Admire the Commitment.

Today (17/11/11) Britain has announced that it is to sell the troubled bank Northern Rock to the Virgin Group. This is a reference to the fact that the emergency medical side of Croydon University Hospital (CUH) is to be sold to a private company owned by the Virgin Group. As I've previously enjoyed something of a good relationship with the Virgin Group Britain was rather hoping this would be viewed as CUH being punished for it's conduct. There are only two small problems with this.

Firstly due process means we can't have discussions about how CUH is to be punished until the Court of Protection (COP) rules that it along with one of the COP's judges has behaved improperly. I've yet to hear back from the COP and even if they've issued a Section 48 order placing my grandmother back under their care without telling me the next stage is an attended hearing which is likely to take weeks if not months.

The second problem is that there is no provision under English law to allow a private company to run a National Health Service (NHS) service. This provision of course may be introduced with the Health and Social Care Bill 2011. However this is still being debated in the House of Lords, has not yet recieved Royal Assent and is therefore most certainly not the law of the land. The fact that CUH are running their complaint procedure in way that it incompatible with law should only make the COP's decision easier.