Treating Symptoms Not Causes

As anyone who has seen today's news will know, following the deaths of 90 hospital patients from Clostridium difficile, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has been seriously criticised for focusing too much on balancing the books and meeting waiting-time targets, at the expense of patient care and infection control.

If Kent police have launched an investigation into whether the trust should be prosecuted for the deaths, who is going to challenge the Government for imposing its misguided and distorting targets in the first place? It's time the state stopped interfering in our public services and returned power back to the professionals who work in our local communities.

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