Absorption Not Amputation

One of the most important factors in the demolition (reform, in Modern English) of the National Health Service is, of course, the appropriate representation of patients' views. Unless patients are seen to favour the right things, the impression might be given that the adjustment of the NHS into something that suits the kind of people who make Turkey Twizzlers was some sort of ideologically motivated attack, rather than the model of fairness and social responsibility that has been just about to emerge for the past thirty years. Accordingly, in the interests of public accountability Daveybloke's Cuddly Coalition is going to abolish Links, the bodies which represent patients' views; and in the interests of proving that money isn't everything Daveybloke's Cuddly Coalition is going to abolish Links in spite of evidence that the Links are saving four times more than they cost. In the interests of independence and little-person empowerment, the Links will be replaced by local organisations called HealthWatch. Naturally for organisations whose name comprises two capitalised words with no space between them, the HealthWatch groups will be part of the Government's own regulator, the Care Quality Commission. Despite the expensive bureaucratic mayhem involved in making these little adjustments, no doubt we may safely assume that the feedback from patients will at last reach a thoroughly appropriate level.