The Changing NHS

I played Scrabble on Sunday evening with my wife and youngest daughter (aged 11). I came last, with a miserable 85 points. The boss had 136 and my daughter, much to her delight had 86.

Pondering my defeat I realise that my strategy (such as it was) was wholly flawed. At one point I was very pleased with myself as I had secretly formed the word ‘ Senate’. This word appealed to me quite a bit. I thought it would impress my daughter and being an ex-politics junkie it appealed to me also. So much so in fact that I was unconcerned that each letter only scored 1 point.

I held on to Senate for 3 rounds, hoping to play it, scoring no points each time. I didn't.  Eventually, with a heavy sigh, I laid down ‘ten’ whilst telling my fellow players that I had Senate, hoping to impress daughter in any case. It didn’t. In the meantime they both had been playing away, scoring points all over the board.

I think PCTs form and implement strategy a bit like I play Scrabble! The world (like the Scrabble board) is constantly changing but they are holding onto the words they hold dear (reducing health inequalities, strengthening the patient/GP relationship etc) in the hope that some time soon the board, sorry world, will allow them to play their hand. In the meantime all sorts of opportunities for scoring points are passing by before our eyes.

For example, last week I discovered some interesting facts about our changing world, including:

1. Alternative practitioners are now more numerous than GPs;
2. The UK Governemnt has committed to spend $1.3 billion on stem cell research in the next 10 years;
3. Cancer drug launches have risen from just under 1400 in 2000 to just over 2100 in 2007;
4. In 2005 the annual spend on Complementary and Alternative Medicines was estmated to be £4.5 billion and the market has grown by 50% in the last 10 years;
5. Estimates of UK gas reserves amounted to 412 billion cubic metres in 2006 14.1% lower than the estimate in 2005.

That’s a really interesting Scrabble board for a PCT to score some serious points on, don't you think?

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