The government has embarked on administrative reform again for the NHS. This time it stems from the senior management of the NHS rather than from any political agenda. As the new budgets transfer and shake down it is time for Ministers to engage more fully with NHS management over how the extra cash is going to be spent. They need also to chase up how the special budgets of the covid period will be closed down as we move on from needing huge sums to be spent on vaccine development and roll out, on test and trace, and on supplementing NHS capacity with rights to use much of the capacity of the private sector or with the construction of new temporary facilities.
It seems that Ministers find it difficult to get all the information and reassurance they need from senior management of NHS England. The structure is said to be devolved, with considerable independence granted to the senior management. That is all very well but Ministers are thought to be responsible and have to answer for the service in the Commons and to the public and media. There is rarely any sign of senior management taking public responsibility for mistakes and removing senior managers that have failed, so Ministers do need to insist on seeing, influencing and signing off the main plans and headings of spending. Ministers after all have to make the overall judgement about how much money the NHS needs to perform its tasks, and to weigh priorities where choices have to be made.
The Secretary of State needs to press the management to come up with a proper staffing plan. More medically trained people are needed to perform procedures, to diagnose problems and supervise treatments. The UK needs to train more of our own people to provide the numbers we need. The NHS could look into what is relevant and necessary training for each of the medical tasks that need to be performed. As we saw with vaccine roll out the registered doctors and nurses could be supplemented by others to get the job done.
The government needs to decide how much use it wishes to make of the private hospitals and clinics to provide additional care free to NHS patients . During the early days of the pandemic it was paying for a lot of private capacity it was not fully using. Speciality centres that are good at cataracts or hip replacements or knee surgery could offer high quality treatments at fair prices for the NHS to take some of the burden off the District General hospitals.
The government and NHS need to decide how far the digital revolution in health care should go. Many people may well be happy to see their GP via a video link as it avoids the travel and delay for a visit. Others who wish to see them in person should have that option unless there is a good reason not to. Hospital records, vaccination records and drug treatment patterns in hospital or at home could all benefit from digital recording with easy access for patient and medics alike.
February 16, 2022
From your description it sounds as though the NHS is not under control if so much is “devolved’.
February 16, 2022
How will it be spent?
I assume that it will be handed out to the bought-in consultancies on how best to spend it.
February 16, 2022
My comment is premised on the analysis that the Tory clique hand out senior posts to their own in public bodies wherever they might.
February 16, 2022
Is that a myopic comment or do you accept that when Labour are in power the ‘Labour clique’ do exactly the same thing? It seems to me that it is the nature of the political class and nothing to do with any party in particular.
February 16, 2022
They have lots of chums from school days….
February 16, 2022
Do they NHL?
Another politically motivated smear from you.
Give us your proof or shut up.
PS
It is the NHS management that decides what outside consultancy it requires.
February 16, 2022
Dido…er, now then, what’s her name?
February 16, 2022
What the pop star NHL?
Do explain.
February 17, 2022
Dido Harding.
Have a look at her CV on wiki or wherever.
Now you button it eh?
February 17, 2022
No I will not
You give us yet another of your generalised smears then give us one person as your proof of that whole conspiracy.
Pathetic as usual
February 17, 2022
Which senior posts throughout the NHS have been handed out “to their own”?
Come now you must have all the facts at your finger tips since you have been able to perform an “analysis”, so be specific – how many, where are they and who are they?
February 17, 2022
It is just NHL on one of his usual generalised smears.
If you get a proper reply it will be a first.
February 16, 2022
It’s the NHS that is buying in those consultants not the government
February 16, 2022
the NHS is out of control, and has been for a long time
February 16, 2022
Sad to see you blame hard working publuc sector employees. But not surprising
February 16, 2022
Read it again with you right eye open as well as the left. I see no blame. I see people being paid lots of money being asked to apply proper management practices probably from your political stance, an anathema.
If I walk fast in the wrong direction, thatâs hard work but frankly useless.
February 16, 2022
+1
February 16, 2022
+10
February 16, 2022
Well some doubtless are indeed hard working my teacher sister and her teacher husband are very dedicated despite all the red tape lunacies they have to deal with. But they are certainly not all hard working, many are hugely misdirected too (usually by other public sector workers).
They are also often over paid, over pensioned and take far more sick leave relative to the private sector.
UK’s top-paid public sector âdiversity chiefâ is a Network Rail director on ÂŁ164,000 taxpayer-funded salary – more than the PM. Cressida Dickâs pension alone would cost about ÂŁ4 million and she performed appallingly in my view.
Meanwhile I see that an expensive Wind turbine in Wales had come crashing down in strong winds though not that strong it seems. Stop all subsidies for these for these now. A level playing field & not crony capitalism and rigged markets please.
February 16, 2022
That’s a laugh. My real experience is of a very cosseted under employed public sector wasting billions of taxpayers money
As I write our council is ripping out refuges in the High St which they put in about 4 years ago
They are making a bus pull in when the rest of the street need resurfacing. It’s the usual end of year spend the budget or lose it.
Complete wasters.
February 16, 2022
Much truth in this. They are just as happy blocking the roads as unblocking them so long as they get good pay and pension and have a nice new office refurbed far too often – large new projects nearly always preferred to just filling the many huge pot hots or fixing the odd street light.
February 16, 2022
The public sector employees are not God’s. They are not untouchable.
If they are incompetent, which many are, they should be accountable for that.
If they are wasteful they should be accountable.
This is the problem, when you put people on a pedestal they tend to over time get an inflated sense of their worth.
I worked in the private sector for many years before going to work in the public sector.
Many of the people I worked with were long time public sector employees and quite frankly would have been sacked a long time ago in the private sector.
Of course it’s not above those in politics to blame someone else. They too are public employees (although many seem to forget it and think this is their personal Empire) and have exactly the same failings as those who have been taking advantage of their status in other public sectors.
February 16, 2022
How often are people in the state sector actually get fired just for being fairly useless at their jobs? This compared to people in the private sector. How many state and sector departments ever go bust and make everyone redundant compared to the private sector businesses. It the difference a factor of 1/10, 1/50, 1/100, 1/1000? How many duff teachers are retained teaching children badly for very many years or duff NHS workers treating patients badly for many years perhaps even killing some of them or their new born babies?
February 17, 2022
LL agree with your comment but unfortunately in this stupid day and age you cannot just “sack” anybody. First you have to get the so called written warnings and then the tribunal etc etc etc. Total BS.
February 16, 2022
They certainly get treated as if they are God’s own special employees.
February 16, 2022
Actually if you took the chip off your shoulder you will see that the criticism is of weak Ministers failing to manage their department.
Sir JR is however being one eyed when accusing only the NHS of failing to admit mistakes and officials who have failed. Look a bit closer to home Sir JR.,I wonder how many ministers you would have left? Not many from your implied criticisms.
As ever you donât tell us why ministers are not getting what is needed. I guess my previous paragraph is the answer.
February 16, 2022
The NHS employs 1.2 million people. To suggest they are all “hard working” is implausible.
February 16, 2022
These left wing people always refer to “hard working public sector”, implying that no one in the private sector is hard working. Public workers all get better pensions too, funded by the private sector who do not get good pensions.
The public sector should pay for their own pensions, and not rely upon the private worker to fund them.
February 16, 2022
Think most of us would agree there MWB. Itâs time to change the way public sector pensions are guaranteed and stop the taxes of private sector workers being used to fund better pensions for the public sector that they themselves can only dream of. Time to subject them to the markets in the same way private sector pensions are. But thereâs not much chance of that happening as MPs themselves are beneficiaries and have one of the best pension schemes of the lot courtesy of hard pressed taxpayers.
February 17, 2022
You right-wingers are a complete push over for the Politics Of Envy, aren’t you?
If you want the employment contracts of millions just to be torn up, then maybe the contracts on which you rely for e.g. banking, property tenure etc. can be shredded too, and you’ll have no case, will you?
February 17, 2022
Yet you envy private sector employment salaries regularly on here NHL
How does that sit logically?
February 17, 2022
Read up on what an “economy” is.
February 16, 2022
To suggest otherwise is to swear in church. On my occasional visits to A&E I have observed what I call ‘the NHS walk’. This involves shuffling as slowly as possible, despite a waiting area overflowing with a people, with a ‘I will not rush under ANY circumstances’ defiance. Of course it is wrong to generalise – and some public sector workers do work hard and do a good job – but far too many don’t. My wife worked for our local Town Council a few years ago. What a joke! I had to get her to stop telling me what was going on there because my blood was in danger of boiling over.
February 17, 2022
“Of course it is wrong to generalise” – well very often you just have to generalise to say anything meaningful (and talk in statistical terms). Men are generally taller than women for example (7% on average) and die younger by circa 5 years – you cannot list all the millions of women and men and their individual heights or ages of deaths. Even if you did no one would bother to read it.
February 16, 2022
Len Peel :
There will of course be many public sector employees who are âhard workingâ but there will also be many who are not and the problem with the public sector is that no employees are ever sacked for laziness, negligence, incompetence, malfeasance, corruption or misbehaviour.
So the public sector must have many such employees.
And this goes right to the top.
Just Google âFailing head of NHS Trust gets new jobâ
February 16, 2022
GPs seem to get away with far more than others under the excuse of covid. Dentists have been offering treatment for ages so why cannot GPs see patients for personal appointments?
Digitalised NHS records should be the norm but unfortunately making this happen has been an expensive failure.
Bad management practice has been allowed to tarnish the NHS which used to be a great benefit of living in the U.K. It needs root and branch reform. That does not mean handing profitable chunks of the NHS over to the private sector.
February 16, 2022
I agree with your comment on GP’s.
If supermarket staff could carry on, why couldn’t they?
All the supermarket staff in my area are still there of all ages. They all worked through the first lock down without masks and screens.
I’ve got family working in NHS as nurses and it seems a very dim view of GP’s is being taken with many in the profession.
February 16, 2022
GPs contract with NHS can be likened to those of footballers. Overpaid, underused, zero sense of responsibility, carefully avoiding details being publicised. And finally reaching the point of becoming ‘the untouchables’.
February 16, 2022
Peter, it’s a bit obvious why dentists and doctors differ. Dentists only get paid for seeing and attending to a patient even though their payments seem desperately unfair when there are only 4 categories of treatment irrespective of the number of treatments in each category.
February 16, 2022
People in England being asked face three-year waits for NHS dentist appointments I see – ref. Health Watch England – NHS Dentistry seems little or no better.
February 16, 2022
My wife happened to look at our local surgery’s web site. 4 doctors – 3 of whom are there 3 days a week, the other 1 puts in a full 2 days. No doubt they either earn enough working part time or have other, even better paid, work in the private sector.
February 16, 2022
Plenty of private GP appointments available, Mike, at less than ÂŁ100 and as far as I know they can give you a referral to NHS services. A charge for NHS GP appointments would probably solve the problem overnight.
It would appear that the BMA were opposed to establishing the NHS in 1948 and now, of course, they are totally opposed to any change.
February 16, 2022
Good morning.
This is a case of the tail wagging the dog as the NHS has become too strong politically. It not only treats its customers badly, it now equal disdain for Ministers. The NHS has become a self serving and, like much of the growing Public Sector, ever more powerful.
As for the money ? At first to offer it and then decide on what to spend it on seemed crazy. Now when I come to think of it perhaps it is a good idea after all. Getting the NHS Management (sic) to come up with solutions they will be held accountable, otherwise no dough, will probably stop most of it being wasted.
I am glad that the government outsourced more healthcare to the private sector. Perhaps this is the way to go ? The NHS holds the cash and gets the best deal for the patient from the competing private sector. I mean, if it has worked already why cannot it be expanded ?
February 16, 2022
They problem is they are not really âcustomersâ the government is the customer with all the cash (having extracted the money of the public in taxes by duress) leaving a dire virtual state monopoly. The public to the NHS are a nuisance and an expense to be deterred and delayed wherever possible – so they usually are.
February 16, 2022
Sorry Sir John but I am getting, “Duplicate comments . . . “ when posting. I do not know if others get the same ?
February 16, 2022
I suspect that @LL, @Dom, @Nottsboy and @youngandy will be seeing the same warning
February 16, 2022
Only if you accidentally press Post twice!
February 16, 2022
Press once and wait!
February 16, 2022
If I wrote the software for this site I’d create a table containing users and the words they use. Gradually I would refine a method for spotting repetition of the same words or expressions (‘green crap’ leaps to mind) and would return a ‘This is not an exact duplicate of earlier messages, but it is near enough to warrant exclusion.’
February 17, 2022
better would be contributor starting with a published count of 6, the moderator reduces by one every time serious repetition occurs or close to hate speech offends.
At reaching zero the contributor / email address is refused entry for a month before starting again, this time with 3 not 6.
February 16, 2022
ha ha !!
February 16, 2022
I began a response to your headline question, Sir John, based on my years of NHS experience, and that of UK friends currently needing medical attention.
By the time I reached Chapter XI, I decided the most accurate response is: IT WILL BE WASTED.
February 16, 2022
Waste money is what all governments do, but this one appears to excel at.
The following comment by Sir John grabbed my attention: “During the early days of the pandemic it was paying for a lot of private capacity it was not fully using.”. Why, when people are waiting for treatment and queues are getting longer have we NOT used services already paid for? I despair, I really do.
This government throws so much of OUR money away, but rarely does it benefit UK taxpayers and citizens! How about using the ÂŁmillions being spent on illegal immigrants to benefit legal citizens, just for a change?
February 16, 2022
Shirley
Your middle paragraph says it all really, “WHY”
February 16, 2022
Shirley M
Love the last paragraph but it’s too radical. It will never happen just as accountability for all the waste of taxpayers money.
February 16, 2022
I only got half way through chapter one of my family experiences. Then I realised no one would ever believe that such things could happen in ‘our NHS’. and gave it up as a bad job.
February 16, 2022
The Labour aligned NHS has the Tory party on a string. They are the puppet master and the Tory party is the puppet. That translates into zero change because change is what the NHS resents more than anything. Oh, that and of course the Tory party
Accept the public sector, the NHS and their unions must be challenged. Your party in government must change the laws relating to the NHS and weaponise funding to force the NHS to become patient centric. Impose legal responsibility upon all NHS staff including senior managers and directors
The woke bigots now control all areas of life and your party in government can stop that by passing new laws to smash them into the ether. The fact that it won’t is an act of shameful betrayal of those who so idiotically vote for the party
When a 7 year of child is accused of transphobia by a headmaster, then you realise we have entered into a world that is utterly out of control
Thanks Tory party for selling the nation into the arms of woke fascism. Have some decency and confront this entire woke cancer before it completely obliterates all that is good, true and decent
February 16, 2022
Hear, hear, Dom!
The changes wonât happen voluntarily! They will need to be forced to make the necessary changes.
February 16, 2022
Sharon
The present lot we have got just haven’t the bottle or ##### to do anything about it.
February 16, 2022
Well said Dom
And nothing will improve until the structures of the NHS adopt real change starting with the employment status of senior consultants and GPs whom are either self-employed or private companyâŠwe donât have self-employed Police Chief Constable, Army Generals or Permanent Secretary at the Home Office
February 16, 2022
Dom. A very sensible post. Woke has gone bonkers and the minority rule. Most sensible people are pig sick of it all.
February 16, 2022
No, we’ve entered a world with the odd silly headmaster, even if your claim were true.
February 16, 2022
Martin, moved to Nottingham? You live on another planet to everyone else. Does it make you feel good to always want to be different to everyone else?
February 17, 2022
The few rather unusual people who repeatedly post near-identical enraged comments on this site are very far from “everyone”, FUS.
February 17, 2022
Bit harsh on yourself and young andy.
February 16, 2022
Pour old Ollie (and DOM) and his ‘woke’ psycho-dramas.
imagine believing the main threat to humanity is caring about others, rather than the sky-rocketing cost of living, the massive increase in food-bank usage, the complete failure of government to plan for a workforce to meet the predictable increase in demand for health services, the untreated excrement pumped into our chalk streams,rivers and seas, global warming.. etc.
February 16, 2022
Poor.
February 16, 2022
There will never be proper reform of the NHS until a strong and healthy private sector is allowed with tax incentive and guarantees of full independence.
February 16, 2022
I thought Health England were the ones responsible for the complete failure to provide sufficient PPE 18 months ago.
Good heavens if they had problems getting sufficient supplies of simple products, whilst failing to recognise a coming shortage, what on earth is the Government thinking behind making them responsible for rather more complex treatment plans.
I fear this is going to be more money down the drain, and lead to more spending on politically correct, diversity crap, instead of going straight into patient care.
February 16, 2022
Until the ministers accept they are complicit in what the NHS has become in just keep throwing money at it, allowing such high concentrations of “management and administration” setting unachievable targets, and forgetting in reality what the NHS should really be about.
Smaller speciialist units replacing large departments and above all making every person involved with the nations health responsible and accountable no more brains on gates and into auto pilot
Whether they be ministers, GPS specialists, consultants or dept of health or trust staff. They are all accountable for the waste and just lately for the woke ideas the NHS is adopting.
Let’s go back to hard core front line care in all departments where the only criteria is Patient Service Excellance.
February 16, 2022
The opportunity for government to commission a thorough 3rd party review, by truly independent consultants, of health delivery in the UK is to be squandered. It could have been a comparative study of other nations in terms of funding, financing and health outcomes. Terms of reference could have been shared with the opposition to address the inevitable accusation that â the Tories are out to privatise the NHSâ. Alas it seems this government has consigned such notions to the too difficult to do category, and would rather continue to pander to vested interests in health and other fields.
February 16, 2022
If not now with an 80 seat majority, when? What is the government waiting for?
February 16, 2022
Not quite on topic, but topical. Last night on the BBC 6pm news Sajid Javid stated: “Mr Djokovic thinks it’s okay for sports spectators, all his fans, to take the vaccine that allows him to get back to play the sport in front of them and earn millions again… but it’s not okay for him,”
I had the impression Mr Djokovic was saying something quite different, to paraphrase: I choose whether to be vaccinated and accept the consequences or restrictions that come with not being vaccinated. Everyone should have that choice.
I’m no lawyer, how close to slander is Javid’s comment?
February 16, 2022
Not sure you need to be a lawyer here. Javid surely a fool as his attempt to force vaccines onto care home workers and NHS workers showed even those who have had covid. Vaccination of children unless they have a good medical reason seems counterproductive too. Especially as it seems the vaccines seem to have a very short useful lifetime.
February 16, 2022
He is certainly not a fool. He is typical of politicians promoted with zero knowledge managing a budget bigger than some countries. You have a PHD in hindsight with zero accountability.
His job is somewhat more complex akin to nailing a jelly on a wall with a completely gotcha motivated media and armchair experts contributing little but bile.
However I agree that there seems to be little pushback and Sir JRs not too well disguised comments, for me, confirm it.
February 16, 2022
I’m not a lawyer either, Pete. But politically/ideologically it’s an astute comment: he shifts freedom of choice away from being the normal default position, to being a marginal view held by some kind of crank.
Javid actually came across as quite a good listener when confronted with Dr Steve James on vaccines last month. Perhaps his next move should be a face-to-face with Djokovic?
February 16, 2022
Peter. I noticed this too. I just can’t see why he shouldn’t compete at Wimbledon this year. The law in Australia was different so yes he should abide by that, but here? The are many of us going around mixing and some have not been vaccinated. I don’t care. I have so what others do is up to them.
February 16, 2022
Pete B. Mr Javid displays the convoluted thinking of a fool. He has no understanding of patient choice where we have free choice of what goes into our bodies. At the moment.
February 17, 2022
PeteB – Why listen/watch to the BBC?
February 16, 2022
This topic always depresses me.
Ridiculous to keep throwing money down this black hole.
The solution is radical but simple.
Change to an insurance based system, sell the hardware off to competing consortia of tech and logistics companies with their own systems, allow clinicians to move freely around to where they’re needed and sack the remainder.
February 16, 2022
A mutual insurance system please, so the policy holders are the owners of the companies. Otherwise it will just become an arrangement of offshore companies costing just as much, except the money goes into overseas shareholders pockets rather than NHS waste.
There will continue to be a need for publicly funded healthcare for those whose medical condition prevents them from getting a job that can pay for their medical needs.
February 16, 2022
“How will the extra money for the NHS be spent “?= wastefully.
February 16, 2022
More diversity officers and people to fight legal negligence claims!
February 16, 2022
More people to fiddle the stats and organise the waiting lists, for waiting lists for the final waiting list so the figures do not look even more appalling.
February 16, 2022
A quick enquiry via google threw up eight NHS Diversity and Inclusion Managerial “jobs” currently being advertised around the country. Each will have a team of juniors in their bureaucratic empire. The NHS is squandering ÂŁbillions on non-jobs like this, pandering to the “woke” diversity agenda which is being rammed down our throats.
NHS Senior Management prioritises the interests of NHS Managers. Until that changes, nothing will change.
February 16, 2022
Outrageous.
The Conservative party are full of the types in fact they sing the ‘diversity’ hymn (for it is the new religion) with great gusto.
So, no change at the NHS then and how long before patient waiting lists and priority treatments are compiled on a ‘diversity’ basis.
For all those clutching their pearls to their chest and saying that’s an outrageous statement, ask yourselves this; wouldn’t you have thought not so long back that for someone to suggest the NHS and our other institutions would be prioritising employing people to fit this criteria a silly outrageous suggestion?
Yet here we are.
February 16, 2022
UK’s top-paid public sector diversity chief is a Network Rail director on ÂŁ164,000 taxpayer
February 16, 2022
Well, the Government say that NR will be replaced in 2023 by “Great British Railways”, so the structure of that- just like NR – will be down to them, won’t it?
BTW, the Tories have been in for around twelve years now.
February 16, 2022
Are these ‘Diversity chiefs’ diversified themselves?
February 16, 2022
Donna. It’s scandalous.
February 16, 2022
Diversity is a device hatched up by Marxists to stamp out meritocracy, one of the enlightened Westâs most powerful tools for equality and prosperity.
February 16, 2022
The autonomous organisation / government link is a paradox. The BBC is the closest comparator to “OUR NHS”. The BBC has the same sainted position in our society but government is not held to account for its performance because it is an arms length corporation.
This model could be used for “OUR NHS”, make it a corporation with the taxpayer being both insured and insurer for patients. Pricing for each procedure, test and interaction with the public could be agreed (nationally or regionally) and the trusts and GPs get paid for each transaction carried out including a small contribution from each patient at the start of each treatment cycle. Trusts become autonomous but only paid for what they do, not how many staff they employ or how many patients they cover. The private sector would also be able to bid for work to increase capacity.
I am sure that this model would reduce the number of finance staff needed, would put the clinicians in charge as they are responsible for generating fees and provides the revenue incentive for efficiency.
February 16, 2022
We learn again today that prices continue to rise. This after the Brexitists promised us lower prices when we left the protectionist EU. You can find the videos of Mogg, Hannan, Farage and others promising us cheaper goods.
When do you reckon they will be apologising for getting it so embarrassingly wrong?
None of them have to choose between eating and heating. Unlike swathes of the public who they have foisted their Brexit mess on.
February 16, 2022
What they got wrong was idiotic tax to death, very inflationary, big government economic and net zero energy policies from Javid, Boris, Carrie, KwartangâŠand a total failure to make use of the many benefits of Brexit.
February 16, 2022
You do know that people in the EU countries face similar problems don’t you?
Perhaps like so many you don’t because you just listen to BBC/Channel 4 etc.
Remember the ‘Yellow Vest’ protests in France, although BBC didn’t like showing too much of that.
That was all about prices that were affecting the ordinary folk, yet Franc is a stalwart of EU.
Most issues are to do with bad management and world events more than they are to do with Brexit, or the sort of Brexit we’ve been given.
February 16, 2022
Good point Andy especially as prices aren’t rising in the EU ….. oh …. wait a minute ….. looks like if we’d stayed in the EU prices would have been rising even faster ! And on heating, I thought your chosen expert little Greta *wanted* carbon-based energy priced out of the market ? Why aren’t you celebrating the fact it is being ?
February 16, 2022
When will you admit that world prices are on the rise, not just in ‘Brexit Britain’? Will you apologise for getting it so embarrassingly wrong? Although, I admit that for years we have had idiots in charge, including the period when we were still in the EU.
Also, please explain why the cost of food rocketed when we joined the Common Market, despite promises to the contrary. Note: it was not Brexiters who promised lower prices would result from joining the Common Market. How do you explain that?
February 16, 2022
What is causing the same inflation in Europe and America young Andy?
February 16, 2022
Andy. Prices are rising all over your precious EU too. Why don’t you ever consider what is behind the rises or take into account the effects of Covid? Why are you not in France yet? You obviously hate the UK.
February 16, 2022
Brexitists is a synthetic label that exists only in dreamt up propAganda like a bogeyman to hang all your problems on…..
February 17, 2022
The same as âleftâ or âthe Blogâ or âremoanersâ or âsocialo-marxo-communistâ are labels conveniently used by people having a rather limited potential for addressing slightly complex questions. These qualificatives are very useful as they prevent anybody from thinking by themselves. One puts such a label and, abracadabra, no need to expand, no need to explain: all the regulars here know what it is about, âweâ are between âusâ and can continue to rave to our heartâs content.
âHilariousâ, isnât it?
February 16, 2022
How predictable you are.
February 16, 2022
Andy. Inflation in the EU zone was 5.1% in January. I expect it’s more now.
February 17, 2022
5.4% for the EU27 and 5.0% for the Euro area in 2021, with 14 countries above that, up to Estonia (12%) and Latvia (10.7%) above 10%, and 13 countries below that, with Austria (3.8%), Denmark and France (3.4%), Finland (3.2%), Portugal (2.8%) and Malta (2.6%) below 4% (statistica.com). For 2021, UK was at 5.4% and the USA at 6.8%.
February 17, 2022
When it suits, some people will average across the European Union – by whatever misleading method they like e.g. add all the rates together and simply divide by twenty-seven.
On other occasions they will pick the worst nation alone and say “in the EU” etc.
February 17, 2022
That’s what you do too NHL.
February 16, 2022
Andy. You have your green lunacy, mass immigration and elderly treated like crap.
Why do you come here every day to whinge about it ?
February 17, 2022
because (s)he has a very responsive audience
February 16, 2022
It will be spent in the normal way. Large sums syphoned off for useless gimicks and toys to enable politicians and big business to get their share. More squandered on managers and their expenses. Then doctors will get enormous sums for their nurses injecting people with poisons whilst never actually seeing any patients themselves. The remaining amount will trickle down to the serfs to try and kid them the NHS is still viable.
February 16, 2022
“Hospital records, vaccination records and drug treatment patterns in hospital or at home could all benefit from digital recording with easy access for patient and medics alike.”
Don’t propose that John ! The times in the past they have tried to do that – a unified record database – it has resulted in some of the biggest failed IT projects the world has ever seen – one of them cost ÂŁ10 billion and delivered virtually nothing. There are multiple incompatible record systems in use in different parts of the country and in some cases patients referred to specialist care elsewhere in the country have to hand-carry paper copies of their records with them. There are better things to spend money on in the near term than that intractable problem.
February 16, 2022
Thats all very well but it does appear to be “apple pie ” thinking – obvious nevertheless, but getting the NHS/its people to reform is unlikely. Its the same old same old – lots of talk from politicians but faced with the unions no action. Perhaps one way to deal with the problem is to have an ever increasing and specific NHS tax – seeing this rise year after year without benefit to the public might prompt a grass roots reaction.
February 16, 2022
At the end of the day, the NHS management have to be held responsible for making best use of their huge budget – They need to demonstrate that they are on top of things and delivering a world class service. If they can’t do this then they should be replaced.
The major concern of many is that the extra cash will simply end up in the pockets of NHS exec’s with no change to front line services
February 16, 2022
The NHS is impossible to control as it has far too many separate units/divisions/ operations all doing their own ‘thing’. The waste due to duplication of management and administration is enormous and it reminds me of a huge octopus suffering from St Vitus Dance!
It needs ‘top-down- surgery to slim out the divisions and drastically reduce the management overhead and to do this we need a CEO from one of our largest and most diverse corporations who has a clear record of success.
February 16, 2022
The answer to today’s question is simple:
VERY VERY BADLY
February 16, 2022
Reform! Is that to finance the compensation teams they are forming to deal with covid claims, I see they are advertising ÂŁ23K jobs in the team.
I also note an insurance company has refused to pay out a life insurance policy as they are claiming it was suicide as people knew the risks.0
February 16, 2022
I didn’t know there were compensation claims regarding Covid. Perhaps you mean claims against vaccine adverse effects, for which they have been insurance payouts?
February 16, 2022
One day when the NHS says ‘we have enough money’ there will be widespread heart-attacks, which will futher log-jam the services provided.
February 16, 2022
Can our esteemed host please outline for his law abiding, moral and decent readers what will in the future constitute ‘legal but harmful speech’ now the Commons and the wider political woke class have decided to target British citizens and their divine rights regarding speech and expression?
If anyone should be harmed and offended by such laws it is we, the people, who are witnessing the dismantling of our most cherished freedoms
I always knew that at some point that all the main parties would unite to crush who we are and what we can say
February 16, 2022
+many
Hear! Hear!
We need to know!!!
February 16, 2022
I agree with you DOM. This legislation is harmful to the citizens of this country in removing our right to freedom of expression.
What about the Police and Crimes Bill, to clamp down on our freedom to demonstrate peacefully? Perhaps our government need to take heed of what is happening in Canada, and now New Zealand!
February 16, 2022
Improvements are looked for in facilities for access to G.P.s. Getting an appointment is at present too much of an obstacle-course, and telephone appointments have their shortcomings. Video link also sounds a poor substitute for being seen in person. There should be some choice in one’s G.P, and it should be possible to have continuity by seeing the same doctor each time. We used to have these things only a few years ago …
February 16, 2022
+1
I donât think we will be seeing them ever again.
The idea is for us to be AI/digitally monitored in our homes.
God help us when the electricity runs outâŠ
February 16, 2022
How much money will the NHS be spending on these rubber dinghy so called asylum seekers, who have not and never will, contribute anything to the system.
February 16, 2022
âHospital records, vaccination records and drug treatment patterns in hospital or at home could all benefit from digital recording with easy access for patient and medics alike.â
A couple of weeks ago I asked two senior doctors at a major teaching hospital what improvements they would like to see.
They both said they would like the log-in time on the computer to access patient records to be shortened. Currently it can take between 10 and 30 minutes.
February 16, 2022
If the population of England is a little over 56m and around ÂŁ174bn is to be spent next year on England’s Department of Health and Social Care budget …. that is over ÂŁ3,000 pa for every man, woman and child.
Is this reasonable ?
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/nhs-budget
February 16, 2022
Off topic, I was very sorry to miss this on Radio Newcastle on Monday morning, 2:15:00 in here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0bk008c
Keir Starmer saying:
âWe have exited the EU and weâre not going backâ
âthereâs no case for rejoiningâ
âI want to make it workâ
Well, if he really wants to make it work he should help to sort out the dangerous mess in Northern Ireland.
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/02/13/getting-rid-of-the-budget-deficit/#comment-1299484
âGood Friday Agreement under âhuge pressureâ says shadow NI secretaryâ
February 16, 2022
NHS Trusts are businesses. The government has no authority to prescribe which services they do or do not offer. They do not have any legal obligation to provide care, after Blair’s act.
All the government can do is throw money at them as an act of virtue signalling, and hope some of it does some good.
February 16, 2022
I know the NHS does patient surveys from time to time, but when the bureaucrats plan their continual reorganisations, I wonder how much attention is paid to patientsâ views on their experiences.
Having unfortunately encountered the NHS from a patientâs perspective rather frequently over the last few years, my main observations are:
The medical side would probably benefit from more money being spent on more medical staff, new equipment and improvements to buildings, provided it was spent efficiently.
The administration side suffers from too many staff getting in each othersâ way, and would
work better with fewer staff.
February 16, 2022
â The UK needs to train more of our own people to provide the numbers we need.â
Easier said than done John and then how do you propose to keep them? As a mother of a Junior Doctor in a busy central London hospital, I can tell you morale is very low amongst staff at the way the NHS is run, itâs no wonder so many are leaving or thinking of leaving the profession. Junior Doctors in particular are treated as nothing more than skivvies dumped on from all directions, working 12 hour shifts without a break, (at least nurses get a four day break after their three days of twelve hour shifts) no appreciation and certainly no such thing as overtime, on pathetically low salaries for their qualifications. In my sons case, after six long years at Cambridge, he now watches fellow Oxbridge graduates who did law for example starting in the city on salaries three times as much as a Junior Doctors. No itâs not all about money, but after taking out monthly accommodation costs, tax and NI and student debt, he is left with very little to show for his hard work. Add to that the planned NI increases and the fact that for some reason Junior Doctors have been singled out to not receive the 3% planned salary increase the rest of NHS staff will receive, is it any wonder so many of them are leaving or thinking of leaving?
February 16, 2022
I meant to add that I find it absolutely disgraceful that this Government is burdening our much needed Doctors with tens of thousands of pounds worth of debt especially when they are happy to write off 78% of student debt for mostly worthless degrees. Surely one way to incentivise them to stay in the NHS and make them feel valued would be to scrap tuition fees for STEM subjects.
February 16, 2022
+1
My boy is starting life with ÂŁ100k of debt.
Financially (for all of us) it’s been a terrible mistake but I am extremely proud of him (and his fiancee who was on the same course.)
February 16, 2022
Who funds all this?
âNHSX moves on
After three years leading the digital transformation of health and social care as NHSX, we are integrating with the Transformation Directorate at NHS England.
Our mission will remain â to drive the digital transformation of the NHS and social care. And our status as a joint unit of NHS England and DHSC continues as well.
We have made huge progress over the past three years, emphatically through partnership with NHS Digital, NHS BSA and frontline NHS and social care organisations. There is now a long list of achievements to NHSXâs name which you can learn more about in my latest blog. Almost all of them have been delivered in partnership with NHS Digital and our other partners.â
Matthew Gould, CEO
February 16, 2022
20 October 2021
âNHSXâs NHS AI Lab and the Health Foundation have today awarded ÂŁ1.4 million to four projects to address racial and ethnic health inequalities using artificial intelligence (AI).The winning projects râŠâ
âNHSX has announced that it is to fund and support 14 new projects across the country to help half a million people receive care at home using digital technology.From remote cardiac rehabilitation serâŠâ
February 17, 2022
I am a bit out of step with corporate loaded labour rates now but ÂŁ1.4m is not very much, likely around 10-12 man years. Different racial groups have different vulnerabilities to Covid so the first issue doesn’t sound radical at all.
Nor the second, I have an annual checkup which could easily be done remotely after the drilling for blood.
February 16, 2022
Ask not for whom the money is spentâŠ
Cos it ainât spent for thee!
Thatâs for sureâŠ.
February 16, 2022
What do to with the money? Pay all the people, like me, who had to pay for private operations over the last two years because the NHS was Missing In Action.
February 17, 2022
you meant ‘Missing from inaction’, didn’t you?
February 16, 2022
Politicians must take ultimate responsibility for the failings of the NHS because the NHS was a creation of politicians. Before the NHS existed, healthcare was delivered locally by GPs and hospitals. Hospitals were charitable foundations, not operated for profit or funded by central government. There was no hierarchical army of administrators with no qualifications deciding how the medically qualified should deliver their services. As drugs and treatments became more sophisticated and people lived longer as a result, there would need to have been other sources of funding; however, that in itself does not demand the existence of a political monstrosity like the NHS.
The failings of the NHS are always ascribed to the current organisational structure and never the fact that the organisation should never have existed in the first place. Every time the structure is changed by the Arts graduates in charge, the medically qualified have to learn to live with it. When will politicians and administrators realise they are the problem and not the solution?
February 16, 2022
One of the very good reasons for the introduction of a National Health Service was the appalling inequality in availability of medical services for the poor, whether at Primary or Secondary level. Some major cities had few public hospitals, other (more affluent) areas had many, both large and small – this is because most hospital doctors at senior rank earned the bulk of their money in the private sector.
What is needed now is a major rethink because of the increase in population, the increase in life-expectancy, and the increase in medical and surgical advances.
February 17, 2022
It needs a sole employer contract – NHS or private practice, take your pick!
February 16, 2022
Brief tales from the NHS.
My occupational therapist came back recently after a years maternity leave and since the beginning of the year has twice been off for a week each time, on annual leave accumulated while on maternity leave!! To me, insanity.
My physio therapist is off self isolating for the second time this month following a ‘positive’ test for Covid. She was not sick last time and I would wager she is not sick this time.
No wonder the NHS is always short staffed, and always demanding more money!!
How long do we all have to suffer under the yoke of Covid? Now I see that these dangerous ‘vaccines’ are to be recommended for children as young as five! The time is long overdue for this whole politically engineered crisis to be declared OVER.
February 16, 2022
+ 10000000000
Spot on!
February 16, 2022
Ask my GP is a digital service which my general practice uses , I find it very helpful as thought can be given into the priorities in my health and problems.I can write a request which will be answered by a practitioner. I have found it extremely useful.
As a ANP patients who use the system more than often need to be followed up with a face to face appointment.I read the problems and can help where remote scripts etc which can be sent or consult by telephone.The main problem is that the greatest percentage of patients cannot write English and are used to giving vague and unconnected symptoms. Coming from different countries systems are different and an overall perception of health and illness has been formulated by alternative influences.
February 16, 2022
Expect, soon, a flood of claims against the NHS for compensation for harms and deaths caused by ‘vaccinations’ against Covid. The sums will astonish.
February 16, 2022
+many
Yes!
And against the govt. too maybe?
February 16, 2022
Yes Eh. The tax payer will pay!!
February 17, 2022
With mounting evidence of extraordinary injuries caused by the Covid shots, and the work of some of the greatest experts in the field showing the massive risk, letâs hop NO MORE SHOTS.
February 17, 2022
No more shots!!!! No one needed to take the “shots” in the first instance.
FEAR was the so called pandemic and the globalist Main stream media did its job in promoting it, knowing the people would believe it.
And so many are still asleep.
February 17, 2022
PC, âso many are still asleepâ, you obviously are among the awake âwokesâ, or are you not?
February 17, 2022
10.42 bn injections as of end of January 2022, 61.9% of worldâs population with at least one injection. 5 cases of âextraordinary injuriesâ per million injections.
Could you please provide the list of âthe greatest experts in the fieldsâ, if possible with their medical credentials/affiliations (You wouldnât want to rely on cranks, would you?). Thanks in advance.
February 17, 2022
evidence?
February 18, 2022
Number of vaccinations from ourworldindata.org 17/02/2022.
cdc.org âReported adverse effectsâ, 15/02/2022:
anaphylaxis: 5 per million vaccinations,
thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS): 57 cases from 18.2 m Janssen vaccines, 3 cases from 526 m Moderna mRNA vaccines,
Guillain-Barre syndrome: 310 cases from 18.2 Janssen vaccines,
Myocarditis and pericarditis: 1307 from mRNA (Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna) vaccines.
All the above are âadverse effectsâ, not deaths.
A total of 547 m doses injected in the USA as of 15/02/2022: 12,304 deaths linked to vaccinations (0.0022%).
And MT, what a lazy ……you are if you cannot be bothered to check for yourself. Or could it be that your internet skill is only limited to connect to Sir Johnâs blog?
February 18, 2022
Hefner – I thought better of you. The word obfuscation comes to mind.
Do you believe these figures!!!!
February 21, 2022
Do you believe what you read on your websites?
February 17, 2022
Similar to Overseas Aid the money will initially be under the control of the top echelons who will then decide where it will be spent??????
Jobs for the boys anyone.