Politics: Political briefing: Foreign-born medic tells a positive story

MICHAEL WHITE, The Guardian – United Kingdom
Published: Jul 05, 2007

It has not been the best of weeks for foreign-born medics working in
the NHS. But the appointment yesterday of Sir Ara Darzi to spearhead
Gordon Brown’s "I Love NHS Staff" campaign tells a more positive story
about their contribution.

A Baghdad-born Armenian who grew up in Ireland, Sir Ara is one of the
world’s leading surgeons, a charismatic Renaissance man who operates at
6am, pioneers robotic non-invasive technology, and still finds time to
be a formidable committee man. His review of London hospital
reorganisation is due out next week.

All of which will come in handy as he becomes Lord Darzi (he needs the
peerage to become a minister) and takes up the challenge announced by
the health secretary, Alan Johnson, after Mr Brown’s first PMQs
yesterday: a sweeping staff-friendly review of how a properly-funded
NHS should function, completed in time for its 60th birthday – one year
from today.

Mr Johnson is admitting publicly what Patricia Hewitt came to
acknowledge privately, that years of hard-driving Whitehall targets,
ring-fenced funds and reorganisations has broken staff morale.

In pushing reform Hewitt became too much the budget-fixated manager,
too little the politician, her friends admit. Johnson’s matey tone and
refreshing candour yesterday (he even admitted that drugs are rationed)
pleased MPs, even those who complain that the Darzi review wasn’t worth
a full oral statement. That misses the point, which is symbolic: "This
time we really are going to listen and learn," ministers are saying.

They are bent on Brown-style devolution: patient choice as a better
driver of efficiency than targets, plus practice-based commissioning of
services – hospitals being given their orders by GPs, GPs who may work
in what Sir Ara likes best; multi-skilled "poly-clinics" which do some
hospital work cheaper.

All difficult stuff and not everyone will welcome a bunch of
clinicians, even led by Sir Ara, taking up the reins of reform. But
doctors’ goodwill, lost despite their generous pay rises, is vital to
pushing through better working practices and the acceptance of hospital
and ward closures. Meanwhile Mr Johnson promises to withdraw from using
his powers to resolve politically-sensitive cases.

Tory spokesman Andrew Lansley, who survived a Cameron cull, was
dismissive enough to invite Johnson to "come on and steal our clothes".
But No 10 seems to have gone off Cameron-esque ideas of a Bank of
England-style independent board to run the NHS. A constitution or
BBC-style charter may be its answer.

There is even speculation that chancellor Brown squirrelled away extra
cash for the NHS that prime minister Brown will announce in his October
spending review. Alan Johnson may have inherited the easy bit.