David Prior elevation of incompence

  I was quietly listening to PM on Radio 4 and was horrified to hear that David Prior, failed Tory politician, is now the head of the Quality Care Commission. He has been chair of the board of two hospitals, one of which was, if I remember correctly, closed down and the other was Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. This latter hospital has recently been crticised for having having ambulances waiting for far too long at A &E. This was during Mt Prior's reign.

  He was a part=term chair of the Board and during his time the hospital become a trust. The next two events were quite interesting, they got rid of the chief executive for an undisclosed sum and a gagging clause and they doubled his salary.

  My feeling was that he knew nothing about running a hospital and had collected a board who were not a lot better than him. There were only two members of the board who had any medical experience and when I asked Mr Prior any technical question he had no idea what I was talking about. He was good at one things, wandering around the hospital behaving like a lord of the manor, he knew people fisrt name so seemed like he cared.

  The idea that he would be able to lead the Care Quality Commission is a joke, he has no understanding of either medicine or statistics, the two key skills needed to make a serious analysis of a hospitals performance. He is a master of lining his own pocket and never getting any blame.