Targets that Matter - Where are they ?

"NHS Needs key targets that matter to Patients" - Minister Drakeford

That's it - January 1st 2014, and the Ministers is out of the blocks !

  Professor Drakeford is planning on changing  reviewing all the existing NHS targets in order to make them more meaningful to we stupid patients ( who fail to see the massive improvements being made to our services whilst the hospital waiting time for 4000+ of us have extended again to over nine months ) who don't seem to understand that all the cutbacks, rationalisations, centralisations, closures that are being made to our services are changes that are essential to provide us with a better health service ( but these cynics probably don't believe in Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny ! ).

As usual, the old mystic manages to fill two pages of the Echo without saying how any of these targets are to be changed, or whether they'll actually mean anything to either patients or clinicians alike. His photograph makes him look like a man gazing over his allotment and thinking "How the blazes can I keep these pesky patien birds away from my vegetable patch ?"  Being two of these pesky birds, Magpie and Robin answer "Impossible, you silly old goat".

So, in short, ( and as-per-ruddy-usual ) no one knows what these changes will be - except the Assembly critics who accused the Minister of scrapping the targets and that the move was an admission of failure to meet the targets.  Unfortunately, the critics are correct, as there isn't a single target ( budget or operational ) that has been met, since their inception.  So, the deception continues to limp on, with failures all around us, and not a spare bed to be found anywhere !

Good News !  Yes, this really is - the new mental health hospital at Llandough has been started, as evidenced by a mountain of gravel having been fenced in on the proposed site. So, optimism all around, with the desk porter assuring me that the new hospital is due to open in TWO years - yes, you heard it first here first- only TWO YEARS ! And that's not all - Ward 6 of Rookwood hospital has been moved to ward 2 at Llandough, with all these beds being lost for future general use. Another ward has been re-sited at St David's hospital, Riverside, and all wards are to be moved this year. We are still awaiting news of the fate of the old Rookwood site, assuming the stumbling blocks placed by the Charity Commission and the Cardiff County Council are not allowed to further impede Mr Hollard ( newly made Director of car parks, toilets and sluice rooms ).

How nice it is to be able to end on a good note, eh ?        R. W.