Podcast: The NHS blame game
Politicians, managers, medical staff: will anyone take responsibility for the NHS?
The question of accountability is at the heart of this week's rather delayed podcast on the NHS. Delayed, oddly, because this journalist's wife just happened to go into labour. Having reported on the Francis report, which has put the future of Stafford hospital into doubt, I found myself in one of those moments in life when you find yourself utterly reliant on the NHS.
The experience bore out the claims of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), which fears quality is being sacrificed as a result of the extreme the NHS now founds itself under.
With NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson refusing to accept responsibility for the recent failings, and health secretary Jeremy Hunt apparently bent on mounting an offensive campaign against the NHS, no one seems especially happy.
This week's podcast features interviews with Cure The NHS founder Julie Bailey, MRSA Action UK chair Derek Butler, the RCM's public affairs advisor Stuart Bonar and Stafford's MPs past and present, David Kidney and Jeremy Lefroy.
politics.co.uk's past podcasts are also available on iTunes.
