All matters NHS are thus this; popular-Politics, and now sadly pan-Party politics.
This makes it very much us verses them, where the 'them' are virtually-all politicians and their respective Partys.
The sad fact was, until very recently, that no matter which way one voted the NHS was doomed.
As the Cold War has been replaced with Global Warming/Climate Change, so the other various battlegrounds of old:Class Division, Industrial Unruliness etc. have to be fought upon some other issue.
And here is where the Party-Political pigeons have well and truely come home to roost, as there is no issue at present where the so-called political opponents stand apart.
The inner glow of the NHS has been lost, replaced by the stark beam of the spot-light, in the pan-party drive to turn it into just another tawdry manufactury; widget-welding, do-dah dispensing, sweat-shop.
The NHS is emblematic of real-politics, actual politics, a Nation's own and very personal politics!
Things could be better...
" NHS whistle blowers
SIR - In 1981 I applied, and was short-listed, for the post of consultant physician at Stafford Hospital. In the end, I withdrew my application, but I have wondered after recent revelations (report, February 13), and the subsequent Francis report, how I would have reacted had I been on the staff as a senior consultant during that time.
One avenue through which concerns can be conveyed to the board and managers in a hospital is through the old-fashioned Medical Staff Committee (MSC), made up of all of the consultants working in a hospital, and chaired by a senior consultant who has no other management role and should act as a conduit for clinical concerns to the chief executive and the chairman of the board.
These committees have been sidelined in the management structure of many hospital trusts.
The role of whistle blower in the NHS is a lonely and very difficult one. The MSC chairman should now be given an enhanced role to report clinical concerns when they are voiced by his or her colleagues in confidence.
Dr John Millar
Cranborne, Dorset "
From...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/9868750/If-we-are-what-we-eat-we-need-to-know-the-details-of-what-our-meat-eats.html