@umpteennamechanges
I've been a senior manager myself (non-NHS)...there seems to be a general perception though that the NHS is 'badly managed' and 'inefficient'.
Do you see evidence of this among your peers or not particularly?
My experience of the private sector isn’t extensive, so I have little to personally compare with, although speaking to colleagues with more experience the general consensus is that the perception is incorrect.
‘The NHS’ shouldn’t really be bulked all together into one thing, it is multiple organisations, and systems, all working together like massive cogs. Sometimes the cogs aren’t well oiled and are thus poorly run. This may be because of a lack of funding, and it’s incredibly difficult to run an organisation that has no money for innovation, it’s hard if you can’t ‘invest to save’. That isn’t to say that some organisations aren’t badly run, of course they are, but healthcare is incredibly complex and so there will always be areas of inefficiency.
The juggling act comes when you are trying to balance patient experience, and quality of care, with staying within incredibly tight budgets. Clinical staff (doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, etc) cost money, and they do take up the bulk of the budget. We are constantly having to reduce our admin budgets, but without administrators appointments can’t be booked, referrals can’t be sent, queries can’t be answered (etc) and so in come inefficiencies, as there aren’t enough people to make the processes streamlined and backlogs are created.
I think I’ve gone off tangent. What I’m trying to say is yes, there are inefficiencies and pockets of bad practice, but I don’t think that’s unique to the NHS, we just see people when they’re are their most vulnerable, and at those times even a small inefficiency can feel like a cavern.