Government “buries good news” about NHS

by Don Paskini
March 20, 2011 at 2:30 pm

The government has been accused of “burying good news” about the NHS by refusing to publish research which shows that public satisfaction with the NHS is at record levels.

The Observer reports:

The Observer has learned that the polling organisation Ipsos MORI submitted the results last autumn to the Department of Health for inclusion in a government survey of public perceptions of the NHS. The data, commissioned by the department, shows that more members of the public than ever believe the NHS is doing a good job – a finding contrary to health secretary Andrew Lansley’s insistence that it is falling short and needs urgent change.

Separate research from the British Medical Journal also contradicts government claims that poor health outcomes are a reason for their planned reforms. The evidence shows UK health outcomes improving more rapidly than those in France, despite lower levels of spending, and big improvements on treatment for cancer.

The Labour government was rightly criticised for “burying bad news”. But this government is going even further, by “burying good news” which doesn’t fit with their dogmatic assault on public services.

---------------------------

About the author
Don Paskini is deputy-editor of LC. He also blogs at donpaskini. He is on twitter as @donpaskini
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Reader comments

3:26 pm, March 20, 2011

1. J

‘The Labour government was rightly criticised for “burying bad news”. But this government is going even further, by “burying good news” which doesn’t fit with their dogmatic assault on public services.’

I do agree, in principle. However, when the ‘news’ in question is in fact some research which shows that “public satisfaction with the NHS is at record levels” – does anyone really need to be told?

Or is it about political point-scoring – in which case, why aren’t Labour trumpeting this as loud as they can?

6:46 pm, March 20, 2011

2. sally

Don’t you just love right wing political correctness.

I used to expect better from the Lie Dems. But these days they are fully signed up to the brownshirt agenda.

6:51 pm, March 20, 2011

3. Mr Grunt

Why are the Tories/Coalition burying good news about The Nation Health Service?

Because they are probably trying to break up and privatise The National Health Service so that they can sell it off at cut price to their Buddies and Financial Supporters.

This can be the only reason they want to hide the good news! Why else would you do such an evil thing to such a vital and important National Asset !

7:33 pm, March 20, 2011

4. Russ

public opinion is not the way to measure effectiveness of the NHS anyway – most have not been in hospital recently.

Just look at the NHS results on PEAT results, CQC registration assessments, patient outcome results, etc, to see if its in good shape or not.

6:28 pm, March 21, 2011

5. Bob B

Far more worrying than the government burying “good” news about the NHS is that the NHS itself buries the information that patients need to make informed, rational choices. Quote:

“The NHS has been slow to provide reliable information, meaning that patients are not being given a real choice in treatment, a report from the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery [SCTS] has said. . . ”
http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=15838

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