After a bit of a dog’s dinner, David was ready for a nap

David Prior, the Chairman of the CQC, writes one four-letter word in every box of his declaration of interests. These are the last two:

Allow me a little word-play here, but there is no compunction on Mr Prior to reveal his, um, prior interests. So I will set them out below…the emphases are mine:

After his education at Charterhouse School, he graduated from Cambridge University with an Exhibition and MA in Law. He qualified as a Barrister in 1976, and for the following four years worked as an Associate with Lehman Brothers and Lazard Freres in London and New York.

David spent the next 15 years working as a Senior Executive within a number of private companies. In 1997, he was elected as a Member of Parliament for North Norfolk and went on to be vice-Chairman and Deputy Chairman and CEO of the Conservative Party.

In 2002, David became Chairman of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and a Director of Aurelian Oil and Gas Plc. He is also Chairman of the Governors of Ormiston Victory Academy, and Chairman of the proposed Sir Isaac Newton Free School

Hmm. I think we can spot a trend here: wealthy family, privately educated, commercial and merchant banking lawyer, senior BSD in a variety of plc companies, big fan of Academy schools.

Private schools, private sector, banker,Tory toff, top barrister. Ah yes Jeremy, he seems sound. Let’s give him the job.

This bloke’s cv screams ‘privatiser’ does it not? Would we really expect such a man to be for or against the NHS? For or against Jeremy Hunt’s plans? David Prior’s was a political appointment, and now he has delivered a politically loaded report on the NHS.

Long-term Sloggers will know that I am a harsh critic of the NHS’s many faults, and its secretive management structures. My own preference would be to decentralise its services, mutualise its costs within the host population, and free it entirely from either Westminster  or rapacious insurance companies.

But I must take issue with Prior’s thoroughly predictable ‘findings’. My reactions to them are in green.

First of all, he chose to write about his views in a right wing newspaper.

Why was he allowed to do that – wasn’t a press conference good enough for him?

He warns of an “alarming” culture within the NHS, disclosing that one in four staff have reported bullying, harassment or abuse from colleagues and managers.

Why is he alarmed? It’s been obvious for years. But then, I wonder if David has ever been a patient in an NHS hospital. Has he, I wonder, ever interviewed people before about abuse allegations? Does he know that a sizeable minority always represent resentment about being disciplined?

He says whistleblowers are ostracised.

What, you mean like David Kelly, Philip Snowden, [insert 200 further names here]?

He says the NHS often “delights” in the “ritual humiliation” of those who are deemed to have failed.

Often? Delights? Maybe. But we’re a tad short on evidence here, Perry Mason. Mr Prior is not and never has been a doctor. I wonder how much he really knows about the Medical Defence Union, the British Medical Association, the doctors’ conspiracy of silence, and the old adage, “Never sue a lawyer or a doctor”?

The idea that this would change through increased privatisation is risible. Name me one privatised former public sector company that has ever displayed more transparency and honesty as a result.