How very cosy in the state sector (2)

Gordon Brown said several times in PMQs yesterday that governing is about taking the long term decisions for the good of the country. Translation: my short term decisions are in trouble.

There are at least two political advantages in concentrating on long term decisions. First, you can make good headlines out of them now, but you can’t be judged on their success for several years. Second, there are relatively few long term decisions to be taken – good news if you find decision-taking difficult.

But if governing is only about long term decisions, who’s responsible for making them work? This blog has argued that ministers are in charge of huge organisations but have no experience of how to make them work.

Geoffrey Robinson put the same case last night about NHS changes. Those at the top concentrate on policies, he said. They think you can just announce a policy and it will get implemented. But, he said, it’s not so. And Robinson persuasively argued that the NHS needs fewer new policies and more space for managers to get the best out of their organisations.

Rotherham provided a fascinating case study. Only two miles from the hospital the NHS is building a community health centre (or some such) at a cost of £12m. This will provide walk in facilities run by nurses for people feeling a bit under the weather. It will also provide easier parking than the hospital, and other nurse led facilities duplicating what the hospital does. The man in charge of the project was strikingly unable to articulate any coherent case for the facility at all. It will severely undermine the hospital's economics.

Do local people really want their taxes spent on this? And if not, how can they stop it? They can't, of course.

But there goes £12m of our money.