Whilst in Canada I spoke at a conference run by the Ontario Hospital Association (the equivalent of our Confederation but only covering hospitals). The opening speaker was Don Berwick who, whilst being from the US is no stranger to the NHS and its reform. Don helped to set up one of the best health improvement organisations in the world – the Institute of Health Improvement (the IHI, the website is well worth a visit) and it was as the IHI that he spent much of the late 90s and the first decade of this century helping the NHS.
Don has had a tough couple of years because he was asked by President Obama to run Medicaid and Medicare (budget of over £900 billion) who provide the health care for retired and some poorer US citizens. This is the world’s most important job in socialised medicine, but given the vicious and riven nature of US politics at the moment, the whole might of the Republican political machine has been pressed into service to destabilise the office holder.
