How good is the NHS Plan?

A recent cruel Matt cartoon showed someone being told on their mobile phone that they areĀ  now Number One in the queue to pay extra tax to fund the NHS, but several million down the list to get the health treatment they have been waiting for. The Plan to cut waiting lists finally produced on February 8th came a long time after the legislation to put in place a tax rise to pay for it. That made me suspicious as I always think you need to know what you are buying and what it costs before deciding how much to budget.Ā  The delay apparently arose because the Treasury and PM wanted reassurances that the money would be well spent so the waiting lists could come down. The NHS was unwilling to offer any such promise. Their voice, the Secretary of State, has told us all that despite the extra cash waiting listĀ  numbers are likely to go up, not down.

So what did the Treasury wrestle from the NHS for yet more extra cash? The promise is no-one will have to wait for elective surgery (nonĀ  urgent treatment) for longer than two years by July of this year, andĀ  no longer than eighteen months from April next year. These are modest promises. Aware of the possible criticism that with its large reorganisation underway and with so many Health bodies with Chief Executives overseeing the hospitals and surgeries that the NHS spends too much on overhead, we are told that by international standards it has a low cost. It is according to the NHS 2% of total spend. I suspect that is based on careful definitions. It quite clearly is not comparable with many overseas health systemsĀ  where admin costs include the costs of payments and insurance. The UK admin costs should include all the administrative costs of the Income Tax section of the Revenue as we would not need Income Tax without the NHS, or the adminĀ  costs of several other entire taxes if you hypothecated them instead.

I find it strange that the NHS cannot or will not tell me how many Chief Executives they have on their payrolls amidst all the quangos that work with and for them. I am disappointed that we still do not seem to have the staff plan which must be central to delivery of shorter waiting lists and fundamental to costing the programme. We are told “further work is needed to train, recruit and retain staff”. We can have precise time based targets for the results of the planned workĀ  but no precise targets for how many trained medical people they will recruit and pay to get the work done. Whenever I have supervised budgets for an organisation forecasting the staff costs is usually the easy bit asĀ  you know how many people you employ and how many extra you plan to add.

I and others will keep pressing the Secretary of State to tell the nation how they will expand treatmentsĀ  sufficiently to remove the long waits, which mainly requires more staff or more full time staff. The Chief Executive of NHS England needs to tell Ministers and the public more about how she intends to turn round the very high waiting lists, given the willingness of the government visible over the last two years to supply very large additional sums of cash to the service.

162 Comments

  1. DOM
    February 14, 2022

    The Labour and BBC aligned NHS is now a more powerful political organisation than the Tory party and it will damage the patient interest if it means it can create backlogs that damage the electoral fortunes of this Tory government. All Socialist organisations act to promote their power irrespective of the harm they cause.

    Accept one simple fact. The NHS has become a unionised political power base aligned to Labour and financed by the neutered private sector taxpayer. The patient is treated with contempt because the NHS can and the Tory party is terrified of being viewed by the naive, clueless public as a a foe rather than a supporter of the NHS

    The NHS will fight to halt reform. It will fight to expand its budgets and political influence over government. And the NHS will deliberately create circumstances to undermine the Tory government’s handling of this organisation

    Your party and this government have one choice. Tell the public that the NHS is not the organisation some think it is. Mid Staffs exposed the NHS for what it has morphed into and what it has morphed into ain’t that pleasant

    We need reform and legal impositions and punishments for this organisation. It needs depoliticising. Abolish progressive staff indoctrination using diversity and CRT training. Ban Stonewall from all areas of the public sector.

    Your party’s pandering to the unions and woke parasites has caused untold damage to public interest by allowing the public sector to become political.

    1. Mark B
      February 14, 2022

      The NHS Management know full well that they have the government and the people right where they want them and can play one against the other using the Labour Party as the useful stick to beat them with.

      It is funny that, when the UK was heavily industrialized and unionised the Labour Party was very pro King Coal and every industry they had interests in. Now they want to shut down every mine and industry to save the planet now that the unions have moved into government service areas – eg Schools and the NHS.

      Time to call this out.

    2. No Longer Anonymous
      February 14, 2022

      +1

      The NHS is the industrial wing of the Labour Party. It is a national religion for which we had to demonstrate our devotion on our doorsteps or else be ostracised.

      In reality it’s got some quite nasty and selfish people working in it. Several examples in my own family of outright neglect and unpleasantness both through fatal misdiagnosis and then dismissive treatment afterwards… we turned to charities for palliative help instead. I am not saying that the whole NHS is like this but it is far from being perfect and is not the envy of the first world… maybe the third world but certainly not the first.

      A lockdown supporting friend even says he’s now had enough “They’re milking this. Everyone else is now working normally but you try getting to see a doctor face to face.”

    3. Ian Wragg
      February 14, 2022

      Watching Holby or Casualty, they are overt propaganda outlets for the NHS.
      Always overworked and short of resources but plenty of time to hang about talking.
      I think these programmes mirror the staff of the NHS. All the money in the world wouldn’t be enough.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        February 14, 2022

        Er, they’re not documentaries, Ian.

        1. Peter2
          February 14, 2022

          They are not documentaries.
          They border on propaganda.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            February 15, 2022

            Nah, you’re getting mixed up with tripe like Who Dares Wins.

            We’ve always had TV like Emergency Ward Ten.

          2. Peter2
            February 15, 2022

            Who dares wins?
            What on earth are you waffling on about.

          3. hefner
            February 21, 2022

            A program on Channel 4, about five years ago.

  2. Mark B
    February 14, 2022

    Good morning.

    The cartoon reflected the public mood on this issue, and when one knows the background to the cartoonist’s life, one can see very clearly the reasons behind it. Sometimes, the truth really does hurt.

    The solution to poor service is to always go elsewhere. Unfortunately we have had that choice removed and denied. If I wanted private medical insurance through my employment it would be seen as a benefit and taxed. I wonder how much the Treasury gets, or is losing though this stupid attitude ? If you allow private healthcare insurance this will generate growth in this sector. Growth that can be taxed at various levels and, would help to reduce waiting lists at a net benefit to the Treasury.

    But it will never happen. Can’t have the Great Unwashed clogging up the Elites wards, can we šŸ˜‰

  3. Bob Dixon
    February 14, 2022

    The structure of National Trustā€™s in the U.K. are baffling.I would be astonished if anyone could map it out.
    We have had several attempts to streamline The NHS.
    Time to Privatise The NHS.
    And while we at it float the BBC onto the stock market.

    1. Everhopeful
      February 14, 2022

      +1
      Agree.
      It really seems like a huge spiderā€™s web. Or maybe webs within webs.
      A mazeā€¦with the last objective being to make people well!

    2. Andy
      February 14, 2022

      Take that suggestion to the electorate in a general election to try to get a mandate for it. See how you get on.

      Itā€™ll be funny to see.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        February 14, 2022

        Andys on the laughing gas again.

        1. Enrico
          February 14, 2022

          Andy is so boring.If heā€™s like this in work I feel so sorry for his colleagues.

          1. Mickey Taking
            February 14, 2022

            He has employees, not colleagues.

    3. Mark B
      February 14, 2022

      I disagree Bob.

      Much like the water industry you will be creating a monopoly, and a monopoly whether privately or publicly owned will not solve the issue that need addressing.

      And as for the BBC, let it whither on the vine. People are voting with their money on this and the organisation is losing money.

      1. Dave Andrews
        February 14, 2022

        Yes it probably would end up like that. The private healthcare companies would become offshore with profits to foreigners the substitute for NHS waste and no benefit to the patient.
        Now, if the system could be set up on a mutual basis, with the scheme members being the owners, then it would run for the benefit of patients. However, the government would never do that.

  4. Everhopeful
    February 14, 2022

    Apparently, over the last 3 years, NHSX has been beavering away to bring about the digital transformation of the NHS.
    Thatā€™ll go well then.
    Nobody made it at all clear that a ā€œtransformationā€ was going on whilst we battled a plague.

    1. Richard II
      February 14, 2022

      Nobody, EH? I recall that our much-missed Matt Hancock flagged up that transformation in an Evening Standard interview in 2018. He revealed his involvement with a private company’s ‘My GP’ app that would replace or reduce the need for people to go to doctors’ surgeries. Whether people wanted this didn’t seem to be a concern. Hancock had already publicly spoken out in favour of a private insurance scheme to take the pressure off the NHS, so his views were no secret. This was the man Theresa May made Secretary of State for Health. She had to answer a charge from the opposition that Hancock was in breach of the ministerial code for promoting the interests of a private business. Of course, it was decided he wasn’t.

      1. Everhopeful
        February 14, 2022

        +1
        Yes but I thought that was just Hancockā€™s witterings.
        This NHSX thing is a digital, virtual revolution that sounds more scary than privatisation.
        I guess it is what they were discussing during the summer of 2021 at that online conference they held.

    2. Radar
      February 14, 2022

      Everhopeful, it’s called the ‘NHS Long Term Plan’.

      There is a website of the same name too, http://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk
      The 136p ‘NHS Long Term Plan’ document is available as a download.

      Government is saying very little to the general public about this massive reorganisation of the NHS!

      1. Everhopeful
        February 14, 2022

        +1
        Thanks for the link!
        All very hush, hush.

  5. Everhopeful
    February 14, 2022

    NHSX has a leaflet/directive entitled ā€œWhat Good Looks Likeā€!!!! šŸ¤®
    It might answer JRā€™s question.
    I fear that ā€œGoodā€ looks like ā€œvirtual wardsā€ and GP telephone consultations and a resurrection of doctors sharing visible symptomsā€¦.like those old and much maligned medical books!
    It sounds, as usual like a VAST waste of money only this time on an epic scale.

  6. Shirley M
    February 14, 2022

    Where there is no transparency, there is either incompetence or corruptness. Neither should be tolerated.

    We need to get the NHS and social services up to speed, as I suspect they will shortly be even more overloaded with pneumonia and other avoidable illnesses, due to lack of heating/eating among the poorest in our society.

  7. Lifelogic
    February 14, 2022

    Not really a cruel Matt cartoon but entirely accurate. They demand the money off people in very high taxes then they cannot afford to go privately. Force them to use the dire, rationed, incompetent state monopoly NHS (as virtually all State Monopolies are). Get what you are given if and when you are ever given it. Many operations and investigation for conditions that untreated can causes early deaths are also being hugely delayed, cancer, heart, abdominal conditionsā€¦not just non urgent elective ones. But even elective ones can prevent people getting getting back to work. The Javid agenda with huge and still increasing waiting list is appalling. The dental service a sick joke too.

    To go privately in the UK you need to pay four times over. Taxes for other people to use the NHS, taxes on the income for your insurance premium, the insurance premium itself and 12% insurance tax on top. Under Thatcher you rightly had income tax relief on medical insurance and no IPT tax and many company insurance schemes. This gets more money into healthcare and gives some real freedom of choice.

    1. lifelogic
      February 14, 2022

      Steve Barclay yesterday:- ā€œWe in Noā€‰10 know that cutting back the size of the state must be a priority
      Now that Covid is in retreat, the Prime Minister is committed to trusting the people and freeing up business to deliver.ā€

      Well perhaps you do know this, but under Boris/Sunak this government have done (and continue to do) completely the opposite to this. Vast tax and regulatory increases have been made and more are or in the pipeline. Meanwhile public services are dreadful and declining. Vast waste everywhere you care to look. HS2, test and trace, the dire NHS system, eat out to help out, massive bloated, incompetent & misdirected government almost everywhere.

      1. Nig l
        February 14, 2022

        Your workable solutions again seem to have disappeared.

        1. Lifelogic
          February 14, 2022

          Not much is workable with misguided socialist, big government, climate alarmist dopes in charge I agree.

    2. Mark B
      February 14, 2022

      +1

      The reason why we have so much advancement in technology and the like is competition. Competition drives things. The NHS need a competitor.

      1. Lifelogic
        February 14, 2022

        Many competitors (and allowed to compete on a level playing field). Same with the dire BBC. Real and fair competition & freedom of choice.

        1. Iain Gill
          February 14, 2022

          we need competitors on a level playing field to social housing too

          1. Lifelogic
            February 14, 2022

            Indeed we have a competition authority but much of the unfair competition is from the state and they never seem to address this.

    3. ChrisS
      February 14, 2022

      If you are in a position to, it’s far more economic to self-insure. If you have a really serious condition, like cancer or a heart attack, you would be treated under the NHS anyway.

      Paying a modest fee to a consultant gets you seen very quickly and then funding the cost of a private knee or hip operation privately is relatively affordable for many people.

      Yes, you would then be paying twice, but that’s the same with private education. A far better and fairer system for both health and education would be a voucher that you could give back to the state or spend privately. A voucher system for education was proposed back in the halcyon days of Margaret Thatcher but was dropped for some reason. Perhaps our host could enlighten us on this ?

      1. Iain Gill
        February 14, 2022

        er Wales has stopped treating newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients, here in England the waiting lists are very long, and the best treatments like Proton beam are not available for the vast majority of patients.

        I would be happy self insuring, but I have already had to pay out to go private to stop the NHS leaving me to die several times. I am being taxed a lot of money for a service which is substandard or not there at all quite often.

        So “If you have a really serious condition, like cancer or a heart attack, you would be treated under the NHS anyway” is simply wrong for many people. Its like throwing the dice in the NHS.

  8. Sea_Warrior
    February 14, 2022

    The extra money will be wasted. MPs need to drill down further and demand some answers.
    P.S. I heard recently that one American medical company is looking to open a hospital in this country – and that it pays consultants up to Ā£500K. You need to be alert to this impending threat to the public purse and make sure that it doesn’t get any government work if it pays such high salaries.

    1. Sakara Gold
      February 14, 2022

      @Sea_Warrior
      More scaremongering from you, ad nauseam. The old chestnut that the Americans are waiting in the wings to buy the NHS has been denied so many times, I wonder on which planet you habve been living on.

      1. Richard II
        February 14, 2022

        Thank you, Sakara. Meanwhile in the real world, Sea Warriorseems to be quite correct. Check out the Cleveland Clinic London, Aspen Healthcare, Optum, and Kaiser Permanente, for a start, and you’ll see what’s actually going on.

        1. SM
          February 14, 2022

          Add the excellent Princess Grace Hospital in London, owned by Healthcare UK, a subsidiary of Healthcare America.

      2. Mike Wilson
        February 14, 2022

        @Sakara Gold

        BMI Healthcare seemed to start out as an American owned company. Since then ownership has swapped around many times. In 2017 42% of its revenues came from NHS work.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMI_Healthcare

        Don’t get me wrong. I am all in favour of the NHS outsourcing procedures that are routine, predictable and which, therefore, can be accurately priced – like arthroscopy, knee replacement, hip replacement, cataracts etc.

    2. lifelogic
      February 14, 2022

      Why on earth should a top consultant not earn Ā£500k they will lose ~ 50% in tax anyway? Many top lawyers, footballers and bankers earn that often for doing not much of any real value? It takes about 15 years to get to this level of expertise too. Then we would attract more such people to the job and clear the backlog. Plus the employers would make sure these people were used effectively and not held up by incompetent admin, lack of ICU care or other staff.

      Even that dope at the head of the Bank of England (who at the FCA gave us one size 40% personal overdraft rates) earns nearly that.

      Nearly 50% of expensively UK trained doctors go on to work overseas or leave medicine completely as the NHS is such an unattractive employer. Ā£500k might only be Ā£500 per operation a surgeon performed if they are used efficiently.

      1. Shirley M
        February 14, 2022

        Would that include the (potentially) 34% taxpayers contribution to their pension, or would that be extra and the real cost to the taxpayer be Ā£666k? I would maybe support it if it would guarantee good competent consultants/surgeons, etc, but like many public service jobs they can be absolute crap at the job but still retained and if they do (miraculously) get dismissed it is virtually guaranteed they will still get the golden handshake, the honours, and the massive pension.

  9. DOM
    February 14, 2022

    Socialist public sector politics and to hell with the patient and the taxpayer

    The Labour aligned NHS is now more powerful than any Tory government and it will deliberately create a backlog as evidence to support the NHS’s now tired and inevitable anti-Tory accusations of Tory govt underfunding.

    NHS upper management are acting an appalling manner and are timing this agenda to take us into the next GE when the now all-powerful Labour-NHS-BBC triumvirate of Socialist vested interest will coordinate their actions to slander and undermine the Tory claim that they are now the party of the NHS with ‘evidence’ of higher waiting lists that they themselves have created. That is beyond cynical

    When will the Tory party understand that the NHS is Labour’s baby? It will always act against your party’s interest. It despises the Tory party no matter how much cash you throw at it or how much you pander to it. You ain’t ever gonna woo it to your side

    God almighty this party in government is beyond redemption when unelected public sector lackeys hold more power than elected Tory MPs

    Reform not pander cos pandering simply makes it all worse and delays the day of reckoning

    1. Shirley M
      February 14, 2022

      Pandering and appeasement should be Boris’s middle name. He appeases all the noisy minorities, his No 10 staff, and the EU because it’s the easiest route for him personally, and he cares nothing for the consequences … so long as it only affects others, and he can ignore the bits that affect him anyway.

      1. Mitchel
        February 14, 2022

        And it looks like nul points for the UK so far in the Beijing Olympics,so he can’t even distract with references to the games!

    2. Mark B
      February 14, 2022

      . . . Labour-NHS-BBC triumvirate of Socialist vested interest will coordinate their actions to slander . . .

      And if you don’t believe him :-

      https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1179985/boris-johnson-nhs-hospital-brexit-news-jeremy-vine-labour-plant-no-deal

    3. lifelogic
      February 14, 2022

      Indeed. As you say ā€œthe Labour aligned NHS is now more powerful than any Tory governmentā€ and the left wing, climate alarmist BBC will assist them in this at every turn. Especially a fake Tory Government like this tax to death mob.

    4. Iain Gill
      February 14, 2022

      to be fair it was Dom Cummings idea to put the NHS on the side of the Brexit battle bus, and get the Tory party to bow down and worship the NHS. this was a mistake. People want good healthcare for their family & friends, but there are mighty cheesed off at the substandard care they mostly get when push comes to shove.

  10. Everhopeful
    February 14, 2022

    If the NHS is so bothered about our health why was the much-taxed population denied healthcare for two years ( or more)?
    How can any system be GOOD when it simply closes down, storing up ill health and suffering?

    1. Lifelogic
      February 14, 2022

      Measure by outcomes, delays, mistakes… the NHS is one of the worse systems around for such a developed nation. It is a state monopoly that kills nearly all competition (other than for the richest). Have a heart attack, stroke or an accident and you cannot even get an ambulance sent promptly very often. Want to see a GP and you will probably be better, have to go to casualty or ever dead before you get to see one.

      Many elderly have died in NHS care just for want of food and water.

      1. Everhopeful
        February 14, 2022

        +1
        Yes, spot on.
        And so political that over the years it has sought to suck every aspect of healthcare into its sphere of influence.
        It even initially kept some paying beds in order to compromise the private sector.
        Why didnā€™t it just concentrate on delivering core healthcare?

      2. Fedupsoutherner
        February 14, 2022

        L/L. Re your last paragraph. I’ve witnessed this first hand. One nurse in particular was nothing other than nasty to one very frail elderly lady. It made me very uncomfortable to see it.

        1. Shirley M
          February 14, 2022

          The nursing on geriatric wards is often abysmal. I often wonder if they put the ‘problem’ nurses on those wards.

    2. BOF
      February 14, 2022

      E h. +1. Ecactly right.

  11. PeteB
    February 14, 2022

    As I often say “If what you’re doing isn’t working, change what you are doing”.

    It is very clear the NHS model is not working. Out total health spending is comparable with other developed countries yet the outcomes are poor. WHY do we not restructure the service to use a model that is working?

    A body employing over a million and in the top 10 of worldwide employers by size is not the right solution.

    1. Mark B
      February 14, 2022

      +1

    2. Lifelogic
      February 14, 2022

      Yet no political party wants to change this dire system. Javid is surely incompetent as we saw with his idiotic all in care homes and the NHS will have to be vaccinated (even the young, not at risk and those who have already had Covid) strategy which he was belatedly was forced to back track on. This did huge damage. Vaccines that only work for a few months (at best) anyway it seems.

  12. The Prangwizard
    February 14, 2022

    Please do not attempt to detach yourself, Sir John, from your government’s failure to run the country properly. It is your party, the PM and other ministers who fail daily and deceive the people are yours.

    I remember not long ago in television interview that you would not criticise the leadership and wished ‘Boris’ every success. In your belief the Tory party must be protected, even when people die and they shouldn’t. You need to carry your share for not doing enough.

    Reply It would be particularly stupid to hope the PM fails. I do want improvements and argue for them in public. I want the government to change and succeed.

    1. Lifelogic
      February 14, 2022

      This government has made very many errors. Manifesto ratting tax increases, vast increases in the size of government, very poor public services, endless waste, rampant crony capitalism, looking after vested interests, expensive by design & unreliable “net zero” energy, currency devaluation/inflation, the pointless and damaging extended lockdowns, ever more red tape… all while pretending to be low tax, pro business, internationally competitive Conservatives. They are nothing of the sort. They are however slightly better than the dire alternative of Starmer/Sturgeon.

    2. Lester_Cynic
      February 14, 2022

      The Prangwizard

      + 1.000

      Thatā€™s the main problem, Party before Country every time!

    3. X-Tory
      February 14, 2022

      Reply to SJR reply:
      Sir John, it is not that sensible people *want* Boris to fail, because we *all* suffer as a result. The problem is that he HAS FAILED. The evidence of his many failures is all around us and one would need to be blind or dishonest to deny these: He has failed on Brexit, he has failed on government spending, he has failed to improve services, he has failed to cut taxes, he has failed to control immigration, he has failed on energy , he has failed on farming, he has failed on promoting the Union, and he failed to preserve our national liberties during the covid pandemic.

      On the other hand, what clear successes has he had? Err, none that I can see!

  13. Andy
    February 14, 2022

    It is people like me forced to pay the extra Tory tax for the NHS. But the Marr cartoon is wrong – I have private healthcare so I donā€™t have to wait.

    Meanwhile the NHS staffing crisis – caused by Brexit – has the amusing consequence of causing massive delays to treatment for people who voted for Brexit. If you wonder why you have to wait 2 years for your new hip, itā€™s because your surgeon now works in Germany.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      February 14, 2022

      Yes Andy.

      You also have private education for your children.

      And the best housing …. in the best area…

      Which is why you could never understand why people disliked being in the EU and voted for Brexit.

      Foreign staff are not excluded from working in the NHS by Brexit btw. Two years of the Covid lockdowns you wanted caused any shortages. New Zealanders are now a nation of hermits with 1 million of eligible citizens not allowed to go home for getting on for three years…

      How is Brexit worse than that ???

      1. hefner
        February 14, 2022

        Vaccinated New Zealanders have been allowed to return home from 27 February. And despite whatever BS you had been reading on your favourite site, the country of five million inhabitants never had one million of its citizens abroad during the pandemic. But what can I do when people are so keen on believing any amount of @#Ā£&&#.

        Sir John should be ā€˜proudā€™ to have you on his blog.

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          February 14, 2022

          Hefner

          You can find this 1 million figure from numerous sources. Wiki has it at 750,000.

          It isn’t even the 27th February yet

          Jabbed citizens from Australia can go home from that date… 13th March from elsewhere. We’re into the third year of this.

          What have I said wrong ?

          So. What is it about Jacinda Ardern that makes you so tetchy and that her policies cannot be questioned ?

          1. hefner
            February 14, 2022

            Vaccinated citizens (of New Zealand) in Australia are allowed to go back to their home country from 27/02.
            750,000 NZers do not make one million. Depending how you compute it thatā€™s a 25% or 33% error.
            First lockdown in NZ started on 25 March 2020. Whatever way you want to twist and turn, a third year of lockdown would not start before the 26 March 2022.

            QED.

            What is it about Jacinda Ardern that makes you so aggressive wrt NZ? Is it because sheā€™s Labour?

          2. Peter2
            February 14, 2022

            The left now really love New Zealand
            They are a poster boy nation for an example of a dominant state ordering its people around.

            It seems some people want to be told what to do.
            Perhaps they can’t make up their own mind how to live.

          3. Nottingham Lad Himself
            February 14, 2022

            Ordering people around?

            I wonder what strictures and intrusions you Righties would have been willing to accept if 200,000 British people had been killed not by a virus, but by foreigners here?

            Why, door-to-door searches, and summary executions for the enemy and any collaborators would have been right up your street, wouldn’t they?

          4. Peter2
            February 14, 2022

            Yes
            Ordering it’s people around.
            Even its own citizens wanting to return home.
            Unprecedented restrictions.
            But you you lefties delight in it NHL
            Your ultimate ambitions nearly realised.

          5. No Longer Anonymous
            February 15, 2022

            Hefner again.

            Argue with me all you like about a few day’s difference.

            Or whether it’s one million or 750 thousand.

            I dislike Ardern because she’s wicked.

            NLH – it’s looking like most of those excess deaths were down to lockdown.

            I know 12 who have died of conditions they were on waiting lists for…. none from Covid.

        2. Hat man
          February 14, 2022

          So in NZ, if you haven’t submitted to taking an unlicensed medical product into your body, the government doesn’t allow you to return to your home from abroad. Perhaps you’re better off staying out of a place like that, with a government like that.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            February 14, 2022

            It’s a pity that the UK’s 200,000+ excess dead can’t give their opinion on your comment.

          2. Peter2
            February 14, 2022

            Check the increase in life expectancy figures.

          3. Nottingham Lad Himself
            February 15, 2022

            Life expectancy figures are a mirage, because they refer only to what it is guessed at for the survivors left alive from all causes of death at a given time.

            So if you have an epidemic which wipes out the vulnerable, then paradoxically LE can increase afterwards.

            If you ask, more sensibly, what it was for all people born in 1950, say, then you can only know after they have all died and their average lifespan calculated.

            I don’t think that people will like what they find on that basis however.

          4. hefner
            February 15, 2022

            NLA, a few days? you wrote ā€˜for three yearsā€™. Learn to count.

          5. Peter2
            February 15, 2022

            Life expectancy figures are not a mirage.
            They are statistics carefully compiled by the Office for National statistics.

    2. Lifelogic
      February 14, 2022

      Matt is not wrong for most people who after paying these vast taxes simply do not have the money left for private care or insurance.

      The best strategy is generally not to insure but to have the money available to pay to go privately if you need to. That way you avoid paying the 12% insurance tax, the profits & overheads of the insurance companies, the hassle of making the claims, the buying of the policy and contributing to other people’s often fraudulent claims. This is true for most insurance unless you have to insure by law or are a high risk (but can get a standard insurance rate).

      1. hefner
        February 21, 2022

        P2, check the Kingā€™s fund figures: UK life expectancy, which had steadily increased between 2011 and 2019 has actually decreased these last two years. I do not really know how you do it, P2, but you are an ace ā€¦ being wrong.
        kingsfund.org.uk , 06/12/2021

    3. Aden
      February 14, 2022

      11% of NHS staff are from overseas. 11% of the population is from overseas. Brexit is an irrelevance. The staff from the EU were needed to treat patients who have come from the EU.

      1. Iain Gill
        February 14, 2022

        the overseas NHS staff are only needed because the British state constrains the number of locals entering medical & nursing training to levels far below the numbers we will need. is it entirely social engineering by the political class.

    4. Mike Wilson
      February 14, 2022

      It is people like me forced to pay the extra Tory tax for the NHS. But the Marr cartoon is wrong ā€“ I have private healthcare so I donā€™t have to wait.

      Wow, what a guy you are. Fair play to you. I have paid taxes – not JUST Tory taxes, all taxes – all my life for the NHS but, when I needed it, it wasn’t there and I had to pay for myself. Give me MY money back! It’s a con.

  14. BOF
    February 14, 2022

    A MUCH stronger private sector is needed!

    Tax incentives to go private. Guarantees of independence for a much stronger private sector. When that happens the NHS will have to compete.

    Oh well, I can dream, can’t I?

    1. Mark B
      February 14, 2022

      Ditto on all points.

    2. No Longer Anonymous
      February 14, 2022

      Bear in mind that private consultants are usually the same NHS consultants using NHS staff and facilities.

    3. Lifelogic
      February 14, 2022

      Indeed give all the people on the waiting list the option of taking 50% of the cost to the NHS and going privately (perhaps overseas where treatment can be cheaper and better). This saves the NHS 50% of the costs and shortens the waiting list for all the others left on it. Also start charging all who can afford to pay a Ā£25 fee for the GP, Casualty, Ambulances… give tax breaks for people who go privately or insure, cull the 12% IPT on medical cover, encourage companies to provide such cover for employees…

    4. Aden
      February 14, 2022

      Disagree. The NHS is a Beveridge system where insurance, supply and regulation are combined. Combine any 2 and they conspire against the patients. What we need is a Bismark system, where all three legs are separated.
      The only role for the state is regulation and safety. ie. Policing Gosport hospital. Why hasn’t the government done that? 654 killed by one doctor? It’s because the 3 legs are combined. Same for post code lotteries where insurer tells suppliers you can’t treat.
      Bismark is the way forward.

  15. turboterrier
    February 14, 2022

    It has often sent the staff of the NHS screaming out the door when change has tried to be implemented with the cry “NHS is not a business stop trying to run it like one”.
    But in many ways, it is a massive unwieldy organisation (business) with nearly 50% of its staff in administration rolls or number crunching to satisfy unachievable targets with little or no idea if they are even necessary.
    When if ever, has a health Minister or the top Civil Servants of the Department of Health gone into hospitals with no media or press coverage and put on scrubs or uniform and work a couple of 12 hour shifts talking to patients and front line staff. They will hear all about the waste, firefighting with patients and bed availability ratio, care workers, health visitors all pitching to do their best for their patients. Talk to patients taking them between wards and specialist departments, What you do and experience you understand. don’t underestimate the staff they all have ideas that could work.

    1. Lifelogic
      February 14, 2022

      Indeed

      ā€œNHS is not a business stop trying to run it like oneā€.
      It is a business and a very expensive, deadly and very poorly run one it is too. If it were an airline about one in ten planes would crash.

    2. Aden
      February 14, 2022

      The solution to monoliths is to break them up.

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      February 14, 2022

      Great post Turbo.

  16. turboterrier
    February 14, 2022

    There are now all over the country state of art GP medical centers. All the really minor surgical procedures could be carried out on-site, no need to tie up or add to hospital waiting lists.
    Stop coming up with solutions, start isolating the real problems and deal with them.
    This nation is by definition is not very healthy and the population has got to realise their health is their full responsibility. If people wish to abuse their or their children’s bodies with what they eat or do not exercise, practice personal health care surely the problems associated with a bad lifestyle are not the sole responsibility of the taxpayers. Because the days of being PC and woke has stopped the old doctor’s remedy at their surgery ” when you help stop smoking, drinking, lose weight, bad diets then I can really help you. Close the door on the way out”
    Politicians can help by reducing potential patient numbers by stopping 60k a year dingy invaders coming ashore. Pass a law that nobody coming to this country is eligible for National Health treatment unless it is life-threatening until they have a NI number and paid into the system for 6 months minimum. It is done in some countries in the EU so why not here?
    When they start identifying and addressing the real problems the NHS is facing then no headway or improvements will be made at all. Throwing money at it is not and never was the answer.

  17. Andy
    February 14, 2022

    I am fortunate in that I donā€™t have to look at the price of stuff when I go shopping. I donā€™t have to inspect packs of pasta to see if I can afford them this week. Many people are not so lucky.

    With the Tory Brexit pensioner cost of living crisis exploding, I visited a supermarket yesterday and the poor lady in front of me at the checkout had to put some things back. She had miscalculated and didnā€™t have enough money to buy it all. I noticed a tear in her eye. Very sad.

    But this is the norm in Brexit Britain. We were promised prices would fall. We can all see they have skyrocketed. I didnā€™t vote for the people who promised lower prices but who actually delivered rampant inflation. Most of you did vote for them. Are you going to demand an apology? I would if I were you.

    1. Shirley M
      February 14, 2022

      It’s no different to when we joined the Common Market. We were promised lower prices but the price of food skyrocketed then too. We were conned, in more ways than one.

    2. matthu
      February 14, 2022

      Why have prices on up so much higher on the continent, then?

    3. Richard1
      February 14, 2022

      Rampant inflation in the US. The US must have joined and left the EU without us noticing.

      Inflation in Germany probably higher even then UK. Has Germany left the EU in the last few weeks – whatever other explanation could there be?

    4. Mickey Taking
      February 14, 2022

      It was very kind of you to offer to pay the difference, you did, didn’t you?

    5. No Longer Anonymous
      February 14, 2022

      Inflation is everywhere. Within and without the EU.

      Anything else happen in the last two years apart from Brexit ???

    6. agricola
      February 14, 2022

      I didn’t realise you lived in such a deprived area. The generous soul you undoubtedly are should have slipped her a fiver and felt better about yourself for the rest of the day.

    7. Bill B.
      February 14, 2022

      And your sad little story couldn’t happen anywhere in France, where I seem to remember you spend part of your time?

    8. MFD
      February 14, 2022

      Andy, if you had been any sort of Gentleman you would have payed the old dears check out for her as your always bragging how rich you are !

  18. oldtimer
    February 14, 2022

    One explanation for non answers to pertinent questions is they do not know the answers. This would mean that financial control from the centre is inadequate or non existent. That is a real possibility. If so it will take time to sort out and the appointment of people with the knowhow, push and authority (from the Secretary of State and the NHS CEO) to do it. That task is distinct from getting to grips with the IT.

  19. Alan Holmes
    February 14, 2022

    Here’s a revolutionary idea- make doctors see patients.
    I’ve had lots of health issues over the last 18 months and I have managed to see exactly one doctor and that was only becuase he happened to walk past the room I was in and the nurse grabbed him.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      February 14, 2022

      +1

      They are effectively working to rule.

    2. Lifelogic
      February 14, 2022

      Pay GPs for work they actually do perform and not an annual fee per patient on their books (many of whom they never see at all). The existing system encourages them to deter patient visits so that is what they do. Many doubtless take other work on instead.

      1. alan jutson
        February 14, 2022

        Lifelogic

        Made that very comment to a physio a few weeks ago, and she agreed wholeheartedly, the reason Dentists, private Physio’s and the like are still seeing patients, is because they would not be paid if they didn’t.

  20. Donna
    February 14, 2022

    Matt and his family were treated appallingly by this Government, which enacted largely pointless “rules” that ruined his disabled daughter’s life, caused the whole family intense stress and ultimately led to him losing his job. He’s entitled to kick back as effectively as he can and any cruelty in his cartoon was miniscule compared to the cruelty SAGE and this Government inflicted on the entire country for two years.

    The pen is mightier than the sword and I hope Matt’s pens continue to inflict savage wounds on the people in power who tormented his daughter and caused such harm to millions.

    As for the NHS, it’s a politicised arm of the Labour-supporting public sector. It has no incentive to improve because that might demonstrate that the Conservative Party is providing sufficient funding and “it is safe in Tory hands.” Like any monopoly, it need not bother too much about the service it provides for its customers. Until that changes, nothing will change.

    But since the Government hasn’t got the cojones to deal with the BBC (which is no longer a monopoly but behaves as thought it is) or the Civil Service, there is no hope it will ever do anything which will give the NHS some serious competition and make it improve. They will continue to hose money at it and the bureaucrats will continue to expand.

    1. Mark B
      February 15, 2022

      +1

      Well said

  21. Nig l
    February 14, 2022

    I donā€™t believe you will get a meaningful reply or indeed any one is capable of providing it.

    A free service creating ā€˜unlimitedā€™ demand with the supply side inevitably restricted. Expensive advances in technology and drugs, a major problem with recruiting and training key staff etc.

    If you could be politically honest, restricting the demand side is key by moving to mixed, private and public provision and an independent ā€˜quick/desk topā€™ review to find areas of waste/inefficiency benchmarking against other health services, even asking the staff to improve supply.

    Plus bringing international management experience with fresh ideas etc albeit the blob would quickly be allowed to swallow that person up.

    Unfortunately there is neither political honesty nor courage so at best there will be some fiddling around the edges.

    1. Lifelogic
      February 14, 2022

      “Politically honest” surely an oxymoron.

      The “Politically Honest” salesman

      Selling a new electric car – Well yes Sir, it does costs Ā£40,000 so interest (or lost of investment return) on that sum will cost you about Ā£2,000 PA. It does have a very limited range of only 180 miles when new and this is only if not hilly, windy or freezing and with the lights, heater and wipers all kept off and driving gingerly. You can also buy a far better ICU car for Ā£12K new (and less than Ā£1K second hand). Also an EV car also saves no CO2 compared to keeping your old car over the EV life time (as it and battery has to be built) and after 8 years you will need a new battery that will cost more than the car is then worth. Also the battery depreciates by about Ā£7 a day just standing still and loses some of the charge too. The car and battery depreciation will be about Ā£14 a day or Ā£5,000PA and more rapidly still if the car is used significantly.

      On long journeys you will have to recharge it (if you can find a vacant charge point) and it can take several hours – so allow for a movie or a nice long meal and double your journey times. Oh and you might need to upgrade your home electricity supply for a rapid charge point which can cost a load too.

      But electric fuel is not really taxed much yet just 5% yet unlike petrol/diesel where about 60% is tax, but do not worry Sir they have plans to change that very soon with per mile charges.

      Just sign here please Sir!

  22. formula57
    February 14, 2022

    Given “…the NHS cannot or will not tell me how many Chief Executives they have on their payrolls …”, could the NHS list the ones the do know about?

    Thereafter, the list could be released in the public domain with an invitation to the missing to come forward to make their case for inclusion if they think fit. That might be of real service, both to the public and to struggling NHS bosses.

    Beyond that, hospitalized patients and their visitors could be encouraged to telephone something akin to the Cones Hotline to report any sightings of chief executives with matches made to the list or new posts added.

  23. alan jutson
    February 14, 2022

    The problem is too few people realise the actual cost of the NHS, and how many taxes are needed to pay for it.
    Too many people still believe it is a free service.
    Afraid it is all about educating the Public at large.
    Tax allowance on premiums paid for private insurance, and NHS payment and use of private Hospital facilities may also help in reducing waiting lists a little.
    For decades now we have been reducing the number of hospital beds as the population grows, is it any wonder we now have a problem with capacity.

  24. SM
    February 14, 2022

    There is much elective surgery that could be outsourced to private hospitals; some studies have shown that the overall costs per operation are cheaper than if done ‘in house’. This cannot be applied where ICU treatment may be necessary, as private hospitals don’t have such facilities.

    There is also always much emotive talk about NHS staff, often describing them as angels. As in any other walk of life, there are angels and devils, the lax & careless or the devoted, empire-builders, innovators and idiots. Unfortunately, the bigger the enterprise the more opportunities exist for the bad to undermine the good.

  25. John Miller
    February 14, 2022

    The ingenious solution to solve the waiting list problem is to eliminate the problem bureaucratically .
    Eliminate lists! Don’t offer appointments! Poof! Waiting lists have magically disappeared! The wonder of the world!

    Sadly, people die through lack of treatment, but the problem has been solved in true Socialist fashion. How apt…

  26. Christine
    February 14, 2022

    First, you need to tackle the dire level of sick leave that occurs in all the public sector. Just compare the levels with the self-employed and you will see how bad it is. Sort this out and productivity will soar.

    Next, you need to tackle all the diversity and woke roles that have been created in the last few years. Get rid of them all, NOW. They do nothing to help patients or staff.

    Next, eliminate waste. Start to re-use equipment rather than throwing it away. Make sure people not entitled to free treatment are charged for it.

    Ask the NHS staff for their input on improvements. It’s the low-level workers who know where the waste is happening not the top managers. Give them an incentive with a Staff Suggestion Scheme like used to happen.

  27. Nig l
    February 14, 2022

    And in other new (the Thunderer) claims about reducing the size of the State are empty rhetoric.

    Quite.

  28. Bryan Harris
    February 14, 2022

    How good is the NHS Plan?

    Or to put it another way:

    What exactly is the NHS planning to do to make sure the huge sums it is receiving go to making sure their services become closer to first class and nobody will die while waiting for treatment?

    We are all sick to death of hearing about extensively overpaid exec’s who seem to do little but make up silly rules, do nothing concrete to ensure hospitals are well ventilated, and demand we all use remote doctoring.

    At least part of their huge salary should be spent on frontline staff who actually do a worthwhile job.

  29. Aden
    February 14, 2022

    Other health care systems do not have the 30% of total spending that is the pensions. The treat now [maybe] pay later costs.

    Why exclude that?

  30. Everhopeful
    February 14, 2022

    Ooohā€¦JRM is asking in ā€œThe Sunā€, for people to e mail him about petty old EU laws that need to be junked!!
    Letā€™s start with VAT!
    What on earth is the rationale for keep that when fuel prices are rising? Oh..greencr*p??

    1. X-Tory
      February 14, 2022

      JRM is a fraud. The government already has a long list of potential benefits of Brexit but they just don’t want to implement these – VAT, gene editing, Solvency II, targeted state aid, labelling, deporting undesirables, etc.

      And JRM’s support for the idiotic idea of unilaterally dropping all checks on imports, while not demanding similar treatment for British exports, is just treasonous. It would undermine British workers while helping foreign ones. There is a class of particularly stupid politicians who do not understand that British consumers do not benefit if British companies suffer, so a policy that aims to benefit consumers but not producers actually ends up benefiting neither – only foreigners.

      British consumers are British workers employed by British companies, so if British companies suffer, British workers suffer, and guess what – that means that British consumers suffer! The government therefore needs to support, defend, protect and promote British companies and British manufacturers, in their battle against their foreign competitors.

      1. Everhopeful
        February 14, 2022

        +1

  31. agricola
    February 14, 2022

    Finding things strange and disappointing is nuanced diplomatic language. What are they hiding, what cannot be said. It is not as if they need commercial protection.
    Leave the medical side as it is for the present apart from asking them how they might better organise to get more patients througb the door. The administrative side of the NHS needs a root and branch cull having already proved their lack of foresight with PPE, which led to them having the whole vaccination programme taken away from them. The message was live then, it is no less alive today. The message recurs in history for those who are aware, so apply the Beaverbrook principal to NHS management now. Nuanced phrasiology was not his forte.

  32. ukretired123
    February 14, 2022

    A previously active Florist waited 5 years after asking for help from her doctors who didn’t listen to her despite her illness and so reverted to a childhood hobby and spent Ā£300 on a powerful microscope from India to investigate a sample of her own blood.
    It immediately showed she had a parasite that was diagnosed by the School of Tropical Medicine as causing the problem.
    The NHS is not for for people.
    We need to consider a peer review by real people who hold these Not or Non -Health Service jokers to account.
    Self diagnosis seems the magic ingredient X which expensive doctors run away from. “Listen to your own body and instincts” is the future .

  33. Denis Cooper
    February 14, 2022

    Off topic, this CityAM article:

    https://www.cityam.com/rees-mogg-backs-post-brexit-push-for-uk-to-adopt-other-countries-regulations/

    has a weird headline:

    “Rees-Mogg backs post-Brexit push for UK to adopt other countriesā€™ regulations”

    I think maybe the word should be “accept” rather than “adopt”, and only for their imports, not for our own products, and only “where the rules of the exporting country meet the UKā€™s standardsā€.

    Starting with the EU’s rules, because there is no pressing reason why after three decades of routinely just nodding their stuff through at our points of entry, and in fact not even doing that at the Irish land border, we should suddenly start to treat it with suspicion – and vice versa, until such time as our regulations start to significantly diverge from theirs.

    https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/09/16/we-need-more-electricity/#comment-1260196

    “… a sensible contribution from Lord Moylan this morning, pointing out that just because we have left the EU that does not necessarily mean we should impose new checks on goods we import from them … I would go beyond that and complain to the WTO about the unnecessary checks and controls that France and Ireland are imposing on our food and drink exports … “

  34. Richard1
    February 14, 2022

    Sir John, I assume that you and your colleagues are aware that the NHS test and trace bureaucracy is still sending out fatuous messages telling people they need to self-isolate for 10 days if they have been ‘in contact’ with someone who has reported that they have tested positive? this is an absurd measure now we know Omicron is not harmful to the vast majority and we have clearly seen that the costs of lockdown and quasi-lockdown measures, such as the offical pingdemic, hugely outweigh any possible benefits.

    The Prime Minister has shown in recent weeks that he is prepared to face down the public health blob and tell SAGE and its media acolytes to get knotted. Conservative MPs have some leverage over the PM at the moment as he seeks to avoid 54 letters going in. I would like to suggest that you encourage the PM to order the shutting down of this expensive and useless activity by NHS test and trace forthwith (if need be under threat of a letter going in). There will be a double benefit of saving money and boosting the economy (or at least preventing unnecessary damage).

    reply Try re reading my post about spending!

    1. Richard1
      February 14, 2022

      nothing in your post about test & trace. I suggest this is something which merits the attention of MPs as its something where you could make an actual difference today.

      Reply There is in my post on spending.

      1. Richard1
        February 14, 2022

        Indeed I see thatā€™s what you meant. Nevertheless Iā€™d suggest chopping this cost before April, assuming itā€™s certain it will actually be chopped.

  35. Lynn Atkinson
    February 14, 2022

    I wonder what profit the government has made from the increase in all cause mortality in the last couple of years?

    1. Mike Wilson
      February 14, 2022

      @Lynn Atkinson

      If you’re dead you can’t pay taxes – unless you have been stupid enough to line yourself up for Inheritance Tax. Mind you, you can’t get your state pension if you are deceased. Bearing in mind how much tax we all pay – Income Tax, NI, VAT, Council Tax, Car Tax, duties on fuel, duties on booze (if you can still afford a pint), tax on savings interest, parking charges etc. I’d say the government loses out if you peg out.

      1. X-Tory
        February 14, 2022

        No – given that the vast majority of those that died where either elderly (ie. state pension recipients) or had serious co-morbidities (and hence probably recipients of regular, expensive NHS treatment), I suspect that the government will benefit financially from the spike in deaths. The fall in tax payments that you highlight will be made up for by the increase in IHT and stamp duties on the subsequent sales of their homes. The loss of lives has been a terrible personal tragedy for all the families of the deceased, but is not a problem for the exchequer. The Ā£400 billion that the government wasted on tackling the pandemic, on the other hand, is verging on the financially criminal!

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        February 14, 2022

        It is er, inheritors who pay the, er, inheritance tax, not the dead.

        1. Peter2
          February 15, 2022

          IHT is paid during the probate process by the executor of the estate.
          Prior to the final proceeds being distributed in accordance with the will.
          Not the “er, inheritors”.

    2. hefner
      February 14, 2022

      150,000 people who died, say, five years earlier they might have done otherwise, at Ā£175/week of state pension, i.e. Ā£9,100/year, are worth Ā£6.825 bn to the state.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        February 14, 2022

        Yes indeed.

        Then there’s the saving on medical care etc., advance on inheritance tax…

      2. Peter2
        February 15, 2022

        Less the taxes they might have paid.

        1. hefner
          February 21, 2022

          Indeed but I doubt very much the additional taxes linked to adding the state pension to the starting income would have made Ā£175/week. So only half a mark P2. But nice trolling effort.

  36. Mike Wilson
    February 14, 2022

    The delay apparently arose because the Treasury and PM wanted reassurances that the money would be well spent

    Ah well – I’m old enough now to be past caring. The idea of the Treasury and PM wanting money to be well spent is a laugh. How much is Cressida Dick’s resignation and pension costing US.

    reply That was Mayor Kahn

    1. lifelogic
      February 14, 2022

      As to Cresida Dick – it seems the pay off plus her huge pension would cost circa Ā£5 million to purchase. Most people without usually state sector DB pensions are limited to a pension of less than Ā£1.07 million without paying the absurd 55% pension pot tax grab. So perhaps the annual taxes on 500 people on average salary just to pay Ms Dick – many of whom will have almost no pension beyond the state one.

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 15, 2022

      Sir John, it was the Conservative Home Office who appointed Dick in 2017, so the contractual terms of that office including pensions etc. would have been negotiated by them.

      They were nothing to do with Sadiq Kahn.

      Her resignation might be connected with his comments, but do you think that her going is a loss?

      If so, then why?

      Reply I am pointing out that Kahn got her to resign which is what triggers the compensation.

  37. Mike Wilson
    February 14, 2022

    At the risk of stating the obvious, the only way to clear the waiting lists is to outsource the work. The NHS cannot cope.

    1. SM
      February 14, 2022

      You are right, but the NHS doesn’t like it when patients do that, and has its own little ways of making life difficult for the individual patient who has the cheek to do so, in my experience.

  38. The Prangwizard
    February 14, 2022

    Here is another upsetting one but OT this time. Your hero PM ‘Boris’ has just said he will not allow the trading away of the Ukraine peoples sovereignty.

    However he is quite happy to trade away that of Northern Ireland and thus the UK. He seemed to find the interview just very amusing.

    1. Original Richard
      February 14, 2022

      The PM is quite happy to give away our sovereignty by allowing mass immigration to continue into the UK and even for the expected illegal arrival this year of 100,000 young men of fighting age who have no ID and who will be put up at the taxpayers’ expemse in 4 star hotels and given Ā£40/week pocket money and the freedom to roam our streets.

      1. Shirley M
        February 14, 2022

        +1 It really is a kick in the teeth for law abiding citizens that are in the UK legally, especially those in substandard housing, or on the streets.

  39. Original Richard
    February 14, 2022

    DOM is absolutely correct.

    The NHS has been weaponised by the Marxist fifth column. The Conservative Party is scared stiff of the whole organisation and is now quite prepared to throw money at it even without receiving in return any plans for improving patient care.

    I am certain the lockdowns were stricter and longer lasting to avoid the BBC broadcasting night after night and in great lengthy detail any sight of any overloaded ward with patients in corridors, as evidenced by the building of the Nightingale Hospitals at great expense which were never used.

    As a result we now have a poorly functioning NHS with an enormous backlog of elective operations and a destroyed economy.

    The NHS has become a classic example of Robert Conquestā€™s 2nd and 3rd laws of politics.

  40. X-Tory
    February 14, 2022

    “I find it strange that the NHS cannot or will not tell me how many Chief Executives they have on their payrolls” – what an astonishing state of affairs! The NHS is without doubt appallingly managed at the top. Maybe the nub of the problem is that Sajid Javid is considered to be “Their [the NHS’s] voice” – err, no, he is the government’s voice in the NHS!

    That is not to say that the NHS is universally poor – far from it – and individual hospitals can be excellent. Recently I went to my GP on a Monday, and was referred to see a hospital specialist. The hospital phoned me the next day (Tuesday) to book an appointment, and I was seen on the Saturday – just 5 days after going to my GP.

    What is needed is a system whereby best practice is rolled out to all NHS service providers.

  41. Narrow Shoulders
    February 14, 2022

    One of the problems with asking the OUR NHS to set difficult targets is that when they are missed, the perceived fault is the government’s not the NHS’. They do not have enough money, there is a shortage of beds, there is a shortage of staff.

    The beds and staff are dependent first on money and then on the trusts’ ability to recruit, retain and upskill. The government seems to me to be providing plenty of money so surely the fault for being unable to progress quicker falls on the NHS and not the politicians.

    How we make the public demand more of the administrators behind the scenes to organise the clinical staff to deliver what we need I do not know.

    The people who run these organisations do not have to think about revenue generation and so are no more than administrators and are paid handsomely for it. Why are they so poor at it?

    OUR NHS needs to be moved out of politics. It should be run privately using (mostly) taxpayer funds

  42. alastair harris
    February 14, 2022

    I am sure there is a plan, but I would imagine they will waste much resource on arguing about it, and no doubt it will be different in different trusts.
    But why do we have waiting lists at all? There are plenty of services around the world where waiting lists don’t feature, and even in the UK if you are lucky enough to be able to afford private insurance. I would suggest that such inefficiency is a standard feature of a large centrally planned system like the NHS. One of the stand out features of the privatisation programme of an earlier conservative government (one I know you will remember) was former nationalised industries changing their game from protective monolith to customer oriented service. You have to wonder if an unprivatised BT would have ever allowed us the internet!
    I think you have to allow that the definition of “free at the point of delivery” is somewhat vague. For example an NHS dentist is a charged for service, and this is one of a fair few examples. People who work in the system often tell me that the private bits are usually the best bits! But the other part of this is that of what the scope of NHS treatment should be. We see plenty of examples of arbitrary decisions based on budgets rather than healthcare, with new treatments often being rationed or denied. And if you were cynical you might wonder if waiting lists are a deliberate policy designed to be self-reducing.
    So no, I don’t think the plan will work. Extra money will be mopped up by greedy unions. There will be plenty of argument, and some rearranging of the deckchairs, and the NHS will continue to decline, at least in terms of health outcomes.

  43. forthurst
    February 14, 2022

    Obviously, JR was flummoxed by the claimed 2% admin overhead. What does it include and therefore
    exclude? The Dept of Health is awash with civil servants: are these included? Do the figures start with
    NHS England? What about all the advisory groups and organisations like NICE? Then there all the eye-wateringly cost inefficient PFI contracts where there is probably only an Arts graduate CEO apart from medical staff. What about all the services that have been privatised such as ambulances, cleaning, catering, phlebotomy etc etc where there must be admin costs as well as profits which are an admin cost. What about the admin staff in the hospitals who are employed to chat to their colleagues all day whilst occasionally being unhelpful to patients. Then there are the inspection bodies who give filthy hospitals clean bills of health.

    I suggest JR takes a trip to Berlin to visit the CharitĆ© ā€“ UniversitƤtsmedizin to find out who actually runs it locally and at the LƤnder and national levels and at any level in between, whether Arts graduates or qualified staff, whether it undertakes private healthcare in addition to that delivered to those insured under the compulsory national scheme. He also needs to find out why it is not full of foreign doctors. He could also find out whether German GPs have been dragooned into large practices which provide most services apart from seeing patients face to face in a timely fashion. On the issue of the compulsory insurance scheme, who pays: Patients, employers, local authorities, LƤnder, Federal government or a mixture? Who sits on the hospital board?

    Rather than yet another half-baked re-organisation dreamed up by a Politics graduate operating through a monstrously complex hierarchy, is it not time to find out how a better performing health system is managed and whether politicians have any role other than handing over cash?

    Reply The total public sector health budget this year is Ā£230bn so just 2% is a hefty Ā£4.6bn but I suspect most of us would choose a wider definition of admin

  44. Beecee
    February 14, 2022

    “How good is the NHS Plan?!

    What plan?

    There is a target sufficiently far into the future to allow for it to be missed, plus the caveat that things will get worse in the meantime.

    What plan?

  45. Iago
    February 14, 2022

    ‘Nurses have been sacked for raising concerns about trans patients being placed on single-sex wards, Parliament has heard.
    Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne warned that the dignity, privacy and safety of patients is being ā€˜diminished significantlyā€™ by NHS policies that allow male-born patients who self-identify as women to be placed on female-only wards.’
    Patients are only proles, they can put up with this nightmare.

    1. Shirley M
      February 14, 2022

      As a woman, I find it very disturbing that a man who self identifies as a woman, but still has all his wedding tackle, can be allowed to share women only spaces.

      1. Iain Gill
        February 14, 2022

        its worse than that we have male instructors in the girl guides sharing accommodation with the girls

    2. Iain Gill
      February 14, 2022

      all patients should have individual rooms like in the entire rest of the developed world

      that the NHS persists in building new shared wards is yet another sign of how completely unresponsive to patient needs it is

  46. Pauline Baxter
    February 14, 2022

    Thank you Sir John, for your insight and persistence, in trying to get the N.H.S. to function as it should.

  47. Javelin
    February 14, 2022

    Every single comment in the Telegraph is saying DO NOT fall into the EU trap of proving British military and intelligence for the EU. Please go over and read the comments.

    Boris has already implemented many unpopular policies please donā€™t let this be another.

    The only offer you should make is that select (not the French, German, Austrian, Belgium, Italian axis powers) EU countries fall under British leadership in NATO.

  48. Margaret Brandreth-
    February 14, 2022

    Of course the NHS is there for administration, managers and clerks .. it has nothing to do with the clinicians and surgeons ; we simply do what thousands of office workers tell us. They may have started 2 months ago but they are far too busy to provide a environment for clinical tests and procedures for the people serving the NHS for 40 years or more. They become so very important on the phone now they have a job and if things are not mentioned on their job role they have time to talk about what they did at weekend or get personal on the spot medical advice. The clerks are so important that as soon as they join they get NHS pensions whilst the clinicians are not allowed this prized investment because they have served more than 10 years and the pensions personnel cannot sort it. At the yearly recognition of the NHS , the credit will go the the data controller or the new management who got the most business and clinically the lowest tier of clinical assistant just to recognise these qualified by 2 xi day course newbies. Clinicians simply cannot refer directly to the consultant, they need to because non clinicians have to triage the referrals according to written criteria .. God help us with all these who cannot understand English or even think outside the pixcels.

  49. John Hatfield
    February 14, 2022

    The NHS is a typical public sector organisation. Money for nothing, chicks for free. With apologies to all patients in dire need.

  50. Al
    February 14, 2022

    Could our host please comment on the government’s use of funds to remove online privacy by killing end-to-end encryption rather than correcting the issues with the NHS? Not only is this going to cause severe problems for support groups, anyone who has ever had a stalker, or anyone trying to perform financial transactions, but the identities of those often responsible for online harrassment are already known: it is simply that no action is taken when they are reported.

  51. turboterrier
    February 14, 2022

    You can only really eat an apple a bite at a time. It is a pity that those controlling the future of the NHS do not stop, look and learn from what is happening now and has been for years.
    Take one hospital unit not a health trust and put together a management team not necessarily a medical-based team pick the staff and make it a stand-alone enterprise built upon the ethos of Self Directed Working where it is all about continual improvement recognised by those actually doing the job. Layers of management are surplus to requirements. They will bring in better flexible hours best suited to the staff and their private lives and the whole hospital will be geared to recognise and deal with the patients in their area and not with a one brush stroke fits all. Providing excellence in everything they do and built on the strength of an internal customer mandate. When the whole hospital across all departments work as one dovetailed unit all understanding individual problems then you will have the end result of a “patient-first culture” from the lowest to the highest position within and throughout the organisation.
    The cost of such a project would be infinitesimal in the grand scheme of waste that occurs every day throughout the organisation. What is there to lose? Nothing, because the payback would be far greater
    efficiency and staff and patient satisfaction simply on the premise that the staff has input and ownership in everything they do regardless of where their position is within the organisation. If properly trialed and costed it could be rolled out across the whole NHS. . This is nothing new thousands of really amazing organisations operating on the SDWT way of working and are very successful they are too. In some ways the small private hospitals operate in a very similar way, they have to, too be profitable.

  52. 2nd Fiddle
    February 14, 2022

    Imagine an NHS internal email addressed to several hundred other NHS staff, asking them to fill in a spreadsheet of, let’s say training information – pse copy/paste blah blah – your personal training information ALREADY stored on a centralised NHS training database, then the spreadsheet to be emailed back to sender, so they can merge the data and check compliance, that everyone’s training is correct and up to date…. plus future ongoing emails/spreadsheets/manual updating and periodic manual validation……

    Now imagine this happening across all NHS Trusts in all sorts of areas ………………. massive ad-hoc manual work, growing out of control….

    IMVHO there is truly huge scope for automation of most NHS administrative processes and an urgent need for standardised ways of working across the whole NHS (England/Scotland/Wales/NI) to ensure best practice processes and re-use of automatic reporting tools. Perhaps a job for life, but it needs to happen.

  53. Ed M
    February 14, 2022

    Was listening to an interesting orthodox Russian priest who said that Patriotism in Russia is quickly dying. That the Orthodox Church is the last bastion of true patriotism in Russia. That people are forgetting their duty to their country. Including having lots of children. To what degree can the same be said for the rest of The Western World including the UK?

  54. Al
    February 16, 2022

    I don’t understand why the NHS isn’t paying for European health services to work through some of the backlog (assuming they have much more excess capacity than the NHS).
    If you have the situation where thousands of people could get healed sooner isn’t it the moral thing to do?

Comments are closed.