Re: May & Hunt to sell NHS to Americans???

I agree. There have always been too many managers and pen-pushers, at least for as long as I remember.

Re: May & Hunt to sell NHS to Americans???

I've said numerous times that the NHS has been deliberately run down and starved of funds to herald the way for compulsory private health insurance which is what they have in the US. It will come. Mark my words.

Re: May & Hunt to sell NHS to Americans???

It's not becoming more popular, but media campaigns appear to be warming up the public for a Government proposal for this. This seems to happen every time there is a new idea to gauge public opinion. LBC seems to be turning into a barometer of the strength of feeling.

To implement it will be nigh on impossible and will create yet another mountain of bureaucracy for overwhelmed GP staff. Plus those who need the GP services most are least able to pay and will in many cases be exempt (which was always the argument against such a policy). So what's the point of doing it?

Re: May & Hunt to sell NHS to Americans???

The health and social care act created layer upon layer of complication and confusion. The health service has been spending an absolute fortune on continuous restructuring. Everything was working very well before the 2012 Act created the environment for the shambles we see today. Finances were sliced in umpteen ways and health authorities have been reorganised, merged, split, re-merged, turned upside down creating total uncertainty and stress for staff providing services on the front line.

You need effective management for such a complex service to run safely without imploding. It takes a large number of people to ensure that every hospital patient is safely treated, fed, their medicines in stock, correctly dispensed and administered, the equipment, premises and staff clean, equipped and paid for, the medical records correctly updated, the GP informed and community services alerted and put into place for a return home.

Cameron's catchphrase was "more for less" what we have now is "less for more".

Re: May & Hunt to sell NHS to Americans???

Responsibilities:
Patients safely treated - medical staff.
Patients fed - nursing staff.
Medicines correctly dispensed - nursing staff.
Medicines correctly administered - medical staff.
Equipment and staff clean - medical and nursing staff.
Medicines in stock - nursing staff locally and administrative staff for the hospital as a whole.
Premises clean - cleaning staff.
Medical records updated - clerical staff.
GP informed - clerical staff.
Community services alerted, etc - clerical staff.
Equipment, premises and staff equipped and paid for - financial staff / management.

Yes, there is inevitably some overlap of responsibilities, but looking at my list I'd say that most of these responsibilities lie with the medical, paramedical and clerical staff and cleaners on the wards.

So why so many managers behind desks and having no contact with patients?

Incidentally, in the 'good old days' the matron would have done a large part of the administrative work rather than a veritable army of pen pushers.

Re: May & Hunt to sell NHS to Americans???

Private provision has been happening for years.

What was "any willing provider" (under labour) is now "any qualified provider" (under the tories") Cameron made this point in his article in the telegraph back in 2011 :

"The most important is the principle of diversity. We will create a new presumption – backed up by new rights for public service users and a new system of independent adjudication – that public services should be open to a range of providers competing to offer a better service. "The most important is the principle of diversity. We will create a new presumption – backed up by new rights for public service users and a new system of independent adjudication – that public services should be open to a range of providers competing to offer a better service. "

But one provider in 5 had to be private under Labour's "patient choice" policy.

Re: May & Hunt to sell NHS to Americans???

Because someone has to be there to put all these services in place. Medical staff don't have time to micro-manage services and ensure it all goes smoothly when they need to be treating a patient.

The same is true of GPs who were given commissioning responsibilities under the health and social care act meaning they had to spend more time away from patients and more time at management meetings discussing service redesign. I remember my previous GP (who retired last year) grumbling about having to go to day-long meetings to watch power point presentations of colourful graphs which meant nowt to him.

Re: May & Hunt to sell NHS to Americans???

The NHS used to be the envy of the world. It is now becoming unfit for purpose.

I'd be interested to compare how it is run with how the more successful foreign health services are run, perhaps the other EU health services.

Do they:

- impose additional charges on patients for treatment?
- charge foreign visitors, or their home health services, for treatment?
- provide a better or a worse standard of healthcare than the NHS?
- admit aggressive drunks into their A&E departments?
- have attendance times for ambulances comparable with the NHS?
- have more or fewer administrative/management staff than the NHS?

I could go on, but basically I am suggesting that we compare our NHS with equivalent services in other 'first world' countries.

If we should find that they offer better healthcare services than we do, perhaps we should adopt their practices.

Re: May & Hunt to sell NHS to Americans???

I am sure that plenty of management consultants would be very happy to research this very topic on your behalf by going to Australia and other parts of the World at the taxpayer's expense.

Fact is we already have one of the best healthcare systems right here if only Governments stopped meddling with it.

Define "successful" - where in the World does successful happen?
My opinion on the answers to those questions :
Q impose additional charges on patients for treatment?
A -Yes
Q charge foreign visitors
A Yes
Q or their home health services, for treatment?
A - don't understand the question (duplicates first Q)
Q provide a better or a worse standard of healthcare than the NHS?
A That depends on each country and service we excel in many areas, fail in others
Q admit aggressive drunks into their A&E departments?
A there are aggressive drunks in every country. in some countries they are left to lie in the street. Alcoholism is deemed a mental illness. So it depends on a country's attitude to the mentally ill.
Q have attendance times for ambulances comparable with the NHS?
A the NHS has in the past had excellent attendance times. It still should. Our paramedics are second to none and have a really challenging job.
Q have more or fewer administrative/management staff than the NHS?
A how long is a piece of string? Few countries with a successful healthcare system are as complex as the UK or have such widespread healthcare access. You can't compare us to say NZ as their population is tiny and fairly easy to manage in comparison. Even Oz is a only a third of ours.

Re: May & Hunt to sell NHS to Americans???

Patients treated: Consultants/Registrars/Nurses/Physioterrorists/Occupational therapists/Speech therapists/Dieticians etc, etc

Patients fed: Catering staff/kitchens/dieticians etc, etc

Medicines corrctly dispensed: Pharmacists

Medicines in stock: Pharmacists and ancilliary staff

Equipment and staff clean: Ward/theatre/corridor cleaners. In addition: all patient contact staff carry bottles of antiseptic fluid to clean their hands after each contact.