27/10/07 - The Growth Of The Byzantine State

An episode of political genius, summed up perfectly by the Thunderbirds’ character, Brains: "Of course! That’s the answer!"

After a devastating report by the NHS watchdog, the Healthcare Commission, into the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust revealed that 90 patients had died from the deadly superbug Clostridium difficile. Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, has announced his plans to start up another layer of bureaucracy to deflect attention away from the failing NHS reforms and millions squandered funding under this Labour government.

Apparently Johnson is angry that the incumbent quango, the Healthcare Commission, did not step in to try and protect patients or alert the Government to the scale of the problem when they first carried out their report.

It emerged that it took the Commission two years to produce the report, which stated up to 90 patients had died from C diff while another 331 had caught the infection at the three hospitals in the trust.

Last year, 480 mothers were infected with the deadly infections MRSA or C diff, compared to 356 in the previous year.

The figures reveal a very real problem that will only get worse as a result of Labour’s maternity ward closures and hospital downgrading across the UK.

We need action, not another labouring quango. The state has become so Byzantine that you wonder whether this Government is capable of any real action?