in yawning at yet another NHS "radical overhaul".

[TheJollyPirate]

I probably am being unreasonable but as a nurse, midwife and HV with nearly 30 years of NHS employment I have seen these overhauls take place before. Nothing changes but they all cost vast amounts of money to implement with very little in change or benefit for the average NHS user.

So - it appears that I am now awaiting the next lot of restructuring and new headed notepaper, name badges, contracts of employment and many many meetings to prepare for all this all attended by well paid beauracrats, some frontline staff to make it appear less "top down" but decisions will be made without the frontline staff. I have seen it all before and am frankly vored with it. I thought Lansley was supposed to have said "no restructuring" - then again this is the fuckwit minister who rubbished Jamie Olivers attempts at improving school food.

So - here's to the costs involved - they won't be minimal either - minim al would involve leaving well alone until the UK had money but never mind eh?

Cynical - me?

[IPredictADiet]

YANBU
the endless reshuffles are but futile attempts to cover up the fact that there is not enough money to pay for the services required.

I reckon that if half the money spent on the endless reinventing of the wheel were to be pumped into front line service provision, the reshuffles would not be needed.

[gingerblonde]

YANBU, based on past performance. But if it makes you feel any better they are planning to take out 45% of the bureacrats.... ; )

[reallytired]

The pen pushers will get richer and the number of front line staff will be reduced.

I disagree with you that nothing changes. What happens is that patient care detorates.

[needtomoveon]

I think it is divide and abolish rule i.e. split PCTs into much smaller units, run by people who don't have the skills and time to run them effectively and then say "Hey, this isn't working! I know let's get some private health insurance plans established and fund healthcare that way. That's the way to go. It works sooo well in the US.............".

Maybe I am an old cynic, only a few months working in a PCT this year to my name. I am reading a history of the 80s and 90s and can't help but feel that ideologically what is planned is a programme of swingeing cuts to the NHS (despite all the promises to the contrary - because politicians' promise are worth what exactly?)

Of course I may be just a mad conspiracy theorist and I would actually like to be proven wrong on this!

[PurpleCrazyHorse]

TBH our trust could probably save the NHS single-handedly if Procurement got their act together and seriously haggled over prices. I was quoted £150 for a fax cartridge (!) that was £40 on the Staples website

There's also so much wastage of stock that goes missing or is out of date.

When I worked in the private sector, we had a contract with Niceday and they provided us with our own catalogue of knocked-down priced stationery. There's a big difference when these things affect your profit margin...

[TottWriter]

needtomoveon - it saddens me to think this but I reckon you're right. Let's face it, since when have the Conservatives given a damn for the ordinary man? (I'm leaving aside the Lib Dems right now because frankly their presence and power in this coalition is somewhat negligeable to my view. Though I guess I could be wrong.)

Still, if they try and steal our NHS from us, I reckon they'll be unelectable for more than just a generation. I can see riots if they tried to privatise it all. Frankly, I'd be out there on the front line. This country has a lot of problems (like all countries) but the NHS is something we can be proud of, even if its poor management has made it less effective than we would like.

[gingerblonde]

Needtomoveon - yup, that's my take on it too. It's a bit worrying that they're planning to give 95% of NHS funding to GPs when one of the key GP leaders says that he thinks that about 5% of GPs have the skills and interest to do this. And I'm just back from a meeting with a GP who works in a big city who says that he can't think of anyone round here that would want to do it. Oh good.

My conspiracy theory is that they hand the money over to GPs who can't get want they want within the money they have and hey presto, top-up time and in walk the insurance companies....

[tattycoram]

I totally agree. United Health and the like will be licking their lips. Also, I saw a presentation from MORI talking about how people are less and less willing to pay for the care of those who they deem to have brought illness on themselves, smokers, drinkers etc. I do understand why people see that way, but it's not a very big jump to thinking why don't we all just pay for ourselves through insurance and - bingo - privatisation.

[minxofmancunia]

YANBU, am an NHS veteran of 15 years and it's just getting tedious and stupid tbh all the "radical" and "patient centred" overhauls and changes. All the bloody palaver over implementing agenda for change for example and those RIDICULOUS appraisal docs with all the categories on you have to spend 2 hours doing every bloody time you're due an increment.

In our service (CAMHS) we've been froced to reduce the wait time down from 18 weeks to 11 for non urgent referrals WITHOUT increasing the number of frontline staff to deal with them. This is to appease the media constantly bleating on about wait times. As a result everyone gets seen and assessed but it's rare anyone actually gets treated. We don't have the time or the man power to treat. We assess give a bit of advice and see them again in 6 weeks time when absolutely nothings changed. We carry between 40-60 cases each for YEARS because we get no throughput. Or people drop out because they're sick of nothing happening. It's unfair on the patients and demoralising and stressful for staff.

[Oblomov]

YANBU. My heart sank when i saw the news.

[Starbuck999]

Maybe now it'll finally be possible to be issued with some more uniform?!?

[PinkyNotBrain]

YANBU.

I work in a PCT presently, agree totally with your comments. This is privatisation through the back door BIG TIME. It is ludicrous for skilled staff to be made redundant while much of the "commissioning" work is said to be contracted out by GPs to private health firms, such as Bupa, Capita and US-owned comapnies. How is this helping the NHS or out economy as a whole?

The merry-go-round continues.....