Throwing good money at poor NHS services

The Department of Health says “poor quality” organisations will not be “propped up with subsidies” any more.

Eh? That's been the policy, then?

Currently, if NHS hospital trusts get into financial difficulties they can be bailed out with public money, with recent figures suggesting almost £1billion has been spent on emergency loans from Whitehall and support from local health bodies in recent years.

[The Department] states that the “failure regime” should be focused on “protecting patients’ access to essential services – irrespective of the type of provider – and avoiding bail-outs for poor services at the taxpayer’s expense”.

If that's been going on, it's hardly been transparent. It makes the NHS look like an impenetrable state within a state.

Too big to be managed, indeed.