Health and Social Services needs to be Re-organised

[Colin_1705]

I may be out of step on this, but I don't think it is solely about money in the NHS.
There is too much political interference in my opinion.

People talk about "Economy of Scale". But equally I think there can be
Inefficiency when an organisation is too big

[Honey Badger]

.

[jenny lucas]

Personally I think it's about money (lack of) and over-large organisations that are run by 'the bureaucrats' and not by the clinicians. It's also a chronic lack of skills.

The fat cat CEOs of health trusts are paid a fortune to slam a lid down on the problem, and stifle any protest from within (think how appallingly whistleblowers are treated.)

The lack of skills - especially in nursing, plus radiography and all the other medical skills that are in chronic short supply - is directly due to the governemtn refusing to invest in sufficient training. I believe that, if I remember a new story recently correctly, for the 20k nursing training places offered, there were twice that number of UK applicants.....but no places for them. So, of course, the hospitals have to continually hire in what they can from abroad. Then there is the stress on nurses such that they leave the professional (just as teachers are doing), compounding the problem.

So, yes, it's a lack of money, but money spent on the right things and the right staff.

I don't think there's any 'ideological' drive for privatisation, just a desire to save money....just as the government does with all the other state/public organisations, outsourcing to save a buck or two in the short term, and end up with massive bills to be paid to private companies later on.

Including, of course, the national disgrace of PFI, where trusts were forced to go to PFI companies, signing up to the most horrendous contracts that are costing the NHS up to 8 times the actual cost of the buildings, and landing them with crippling and outrageous maintenance contracts.

[MrsAverage]

I would like to see a clear trail of where the money goes. We seem to pay in more and more yet less and less comes out at the front end.

I'd like to see where it gets removed before it gets to NHS, i.e. at goverment level, then at all the admin levels below, and how much goes to PFIs and then how much at how many management levels there are...

I don't like to decry nurses but at 2 recent outpatients appointments there were an awful lot of people not doing much. Then when I phoned to see how long the referral letter would take was told it would take over a month to reach the top of the typing pile. Somethings must be very wrong in some places.

And then ditto all the above for Social Services

[jenny lucas]

Completely agree with you Mrs A!

That example of having to wait for the letter so long is a glaring example of where the NHS is NOT spending the money it should - ie, on secretaries! Ridiculous.

And worse - I was once on a cancer volunteer committee and discovered that it was the ONCOLOGIST who had to write reports and so on (ie, physically type them up!). I objected to spending his HUGE salary (well earned I think) and even HUGER skills (he was a surgeon) on something a clerk could do. Simply because the hospital refused to hire another secretary.