Aren't Government Advisers Wonderful?

Courtesy of the National Death Service blog comes this report in the Daily Telegraph. From the report we read:

"However, the Government advisers that control its use in England decided to downgrade some types of calls in an attempt to manage rising pressures. In doing so, they created a potentially lethal flaw across the system - patients in these categories could have other life-threatening risks ignored."

Yet again we are presented with a report which shows that systems are 'manipulated' in order to meet 'targets', a criticism echoed by this statement from Dr. Anthony Mason "I have worked in emergency medicine for most of my career, yet until Bonnie’s death I knew nothing about the work of ECPAG, let alone the consequences of their decisions. It seems like an obsession with NHS targets is being put ahead of the safety of some of the most critically-ill patients"

No doubt the 'managers' of the emergency services, the hospital and the 'advisers' were well rewarded for their failures; but then we have such a wonderful health service - one we are told, by our politicians, which is the envy of the world.