First Do No Harm to Profits

Agitators for mere patient safety are threatening the Minister for Health and News Corporation, Jeremy C Hunt, with legal action because he sought to protect the vulnerable and deserving against the vindictiveness of angry customers. The report into conditions at Stafford hospital recommended imposing a "duty of candour", obliging health-care providers to inform patients when treatment has accidentally caused harm. As a Murdoch drone turned secretary for sneak privatisation, Hunt must find the whole idea of a duty of candour ineffably sniggerable; but he managed to keep a straight face long enough to water down the rules for the benefit of private providers. Lawyers for the charity Action Against Medical Accidents have threatened to take Hunt to the high court unless he ensures that the duty applies equally to all providers; and a spokesbeing was duly extruded to crank out assurances that this is already the case. The two-tier version of the duty of candour must have been the unauthorised work of an overreaching spad, ignorant of the virtues and values of Murdoch drones and secretaries for sneak privatisation.