@wesstreeting Hi Wes! You forgot a big part of the team - your advisors! I’m sure that was inadvertent, so let me fill it in for you! First, there’s Paul Corrigan, who advocated private companies taking over NHS hospitals…

@wesstreeting Then there’s Alan Milburn, a long time believe in private companies competing with more “businesslike” NHS units, & negotiated the big private sector “concordat” to facilitate that, & has since made a fair bit from consultancy in this arena…

Starmer’s NHS “enforcer” to be Alan Milburn? Late of Bridgepoint Capital / Care UK, and of privatisers-in-chief PWC? Architect of Blair’s worst, most corporate-friendly, most money-wasting and frankly dangerous NHS ideas? That Alan Milburn? Oh God. opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/milb… (V good more recent article by @SolHughesWriter here… I forgot his connection with (US privatising health conglomerate) Centene’s parent company ))morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/alan…

I went to the Pharmacist witj what I suspected was early shingles and he told me emphatically it was *not*. (Spoiler - it was).

He also told me not to go to the NHS for 2nd opinion, but tried to sell me a private Superdrug online GP appointment.

news.sky.com/story/no-gp-ap… There *is* a case for individual pharmacists having a bit more freedom to prescribe but it's no replacement for an adequately staffed NHS GP service - & given how corporate the Pharmacist sector now is, & how much NHS cash they already get for flu jabs etc, I do worry.

Every one of Tony Blair’s ideas for NHS here, is evidence-free, ideological, profit-opportunity creating bullsh*t. 🧵

theguardian.com/society/2023/j… Even the more innocuous-sounding ones. Eg, pushing Fitbit type tracker / wearable devices etc - which don’t help the unfit, in fact evidence shows discouragement, not to mention eating disorder exacerbation - but they do create a lot of “worried well” work for GPs.