The only function of economic forecasting is
to make astrology look respectable

Today, I asked David Cameron about Wycombe Hospital during Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons. The context is the Better Healthcare in Bucks consultation.

On a day when PMQs were dominated by health service reform, I said I had visited the offices of the Bucks Free Press on Monday to see readers’ reactions to the proposed changes affecting Wycombe Hospital. I told the Prime Minister that Labour had left a tragic legacy of distrust and despair about the NHS locally and I asked whether the right way to restore trust and accountability was clinical commissioning and Foundation Trust status.

The Prime Minister agreed and drew attention to how Labour had undermined community hospitals.

The changes proposed locally are out for public consultation until April. All of us who support Wycombe hospital must seize this chance to make our voices heard by attending a consultation meeting. The first meeting in Wycombe will be on Tuesday 28 February at the King’s Centre in Desborough Road from 10am until 1pm. I will be participating and I urge as many constituents as possible to join me there.

A survey is available here. I have submitted related written and oral questions to the Secretary of State for Health, which I will publish as they are answered.

Last Wednesday, I attended the re-launch of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) Parliamentary Panel.

The meeting coincided with the publishing of a report by the RCM on the State of Maternity Services in the UK. This revealed that the number of births per year increased by 22% between 2001 and 2010, while the number of midwives had increased from just over 18,000 in 2001 to just under 21,000 in 2010.

These statistics suggest that there is a shortfall of 4,664 midwives nationwide. This is mainly due to the 71% increase in births to women aged 40+ since 2001.  The RCM noted that births to mothers in this age group are more likely to involve complications, such as an increasing risk of giving birth prematurely or a caesarean or an epidural injection. This inevitably means that midwives have less time to attend to other mums. Projections show that this mis-match between the supply and increasing demand for midwifery services is unlikely to diminish due to the continuing high birth rate and the complications that may arise.

I’m glad to be part of the re-established Parliamentary Panel which will highlight this fundamental issue.

My colleague Jesse Norman MP has done some fantastic work towards obtaining rebates on exorbitant private finance initiative (PFI) contracts. See for example his article It is time to derail the PFI gravy train. To that end, yesterday we held a lengthy debate in Westminster Hall which you can find here.

PFI really matters to Wycombe and Buckinghamshire, where long, expensive hospital contracts have become fixed points in the local health system. A sensible, negotiated rebate would help NHS staff deliver more.

My colleagues did a fine job in explaining the minutiae of PFI and its faults so I tried to widen the debate to encompass PFI’s place in our present social system:

I would like to develop one point: how PFI fits into the nature of our society. I am reminded of something that Churchill said, which I think speaks to the third way. He said:

“Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk.”

I will come back to how he finished the quote at the end. It strikes me that the third way seems to have turned private enterprise into a vampire squid to be suckered on to the faces of people on normal and low incomes.

…

It is strange that so much money is being funnelled to firms whose commercial risks are being underwritten by the power to tax. Far from protecting the poor, the state now seems to be an institution for protecting the rich from the risks they take with their own investments. I am a capitalist, and I believe that capitalism requires entrepreneurs and investors to bear their own risks. Somehow, through all this mire and mess we find ourselves in, we need to recover the principles of a free society and a vision of a capitalism that works, and works for everybody.

The worst part of the present system of vampire squid state capitalism is of course the banking system, but PFI as recently executed is in there too. The Treasury has made a start but there is far to go before PFI satisfies the public’s incisive sense of fair play.

A doctor and Conservative candidate writes on health reform and it’s very much to the point of our local experience:

A renewal of the NHS must not be piecemeal or deal with the symptoms. It must tackle the fundamental flaws – in its management, its funding, and the maintenance of professional standards. And there is a belief that getting all those things right could actually save the Treasury a lot of money while at the same time give the public a superior service.

Read more.

Highlights from the past week:

• On Monday, I attended the beginning of Armed Forces Week in Wycombe.
• Budget statement on Tuesday by the Chancellor. I spoke in the debate receiving a warm reception from Prof. Kevin Dowd on the Institute for Economic Affairs’ blog. The first Cobden Centre Austrian School Seminar began at the Institute of Economic Affairs.
• Wednesday saw a major post-budget event by the TaxPayers’ Alliance and the IEA, followed by lunch with Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, to discuss health reform and Wycombe Hospital.
• Writing for ConservativeHome on Thursday, I explained why economists disagree, why they are so often wrong and where economic thinking goes next. I followed this up on Saturday with some essential market analysis of the crisis from The Cobden Centre.
• On Thursday evening, I explained to like-minded comrades over dinner how we might deliver and entrench a new open society.
• On Friday, I visited the magnificent Skidz project, which delivers motor training for young people, before dropping in on the Schools Linking Network Celebration event at Adams Park. The evening was beautifully rounded off with a wonderful Patron’s summer party in Hambleden Valley.
• Yesterday, I visited Desborough Playden before enjoying Marlow Bottom’s Rose Carnival. I ended the day giving prizes to inspiring young people at the Muslim Education Centre on Totteridge Drive.

And all this reminds me: time to begin a new Google map for my work as MP…