Today's papers are reporting further mismanagement of the NHS. A leaked document has revealed that the government expects a shortage of nurses and GPs in four years but the NHS will have to reduce the number of hospital doctors to save money. Also, many trusts are cancelling and postponing operations and treatments to reduce the deficit for the financial year.
These reports demonstrate the poor management of the health care system. The government imposed initiatives and costly targets have resulted in huge deficits and poor service for patients. It is clear that the NHS needs to be reformed but the government by introducing a huge number of initiatives at once without a clear overall direction has worsened the situation. More responsiblity at the local local level is the solution to better quality of service.
Comments
Piss-up and brewery spring to mind
Entertainingly, there's not a whisper about this on the Department of Health website, nor on the Government News Network. Clearly, bad news is no news for the Government. Instead, Patricia Hewitt (the Minister for Health) was delighted to announce the far more important news that Anne Watts has been appointed Chair of the Appointments Commission, while in other "health news", the Consumer Council for Water were advising people to remember to drink enough water. Tomorrow, Patricia will be showing us how to breathe. Labour really do think we're all like the blonde with the headphones. No wonder they don't trust us to let us do anything of our own accord, or to spend our own money.
Anyway, back to the NHS staffing problems. I must be missing something. Isn't it great news that we think we will have too many consultants soon? By the law of supply and demand, if we have too many consultants, they will have to lower their prices and we will have the services of more consultants for less money. Good news for everyone except consultants, right?
Not in the land of central-planning, it's not. There are numbers in the plan for how many consultants we should have, how many GPs, how many nurses, and so on. A difference between reality and the plan can't happen, can it? The best way to deal with the plan not matching reality, then, is to adjust reality. Too many consultants: stick with the plan and let 3,000 of them go elsewhere. Too few nurses: stick with the plan and....
Oh, hang on, that only works if you've got too many. Oops. If you stick with the plan for nurses, you will still have too few nurses. Either you adjust the plan to have fewer nurses, or you adjust the plan to pay more to get more nurses. PANIC. The plan cannot be wrong, but the plan cannot be right. Error. Does not compute.
Morons. When will someone have the guts to point out that you can no more ignore the market in health services than in anything else that people demand. The loyal opposition won't do it, that's for sure. They don't believe in the market any more than the socialists. The NHS is their biggest priority, three times over, along with everything else, of course. It's safe in their hands. As safe as it is in the hands of the current shower of sh*te, no doubt.
I think I'll buy some shares in BUPA.