June Hautot tackles Andrew Lansley over the government's NHS reform plans. Photograph: Mike Kemp/ In Pictures/Corbis
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Today's top SocietyGuardian stories
• NHS reform bill 'complex, incoherent and not fit for purpose', say doctors
• Accusations of witchcraft are part of growing pattern of child abuse in UK
• Private tenancy evictions up by 17%
• Babies born a few weeks early 'suffer health risks'
• Whitehall 'battling to avoid losing power to mayors', says Lord Heseltine
• Tobacco firms celebrate as judge rules against graphic images on packets
• NHS admits negligence after patients received cancerous kidneys
• Interpreters stay away from courts in protest at privatised contract
• Anorexia research finds government intervention justified
• Polly Toynbee: Tax credit cut will hit hardest those the Tories love to praise – working families
All today's SocietyGuardian stories
On the Guardian Professional Networks
• Housing sector enters war of words over transparency
• FireControl replacement projects to go ahead at fire authorities across England
• Social enterprise awards: big companies step in to sponsor young talent
• Anita Pati talks to fundraising professionals about the mix of skills and personal qualities needed to be a head of fundraising
• How one NHS trust cut MRSA infection rates by 80%
On my radar ...
• Kailash Chand, the GP who set up the epetition calling for the health and social care bill to be dropped. Despite a pre-election pledge that any petition securing 100,000 signatures will be eligible for formal debate in parliament, Dr Chand has learned that his petition (signed by 166,555 people) won't trigger a debate. Writing for Comment is free, he says:
Two things need to be done. First, keep signing the e-petition to put pressure on Cameron and let him know the public's anger and disapproval. Second, delegates to the Lib Dem conference, and Lib Dem councillors standing in the forthcoming local elections, need to be heavily lobbied. Lib Dem activists, such as David Hall-Matthews, Lord Greaves, a Lib Dem peer, and many others fear the bill will be "political suicide" and as damaging for their party as its spectacular U-turn over university tuition fees. I hope Lib Dem activists will defy Nick Clegg over these dangerous, controversial, destabilising health reforms by seeking to "kill" them at a party policy-making spring conference next week.
The NHS reform bill is fundamentally flawed, complex, incoherent, dangerous, unsafe and not fit for purpose. A joint opposition by the medical royal colleges and the public can still force the coalition to drop the health bill even at this late stage.
Meanwhile, the Dear Dave and Nick blog asks the question: What do you call a man who doesn't take medical advice? The answer: Prime Minister I think... (thanks to Simon Barrow for the link)
• A must-read post on the Mental Health Cop blog, retrospectively dedicated to PC David Rathband, which asks Who is protecting the protectors? The writer, who describes his blog as "A venn diagram of policing, mental health and criminal justice", lists some harrowing scenarios he has had to deal with in his own career, and adds:
I've been lucky enough to find ways of coping with this. There is no strategy to follow, you either find it a way of coping or you don't and it's all luck. It's not to do with 'being strong' and other macho stereotypes: I've seen some 'big strong people' brought to their knees through this stuff we deal with purely because they were not so lucky – that's all.
My colleagues and I work in an organisation that is not as conducive as it needs to be to managing the mental health and wellbeing of staff, but let me be clear: this is not necessarily because of any lack of effort on the part of the police or senior officers, although it would be folly to pretend that there are no individual examples of indifference or ignorance. I would also sound a gentle alarm across the whole public sector as I've experienced it that I see too much pressure put on frontline staff to 'deliver' stuff, whilst being constrained through poor-systems of work within the gift of managers to change and because of targets which actually pervert their staff's ability to get it done right. Some managers unwittingly erect barriers to success and then think they have to 'sweat the assets' – ie, the people – to get stuff done and that is never right.
• Artistic Guardian readers who have responded to David Hockney's own illustrated letter criticising 'anti-smoking fanatics'
• A recomended post on the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group blog by John Adams, the group's general secretary, on regulating social care. Responding to the resignation of Cynthia Bower from the Care Quality Commission, Adams argues that the watchdog's remit was too broad:
The commission's mind-boggling remit includes regulating treatment, care and support provided by hospitals, dentists, ambulances and mental health services, treatment, care and support services for adults in care homes and in people's own homes (both personal and nursing care) and services for people whose rights are restricted under the Mental Health Act.
Supporters of this broad inspection horizon suggest that by sharing a common set of essential standards the likelihood and opportunities for integration – between the NHS and social care are that much greater.
This argument may have some relevance to better supporting older people but on the whole is largely irrelevant to many disabled working age adults. Integration is not going to happen simply because we have a single set of standards across the health and social care divide.
Things are only set to get worse with the regulation of primary medical services from April 2012, the regulation of GPs in 2013 and the addition of Healthwatch England the new independent consumer champion later this year. How on earth can anyone make a success of a job with such a sweeping range of responsibilities? The department's second stage review of the regulations as a whole, which they propose consulting on later in the year, offers a glimmer of hope that we might yet see a regulator that's fit for purpose.
As sparks are still flying over the "what went wrong" at CQC, there is as yet little debate on the "why" and the "what next" – both issues that are of huge concern to VODG.
Other news
• BBC: Organ opt-out backed in BBC poll
• Children & Young People Now: Childminders demand meeting with Ofsted chief over EYFS remarks
• Community Care: Watchdog urges provider checks to stop Southern Cross repeat
• Independent: Opening of £650m hospital welcomed
• Inside Housing: Warning over right to buy risk
• LocalGov.co.uk: Councils hit hardest in public sector jobs cuts
• Public Finance: Scottish care services need future-proofing
• Telegraph: Taxes must be reduced to help the economy, warns Lib Dem minister
• Third Sector: Football coaching charity criticised over £330,000 loan to Plymouth Argyle FC
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