VIEWPOINT FOR 10 JULY 2008
FROM DR RICHARD TAYLOR

It has been hard to escape NHS matters during the last week with the all-pervading celebrations of its 60th anniversary. 

• I attended a dinner hosted by the Health Service Journal at which Gordon Brown and the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, both spoke and rightly paid tribute to the service, its staff and its patients. 
• Then there was a celebratory service in a packed Westminster Abbey. 
• I had a chance to reminisce briefly about my own early experiences in the NHS when I hosted a reception in the House of Commons organised by the Health Hotel. Looking back at the few drugs we had, the limited investigations we could carry out and how we treated people with, for example, heart attacks and peptic ulcers when I qualified in 1959 makes one staggered by the discoveries and developments we have made since then – a triumph of progress and a real cause for celebration.

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At the Acute Hospitals Trust AGM in Redditch last Saturday the Trust's consultation on its application for Foundation Trust status was launched. 
This is an opportunity for the Trust to gain some welcome independence from the Department of Health and also closer patient and public involvement. I hope many of us will grasp the opportunity of becoming members of the Trust. This is free and carries with it the privilege of voting for Trust Governors from among the members.

[See the schedule of meetings elsewhere on <Latest News> .. Ed]

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The Health Select Committee Report on Dental Services was published last week. 
This concentrated on the controversial new contract for NHS dentistry and we concluded that it was failing to improve dental services and that it had been inadequately piloted. We found that access was deteriorating, complex treatments were being carried out less frequently and that Primary Care Trusts were variable in their ability to commission dental services satisfactorily. We recommended a return to registration with a dentist and a more sensitive arrangement for patient charges using five treatment bands rather than the crude three band system in use now.
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This week, with remarkable party unanimity, the Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Bill sailed through the Commons. 
The Minister told the House, 

"We are all determined to produce a Bill that is fair to the defendant, protects the public from dangerous offenders, and ensures that witnesses receive the protection they need from intimidation and violence in appropriate cases." 

In the words of Michael Howard the Bill will remove "the stranglehold of fear" that prevents witnesses coming forward.
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Following the tragic death of two children in Corfu in 2006 from carbon monoxide poisoning there is a poster competition for schools to raise awareness of the dangers of poisoning from faulty heating and cooking appliances. This is organised by the charity CO-Gas Safety looking for simple, direct messages. The closing date is 15 August. Details are available at www.co-gassafety.co.uk/competition.html 

Age eligibility: 10-11 and 16-17; prizes are iPODS for winning students and £500 for each winning school plus a trip to the Houses of Parliament for the prize giving in the autumn. Please let me know if there are any local entrants to the competition.

R.T.

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