An article today by Sam Lister of The Times is enlightening in more ways than one.  Highlighted is an official report by The Healthcare Commission, the health inspectorate, which disclosed the serious failings by senior managers at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire that had allowed the hospital to become the site of one of the worst episodes of "super bug" infection Clostridium difficile, resulting in the deaths of sixty-five patients.  It was found that an unacceptable disregard for basic hygiene and inexcusable inaction by the managers was behind two major outbreaks.

Most telling is that,

 "…the Commission was particularly critical of Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust, saying that senior managers mistakenly prioritised Government targets (my emphasis) such as a maximum waiting time of four hours in Accident and Emergency and did not listen to staff.  They also failed to listen to serious concerns raised by hospital infection experts, who asked for isolation facilities."

The Government should take note.  The managers knew that they would be in big, big trouble if they did not meet the targets imposed upon them.  Thus they took their eyes "off the ball" and failed to perform their fundamental task of ensuring the provision of quality health care.  This is what happens when Big Government interferes where it does not belong.