Situationist Health

24Nov11

Mark Pearson, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: “The UK is one of the best performers in the world. But outcomes are not what you expect because there is a big reform every five years. We calculate that each reform costs two years of improvements in quality. No country reforms its health service as frequently as the UK.”

Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health: “It clearly shows that although the NHS is doing well in some areas, it is still lagging behind other countries in some key areas of patient care. Improving patient results is a top priority for me. We need to allow the NHS to focus on what really matters to patients; things like survival rates, recovery rates and whether people can live independently and with dignity”.

Picture one: reform is detrimental.

Picture two, derived from picture one: this shows reform is necessary.

Lansley remains the leader neo-Situationist agitant at government’s heart, forcing the dialectic to stand on its head, then its feet, then its head, so often and so quickly that not even the dialectic knows which way up it is.