Thursday 19 March 2009

ANOTHER FINE MESS ALI


The Government has wasted billions on "social experiments" to improve the health of the poor without any evidence the schemes work, a Parliamentary report has warned.

The Telegraph has this by Laura Donnelly.

Ministers stand accused of spending vast sums of money on "ineffective and possibly damaging" interventions which they hope will force lifestyle changes on the public, without carrying out elementary research to see if the programmes make any difference.

The excoriating (to censure severely) inquiry by the House of Commons' health select committee says that the Government failed to make "even basic calculations" about how much money they have spent on mass public health programmes intended to improve the health of those with the lowest incomes to narrow the "health gap" between rich and poor.

The inquiry says projects were designed so badly that it was impossible for them to be properly evaluated, reporting the views of one expert that documents which passed for research often amounted to "little more than propaganda".

It concludes that ministers have "spent large sums of money on social experiments to reduce health inequalities – but we do not know whether these experiments have worked or whether the money has been well spent."

Dozens of schemes were critiqued in the report. They include the £3bn Sure Start project launched in 1998 to provide one-stop childcare, educational, medical and social help for the poorest young families, and later expanded to all social groups, despite doubts about whether the initiative was effective.

Other projects include Healthy Schools, a multi-billion initiative to promote healthy eating and exercise to children, an 'expert patient' programme to teach people how to manage chronic illnesses, and most recently, £30 million pumped into creating "Healthy Towns" which promote exercise.

More than 10 years since many of the projects were introduced, there is little proof they are working, the report says.

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesman Norman Lamb said today's report exposed the Government's "slapdash" approach to the health of the nation, which had wasted billions.
He said: "Ministers have been flailing around implementing policies left, right and centre with no way of analysing how effective they were and without any idea of what was actually being done on the ground."

Dr Peter Carter, General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said shortages of essential staff, like health visitors and midwives, meant the health of the nation's children was becoming "a national scandal".

Public health minister Dawn Primarolo insisted the Government's programmes to reduce health inequalities were backed by "a wide evidence base and expert advice".

She said that while a target to reduce inequalities by 10 per cent remained "challenging," life expectancy in England had reached an all-time high.

Surprise, surprise, the Gov still can’t get it right!


Three-fourths of the mistakes a man makes are made because he does not really know what he thinks he knows.” James Bryce

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