National Audit Office ReportThe report calls for the NHS to do more to reduce waiting times. It also calls for an end to manipulation of the system for cosmetic purposes, for inequalities across the country to be reduced and for the information system to be sharpened up. The NAO found that 20% of consultants admitted to giving earlier treatment to patients to meet targets. Waiting lists were judged unreliable because some patients only featured on lists after varying periods as outpatients and the names of other patients should have been removed from lists. The report urges wider implementation of innovative practices and identifies five key areas of good practice. It recognizes that the National Patients’ Access Team has a comprehensive range of work programmes in place and is taking forward the recommendations.
Graduates and the unemployed are being encouraged to work in public services. The Civil Service is setting out its stall in a Carers Fair. The police are running a training scheme to bring unemployed people from the ethnic minorities up to the recruitment standard.’Creating the Future 2001′ will be held at the Westminster Central Hall in London on 31st July and 1st August. Some 20 departments, the Civil Service Fast Stream, District Audit and HM Prison Service will set out what they do and present a picture of the opportunities they offer. There will be a series of seminars to allow graduates to ask questions about the kind of work involved, a Ministers’ Question Time and an open forum where civil servants of minority ethnic origin will share their experiences of working in the Civil Service
The TUC has set out its concerns about the Government’s intentions to invite the private sector to play a greater role in modernizing public services. It warns that this path will lead to an increasingly bitter dispute and to derailment of plans.The reasons for opposing greater private sector involvement were set out in a statement by TUC General Secretary John Monks. The TUC believes that the market left to itself will not deliver equality of access to public goods such as health care, education, quality public transport and a high quality environment. Private involvement also undermines democracy and diminishes accountability for delivery, because a dissatisfied public cannot remove those responsible at a subsequent election. It also argues that some services should not be subject to the profit motive since this might conflict with other objectives.
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