NHS Rant

[shadow_boxer]

Sorry to hear about you and your wife’s experiences. Sadly without “proper” funding and structural overhaul I can’t see anything changing. Not to policitise the thread but I can only see things getting much worse in coming years under a post brexit conservative government. I hear stories like yours on a daily basis and my hear genuinely goes out to patients. My local hospital waiting time to see a consultant dermatologist is now over 1 year and has suspended certain new referrals.

I’d be looking to get a private consultation ASAP. May cost a few hundred quid but it’s nothing in the long run. Sure it may not get the surgery any quicker but the psychological effects of discussing with a specialist may be beneficial.

I think its hood for things that are immediately obvious, but if its not ohh boy.. it can be terrible.

Yeah. Agree.

 

[Jumper118]

Scrap the NHS. Privatise the whole health are system.

 

[Minstadave]

Scrap the NHS. Privatise the whole health are system.

What are you hoping to achieve?

 

[omnomnom]

Massively understaffed and massively underfunded. This is what you get im afraid.

Ill be sure to let me wife know how useless they are after her 13 hour shift. That's if it is 13...usually doesn't get a break either.

 

[Jumper118]

What are you hoping to achieve?

To get a better healthcare system that won't run the country into the ground very slowly and painfully.

 

[Dis86]

Massively understaffed and massively underfunded. This is what you get im afraid.

Ill be sure to let me wife know how useless they are after her 13 hour shift. That's if it is 13...usually doesn't get a break either.

Massively wasteful. Massively inefficient. Massively full of incompetence. I think this thread alone proves some of that. Read some of my previous posts on the NHS IT management if you want to know about more funding being pee'd up the wall instead of anywhere its needed.

 

[Minstadave]

To get a better healthcare system that won't run the country into the ground very slowly and painfully.

But you get a healthcare system that runs individuals into the ground instead. Whilst a whole load of profit ontop for private companies. Someone ends up paying.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

I've worked in both public sector and private sector (approx. 7-8 years in both), and I know that private sector is much much MUCH more efficient!

Buying a chair:
Private sector - manager performs VDU assessment, specs up a chair, purchasing bod orders it, it arrives in a few days time.
Public sector - admin performs VDU assessment, specs up a chair, another admin uses bespoke in-house ordering system to order chair, order gets referred back and admin has to fill in a "new supplier" form, chair gets re-ordered, a few days later, the manager / approver gives go-head, chair arrives in 3 weeks time. Too many cooks and all that.

Installing a white board:
Private sector - purchasing bod orders white board from B&Q / Wilkinson etc, arrives next day (or collect it), team installs it in their room.
Public sector - as above woes with ordering the board, again too many cooks, arrives in 1-2 weeks time, then admin raises job with the facilities dept, another week goes by then someone from facilities installs the board, then we have to provide a budget code to bill our department (even though facilities is in-house). Already a considerable amount of money ****ed up the wall just for a £8.99 white board.

Technical issue with the photocopier:
Private sector - support contract with HP / Xerox etc, technician turns up same day or next day to fix it.
Public sector - ticket has to be raised with IT (in-house) who will then log a call with HP / Xerox, response is 2-3 days.

Team away day:
Private sector - we actually go off-site i.e. an AWAY day, hire a conference room for £140, pub lunch, then do team building in the afternoon (e.g. ceramics).
Public sector - the 'away' day is just another room on-site, meetings all day (no team building), have to fill in a hospitality sheet for 2 x tea, 2 x coffee + lunch for everyone, then goes against the team's budget code. Easily costs over £140 even though our kitchen and catering staff is in-house.

Room temperature:
Private sector - windows can open fully to let in a breeze.
Public sector - radiators turn on automatically on 1st September (can't override them), so more money ****ed up the wall in heating, and the windows can only open by about 5cm.

Sickness absence:
Private sector - a few days per year per staff on average
Public sector - a few weeks per year per staff on average, plus people going off for 6 months at a time, then magically coming back as soon as their full pay switches to half pay so that they can get full pay again.

The average office staff-manager ratio (7 employees):
Private sector - 6 staff, 1 manager
Public sector - 4 staff, 3 managers

 

[Minstadave]

Massively wasteful. Massively inefficient. Massively full of incompetence. I think this thread alone proves some of that. Read some of my previous posts on the NHS IT management if you want to know about more funding being pee'd up the wall instead of anywhere its needed.

That's not really born out in the evidence though is it? We spend less of our %GDP than many European countries with very similar results.

NHS IT - yes, its a disaster, that I can agree with.

 

[Dis86]

That's not really born out in the evidence though is it? We spend less of our %GDP than many European countries with very similar results.

NHS IT - yes, its a disaster, that I can agree with.

You're assuming that their systems are any better!

I get monthly updates from a friend of my dad's who is responsible for running an entire regional ambulance service.
Want to talk about corruption? Look at those folks working for him. They had a rota of sick days to allow maximum earning of overtime when they had to cover someone else.
Let's say Dave was meant to work bank holiday Monday. He would call in sick on the Sunday and Monday so Stephanie has to cover him. At triple time.
Next bank holiday Stephanie would do it so Mary has to cover her. Then Edward would do it and Dave covers him.
Basically throughout the year everyone in on it got their extra pay and nobody triggered any sickness gateways. This has been going on for years.
Obviously couldn't sack an entire department. Couldn't discipline them because the unions would have gotten involved. It was a total mess.

 

[ivrytwr3]

I've worked in both public sector and private sector (approx. 7-8 years in both), and I know that private sector is much much MUCH more efficient!

snip

Brill!!

 

[scrivz69]

I am quite gutted by some of the posts in this thread.I work in the NHS as a porter and have done for the last 8 years. What I do and see is mad, but hey ho it's my job. You go about managers, they suck the crap out of the pensions and the salaries they get is a joke. Any of you want to take a still born baby off the mother and farther with 2 kids like I did on xmas eve last year. I did it because they asked the midwife if they could see it to the end. I don't get paid enough for that but I was happy to do it. Before you judge and **** off, people like me and my colleagues actutally give a toss.

 

[Minstadave]

You're assuming that their systems are any better!

I get monthly updates from a friend of my dad's who is responsible for running an entire regional ambulance service.
Want to talk about corruption? Look at those folks working for him. They had a rota of sick days to allow maximum earning of overtime when they had to cover someone else.
Let's say Dave was meant to work bank holiday Monday. He would call in sick on the Sunday and Monday so Stephanie has to cover him. At triple time.
Next bank holiday Stephanie would do it so Mary has to cover her. Then Edward would do it and Dave covers him.
Basically throughout the year everyone in on it got their extra pay and nobody triggered any sickness gateways. This has been going on for years.
Obviously couldn't sack an entire department. Couldn't discipline them because the unions would have gotten involved. It was a total mess.

But the same would happen in the private sector? People will always play the system.

 

[Minstadave]

I am quite gutted by some of the posts in this thread.I work in the NHS as a porter and have done for the last 8 years. What I do and see is mad, but hey ho it's my job. You go about managers, they suck the crap out of the pensions and the salaries they get is a joke. Any of you want to take a still born baby off the mother and farther with 2 kids like I did on xmas eve last year. I did it because they asked the midwife if they could see it to the end. I don't get paid enough for that but I was happy to do it. Before you judge and **** off, people like me and my colleagues actutally give a toss.

It's not your managers sucking anything out of your pension or salary, that's the Government (unless you're outsourced).

 

[Django x2]

Yes, what a joke free healthcare is. How dare a poorly funded, crippled, free service take half a year to get around to dealing with your non life threatening wife's illness.

 

[Dis86]

But the same would happen in the private sector? People will always play the system.

In the private sector though they're less likely to have that unionised cover and it is much easier to remove someone who is incompetent!

I've pointed out to you before the madness that there is no funding for me (or others like me) to retrain as a Dr yet the NHS will pay for overseas Drs to come over! Where's the logic in that?!

 

[Minstadave]

In the private sector though they're less likely to have that unionised cover and it is much easier to remove someone who is incompetent!

I've pointed out to you before the madness that there is no funding for me to retrain as a Dr yet the NHS will pay for overseas Drs to come over! Where's the logic in that?!

The NHS doesn't train doctors, that's higher education run by Gov. They set training numbers. In fact the NHS is paid by Universities to train doctors, it's welcomed.

This is one of the great problems with the NHS, it's a political football and no one will do anything in politics thinking beyond the next election. Need more doctors? Hire them in from anywhere.

 

[scrivz69]

It's not your managers sucking anything out of your pension or salary, that's the Government.

They all should be sacked. They run departments and have never been there, they have staff they have never seen, WTF do they do apart from sign off a wage sheet at the end of the month, Lol and they are as thick as fek.

 

[Dis86]

The NHS doesn't train doctors, that's higher education run by Gov.

No, but the NHS can offer bursaries, grants or funding. The money to pay for those overseas Drs and nurses comes from the NHS budgets. We're then seeing major screw ups because we're hiring Drs and nurses who can barely speak english in some cases!

I actually priced it up last week and it's going to cost me in the order of £500k+ to retrain.

 

[Minstadave]

No, but the NHS can offer bursaries, grants or funding. The money to pay for those overseas Drs and nurses comes from the NHS budgets. We're then seeing major screw ups because we're hiring Drs and nurses who can barely speak english in some cases!

I actually priced it up last week and it's going to cost me in the order of £500k+ to retrain.

The NHS bursary was scrapped AFAIK (I'm getting old). The NHS doesn't have a role in funding Doctors' training at the undergraduate level. The NHS doesn't have any say in the number of UK doctors trained. If you want more UK trained doctors you need to direct your ire towards the DOH/Gov.

There's plenty of other things the NHS does badly but this isn't really their remit.