It’s not too surprising that people trust ‘organisations representing doctors nurses and other health professionals,’ well above David Cameron and Andrew Lansley, when it comes to the NHS reforms. People are sceptical of politicians in a way that they aren’t of the health service, its unions and its workers. 64 years of ‘national religion’ status for the NHS, and many more years of gross political let-down, have made sure of that.
But today’s YouGov findings still shine a fresh light on Cameron and Lansley’s changing approach to the reforms. A year ago, they clearly looked at charts such as that above and thought, ‘Woah, we’d better get those organisations on side, and quick’ — hence that pause in the Health Bill to canvass the views of doctors and nurses. But now they are treating some of those same organisations more as The Enemy That Must Be Defeated. It’s not so much the guest list to today’s Downing Street summit, but rather Lansley’s own argument that some of the opposition to his reforms, from within the health service, is ‘political,’ and that ‘They want to have a go at the government … about pay and pensions’.
Correct or not, this sort of rhetoric could trigger an almighty political battle over the next few years. On one side, the ‘trusted’ health professionals blaming government policy for any failures; on the other, the government blaming ‘producer interests’ for the same. But, of course, that could be mitigated if the reforms were delivering, or if other organisations spoke out more enthusiastically in favour.
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