Again, Grow A Set Of Balls Lansley

More than 50,000 doctors, nurses, midwives and other NHS staff are due to lose their jobs, according to the most comprehensive survey of health cuts since the Government came to power.
...
And the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust was reported to be forecasting a reduction of 1,349 full-time posts by 2015 - 22.5 per cent of its staff. A spokesman said that a “significant number” of employees were being relocated elsewhere.

Mr. Lansley can rest assured that each and everyone of these cut posts, like local government, will have a direct impact on frontline services.

The Bory's and their associated Lib Dumb bell-clappers* have unfortunately been treated like mugs and chosen to fight Labour and the civil disservice on their choice of battle field; they didn't realise the narrative had been hijacked, changed from "service reform" to "service cuts".

And as the good Dr. North pointed out last week, both inflections of language and meaning here carry responsibilities, the former meaning you have to take command on behalf of taxpayers as to where the axe will fall, the latter passing the axe to those who should be getting cut.

If proof were needed to this check out this job, one of only 5 available for North Staffordshire NHS Trust:

Mystery Shopper Programme Manager (£30,460 to £40,157 pa)
Organisation Development
Posted: 14/02/2011
North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust
Mystery Shopping is a customer feedback tool, more commonly used in the commercial sector which is now attracting growing attention in healthcare environments. Funded by the Workforce Locality Board, for a period of 12 months, the Programme Manager: Mystery Shopper provides an exciting opportunity for a forward thinking, enthusiastic individual to develop and implement Mystery Shopping across NHS partner organisations...

Mystery shopping being a contradiction in terms when there is a sole supplier of healthcare, so what is the point of even pretending?

Ah, you say, service improvement, to which I cynically point out that the trusts' gets paid whether your happy or not, improvements interpreted as to mean "more money" or "more resources" to be squirrelled away by management consultants and diversity coordinators.

Or I could point out that there are private companies that do marketing research for a fraction of the price, by company utilising just such groups to do this.

So are we likely to see a set of balls descend amongst any of the coalition anytime soon?

I wont be holding my breath.

* = that little bit of poo that dangles down at the end of a bog session, probably after big steak, pasta, and 3 cups of coffee.