Written Answers from the Department for Health and Social Care

The Department of Health and Social Care has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (117392):

Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to encourage NHS managers to use (a) promotions (b) increments and (c) flexibilities in pay scales to retain and motivate staff. (117392)

Tabled on: 06 January 2023

Answer:
Will Quince:

Retention within the National Health Service is a complex issue and decisions to leave are taken due to a multitude of factors, of which pay is only one. The NHS Retention Programme seeks to understand why staff leave, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay whilst keeping them well. Locally, employers in the NHS have the option to use measures like pay increments and promotions to attract and retain staff.

The answer was submitted on 12 Jan 2023 at 11:11.

100 Comments

  1. Peter Wood
    January 14, 2023

    Good Morning,
    Sorry off topic.

    Sir J, you keep banging on about Growth, but you don’t specify where that growth should come. We need Private Sector Growth WITHOUT extra government borrowing.

    If you simply tell the government to ‘produce growth’, all they have to do is QE and spend. That’s what we’ve had for the last 10 years and look where it’s got us.

    Reply If you go back to past blogs I have made clear I want increases in out per head, not growth from more migration, and have set out key areas including food production, fishing, domestic energy, heavy industry that are all private sector.

    1. Lifelogic
      January 14, 2023

      To reply:- well for growth the UK actually needs to be competitive. So we need lower simpler taxes, far less government, cheap reliable energy, far less red tape, easy hire and fire, more productive workers and fewer parasites.

      Alas this current government agenda is the complete opposite of this. See the moronic suggestions by the deluded art graduate on Chris Skidmore in his absurd review of net zero. Does this deluded man know the first thing about energy, physics, climate, energy economics, heating systems, heat pumps, electricity grids?

      1. ChrisS
        January 14, 2023

        No ! is the answer to your question.

        It will be completely impossible to ban the sale of replacement gas boilers from 2032 or whatever date Skidmore has in mind. There is currently no viable replacement for the humble gas boiler. Heat pumps are far too expensive and ineffective and the electricity infrastructure could not cope with such an increase in demand, never mind the cost per kW which is three times the cost of gas, even today.

        What I think they have in mind is to fudge the issue by allowing the continual sale of boilers nominally able to use gas or hydrogen. Evidently the extra cost of producing a dual fuel boiler is minimal, but the network will never be converted to hydrogen because the whole nation’s pipework would have to be relined with a membrane through which the smaller Hydrogen molecules cannot pass. Furthermore there would have to be a complete new industry created to produce green hydrogen which ain’t going to happen.

        1. Berkshire Alan
          January 14, 2023

          Agree with your comments , but that does not mean the Government of the day will make a sensible decision.
          Few policies are ever based on common sense, many are based simply on political dogma.

        2. John Hatfield
          January 14, 2023

          Perhaps it would be more logical to ban (vote out) the Tories rather than banning extremely efficient gas boilers.

          1. Chris S
            January 15, 2023

            It would be illogical to vote out the Conservatives because all the opposition parties want to go further and faster towards the myth that is Net Zero.

            Don’t forget, Ed Miliband is the Labour climate change secretary !

        3. Dave Andrews
          January 14, 2023

          The gas piped to houses used to be town gas, which is 50% hydrogen. Why should there be a problem piping it now?

        4. Lifelogic
          January 14, 2023

          +1

      2. Original Richard
        January 14, 2023

        LL :

        The reason for ā€œMission Zero ā€“ Independent (?) Review of Net Zeroā€ was to make changes to the initial ā€œNet Zero ā€“ Build Back Greenerā€ plan :

        Such as changing ā€œNet Zeroā€ P19 :

        ā€œOur power system will consist of abundant, cheap British renewables, cutting edge new nuclear power stations, and be underpinned by flexibility including storage, gas with CCS, hydrogen and ensure reliable power is always there at the flick of a switch.ā€

        To ā€œMission Net Zeroā€ P26 :

        ā€œAround 85% of decarbonisation between 2020 and 2035 will involve low carbon technologies or fuels alone or in combination with behaviour change.ā€

        And on P220 :

        ā€œPrevious government interventions on behaviour change are helpful blueprints. For
        example, the Governmentā€™s response to the coronavirus pandemic demonstrated how peopleā€™s
        behaviours can be successfully influencedā€

        If our British renewable energy is going to be abundant and cheap, always there at the flick of a switch, why is behaviour change necessary?

      3. glen cullen
        January 14, 2023

        Lets face it, this government has taken the ‘fun’ out of living

    2. Lifelogic
      January 14, 2023

      London the most congested city in the World (this clearly drive by government and Khan policies of deliberate road blocking, anti car light phasing, bus and bike lanesā€¦) what does holding people up for hours in huge congestion do for productivity? Or indeed for life expectancy when doctors & ambulances get held up? Misdirected government is, as usual, the problem.

      1. Hope
        January 14, 2023

        JR,
        I heard today how one local hospital having to foot taxi bill to ferry illegal immigrants to and from hospital at the hospital expense not hostel! Another example a locum consultant asking for more money because of changes to tax rises.

        Your party invites the whole of the populations from Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan here plus 1.2 million visas issued at the same time plus 46,000 illegal immigrants. Who planned the infrastructure before inviting these people here? Where are those 40 extra hospitals promised?

        Why should the GB taxpayer foot the bill for the stupidity/dishonesty of your party against its election promises?

        1. John Hatfield
          January 14, 2023

          Election promises;
          1. Extra funding for the NHS, with 50,000 more nurses and 50 million more GP surgery appointments a year.
          2. 20,000 more police and tougher sentencing for criminals.
          3. An Australian-style points-based system to control immigration.
          4. Millions more invested every week in science, schools, apprenticeships and infrastructure while controlling debt.
          5. Reaching Net Zero by 2050 with investment in clean energy solutions and green infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions and pollution.
          6. We will not raise the rate of income tax, VAT or National Insurance.
          7. We Will Put You First
          8. Getting Brexit done. Investing in our public services and infrastructure. Supporting workers and families. Strengthening the Union. Unleashing Britainā€™s potential.
          Now how many of these have been achieved?

          1. glen cullen
            January 14, 2023

            ha ha …and we believed them ….never again

          2. Mickey Taking
            January 14, 2023

            Glen – no! we didn’t believe them – the sheep were persuaded that Corbyn and Union marxists would be worse. Hopefully the mugs have taken all the past 12, coming up 14 years into account and vote Rehab? no!, no! no!.

      2. Mickey Taking
        January 14, 2023

        I often experience the ‘almost parked’ journey crawling on main roads in London. From time to time we hear about the average car speed in Central London, I would like to know what effect many boroughs adopting 20mph speed limit has over recent years.

        1. glen cullen
          January 14, 2023

          Its made fining motorists easier

          1. Mickey Taking
            January 14, 2023

            and made hundreds of thousands of engines, both petrol and diesel run very inefficiently – thats what you get with Sadiq Khan.

      3. hefner
        January 14, 2023

        London, the most congested city in the world? what about Mumbai, Bogota, Manila, Istanbul, ..?

      4. Lifelogic
        January 14, 2023

        It was in a recent survey, but I am often in London for about sixty days PA. I was London yesterday in fact. I caught a bus for a three miles journey, it took nearly an hour, 3MPH worse than walking. I would have walked but had too much luggage.

      5. Bloke
        January 14, 2023

        Lifelogic:
        Does the NHS have a simple efficient management structure?
        So many sources show convoluted mixtures of oddities, overlaps and muddles.
        Organisations cannot manage without clearly-defined areas of responsibility.
        Even a glimpse reveals the NHS is inefficient.

    3. miami.mode
      January 14, 2023

      Reply to reply. Problem is that those you mention are often hampered by government legislation.

    4. Peter
      January 14, 2023

      The answer to the headline question was an evasive itā€™s ā€˜complexā€™. Reference to a so-called ā€˜NHS retention programmeā€™ was then thrown in to deter any further probing.

      However, it seems to me that most matters now discussed on the site are now academic, since Sunak has no intention of listening to his own MPs – let alone members of the public.

      Sunak will just plough on doing what he can until he is eventually removed.

      1. Mickey Taking
        January 14, 2023

        If cooking solutions are too complex, get out of the kitchen!

  2. AJPotts
    January 14, 2023

    The NHS pay structure is monolithic and rigid. Most trusts are resistant to using the limited discretionary power they do have to increase wages for particular groups with high vacancy levels as those in charge worship at the altar of equality and have no grasp of economics. The typical local retention initiative will offer free yoga or the opportunity to stroke a rabbit not an improvement in pay and conditions.

    1. SuzyDee
      January 14, 2023

      We have a staff Wellness centre where people can go to take a lunch break, yoga, massage, gym etc.

      But most staff get just 1/2 hour break every 8 hours. Definitely no time to make use of it!

      Iā€™d rather they did a proper job of fixing recurring ceiling leaks and fixed the plumbing so the toilets donā€™t keep getting blocked.

      Oh, yes! Also, a timer on the heating might be nice. When itā€™s really cold outside, when we open our day unit it can be as chilly as 16 degrees C. We open to patients at 7am and maintenance arenā€™t available til 8am and we notice no improvement often until lunchtime!

      1. Hope
        January 14, 2023

        In line with JRā€™s view, What is the expertise of the minister answering? Is he reading/parroting a reply written for him?

      2. Mickey Taking
        January 14, 2023

        You may ‘open’ to patients but what is the average start time for receptionist/check in day clinics, and following that what is the average ‘start procedure’ time? I often hear about patients sitting for 30 to 60 minutes waiting to be checked in, and the first called for procedure to be at least 9am.

        1. Berkshire Alan
          January 14, 2023

          MT

          The problem from my own personal and family members experience, is that many patients are given the same appointment time, for the same consultant.
          Thus no wonder the seats are always full in reception, and if the Consultant is delayed because of an emergency, then the next batch who also have been given all the same but later appointment time, join the original lot.
          Admin is the real problem

          1. Mickey Taking
            January 14, 2023

            agreed – but the waiting room filling up, delayed check-in, and a start 1.5 hours later is ridiculous.

    2. Lifelogic
      January 14, 2023

      Indeed you need flexibility at the front line. Similarly many schools struggle to recruit any decent maths and physics teachers as they can earn rather more than language, art, music teachers can, but schools often unable to be flexible so end up with rather poor teachers in these subjects.

      In the case of the NHS this poor recruitment system kills thousands as does the weekend (lack of) arrangements.

      1. Hope
        January 14, 2023

        LL,

        Why was this not sorted out over the last 13 years? They chose Simon Stevens, former Blaire health advisor to be in charge of NHS. Now former Labour minister Hewitt. Johnson was stopped a few years ago jetting off to a freebie Caribbean holiday and journalists asking him about people on trolleys (a small boy) waiting for treatment! I think JR ought to ask Starmer because his party follows their policies and hire their staff!

        1. Lifelogic
          January 14, 2023

          Indeed dire PPE graduates and similar both as CEOs and Ministers like Hunt, Handcockā€¦

    3. Nottingham Lad Himself
      January 14, 2023

      If there were a public sector involvement in the intermediate care sector as there used to be, then these methods could be used to create more capacity there to replace that lost through brexit.

      That could then be used to ease the enormous consequential pressure on NHS hospital beds.

      However, Tufton Street doctrine prevents this.

  3. formula57
    January 14, 2023

    Yet another less than whole truth answer provided by Minister Quince. Surely we could all have guessed that “Locally, employers in the NHS have the option to use measures like pay increments and promotions to attract and retain staff” and no doubt such option has been available for years but is the Health Secretary taking steps to encourage NHS managers to use that option? Failure to answer the question set is a hallmark of Ministers in this government.

    1. Peter
      January 14, 2023

      F57,
      Will Quince has a nice Shakespearian ring to it. I would love to hear an MP called John Falstaff advising on lifestyle choices and alcohol consumption.

      1. Bloke
        January 15, 2023

        Quince is described as hard, acidic and pear-shaped, but according to Wikipedia Will Quince described himself as losing 6.5 stone in 2020. Japes are easy to create, yet quince has some fine qualities too, and maybe the man himself is just too busy or confused to provide better answers when questioned.

  4. DavidinKent
    January 14, 2023

    Back in the day when I used to hire people it was always easy to persuade them to leave the NHS. It didn’t take extra money, just an offer of decent, flexible hours, a company car and to be treated with respect.

    1. Lifelogic
      January 14, 2023

      Indeed another problem doctors in the NHS have is not knowing where they will be based as their career develops. It is very expensive to keep moving house given the absurd stamp duty rates which destroy job mobility so effectively. Even changing rented accommodation can be expensive.

      1. Hope
        January 14, 2023

        LL,
        I spoke with nurses at Nuffield. They swapped not for money but because they thought it dangerous, their words, to remain in NHS unable to provide the care they were taught to deliver!

        1. Lifelogic
          January 14, 2023

          Exactly plus often not paid enough to actually live on esp. in London.

  5. Javelin
    January 14, 2023

    Rishi and other senior cabinet members have steered clear of the toxic WEF at Davos this year. They are completely oblivious that the public know the WEF policies and strategies and know that Rishi is pressing ahead with those very same policies. The reason the public know this is because the public did not vote for the WEF policies yet these are the policies that he is pressing ahead to implement. These include NetZero, Mass Migration, EU Alignment, Globalist Supply Chains, Outsourcing jobs, QE, managed decline and many more.

    Vote Conservative Get WEF polices.

    1. Javelin
      January 14, 2023

      Sadly Sir Kier Starmer is attending the WEF to receive his next set of marching orders.

      The homogeneous, undemocratic political uniparty continues.

      1. Sharon
        January 14, 2023

        Javelin, what puzzled me was that it is rumoured Kemi Badenoch is going to Davos!

        Also, Zelensky!

        I thought Davos only attracted ā€˜the in crowdā€™?

      2. Lifelogic
        January 14, 2023

        Seems so. The most depressing thing is that the only real alternative to this tax to death appalling government Labour/SNP/LibDim/Green will be even worse still.

      3. Cuibono
        January 14, 2023

        Grant Schapps, Kemi Badenoch, Zac Goldsmithn, Mr T Blairā€¦Old Uncle Tom Cobley and allā€¦
        What joyous tidings will they bring us back from Davos Fair?

    2. Sharon
      January 14, 2023

      Well put, Javelin!

  6. Lifelogic
    January 14, 2023

    Amanda Pritchard in the Times today:- we need to train more UK doctors. Perhaps she has not looked at the NHS retention rates. About 25% of Doctors leave within the first year and only about 50% stay on. This after 5 or 6 years of expensive and dedicated training. Perhaps she need to open her eyes and see what an appalling employer the NHS is. Conditions, treatment of doctors, salaries, woke lunacy, diversity and green crap ever where, excessive paper work, duff systems, high salaries for all the wrong people and is not remotely attractive. It cannot be very satisfying for medics to see hundred dying in the NHS who could have been saves had the ambulance arrived promptly, the right scans been done promptly, proper competent weekend servicesā€¦ or they had not had to wait 9 hours in A&E.

    Also to see the lies being pushed by government on the very significant vaccine harms. Wages in Australia for doctors for example are about double NHS levels. Junior doctors wages in the UK are simply not sufficient to live on in London (circa Ā£29k) after student loan interest, commuting etc and rent is considered time to get real Ms Pritchard. Why exactly were you a ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦. history graduate ever appointed to this job?

    1. JoolsB
      January 14, 2023

      Then to add insult to injury, any earnings over Ā£27,000 are taxed at 41%. If this clueless Government can write off 78% of all student debt for meaningless degrees why canā€™t it do the same for those the country needs on proviso they stay with the NHS for a minimum number of years.

      1. Mickey Taking
        January 14, 2023

        If you are adding the base income tax rate, after the personal allowance, to the NI rate – then all other jobs are taxed the same!

      2. Hope
        January 14, 2023

        Jeremy Hunt started the junior doctor scam when health secretary back in 2015. Why has this not been put right since then? Over 200,000 voted for Hunt to be sacked. He is now chancellor and in charge of purse strings, he brought Hewitt in presumably to override Barclay the front man.

      3. hefner
        January 14, 2023

        Funny, I have just filled my Self-Assessment Tax return. As everybody I had a Ā£12,570 personal allowance, then the 40% was starting to bite only after adding Ā£37,700 ie above Ā£50,270 Moreover I still had a Ā£1,000 allowance for interests and a Ā£2,000 allowance for dividends, plus a possible few thousands rebate for capital gain depending where exactly my total income was falling.

        I guess you are not reporting in the UK, are you?

        1. JoolsB
          January 14, 2023

          Income Tax plus NI plus 9% student debt. 41% is the basic level they start paying at once they hit Ā£27,000. God help them when they enter the next tax bracket. Theyā€™ll be paying 66%. And the muppets in charge wonder why they are taking their services elsewhere.

          1. hefner
            January 16, 2023

            Even your second comment is wrong.
            Someone earning Ā£27,700 would pay:
            – personal allowance is Ā£12,570
            – so taxable income: Ā£15,130
            – income tax 20% on above: Ā£3,026
            – national insurance on Ā£27,700 is Ā£2,004.73
            – student loan at 9% on Ā£27,700 is Ā£2,493
            27,700 – 3,026 – 2,004.73 – 2,493 = 20,176.28
            Percentage net/ brut 20,176.28 / 27,700 = 0.728
            So rate for income tax + NI + student loan is 27.2% not 41% quite a difference. Maybe Sunak has a point about the very poor state of math handling by the general population.
            But that certainly makes the day of ā€˜The TaxPayerā€™s Allianceā€™ of 55 Tufton Street to have an innumerate population.

    2. Cuibono
      January 14, 2023

      +many
      NHS England list of board members makes interesting reading.

    3. a-tracy
      January 14, 2023

      Lifelogic, how many of those trainee Doctors were foreign medical students simply going home to continue their extended training?

      What does it say about the people who select who to train in these restricted training places? They have many more British applicants than they select.

      We need some proper answers, after the initial four year undergraduate degree, they move on to a two years masters before PHD specialist training donā€™t they? Which year are you saying 25% leave after one year? What a waste.

      1. hefner
        January 14, 2023

        Funny question: Most MDs donā€™t have a PhD or a DSc or DPhil.

        1. a-tracy
          January 14, 2023

          Why is it a funny question I was asking Lifelogic, as he has a child in medical training what the course continuations were. Iā€™ve gone on to look it up myself.

      2. hefner
        January 14, 2023

        14/01/2023 ā€˜Government refuses to fund UK students at new medical school despite chronic doctor shortageā€™, Guardian, Anna Fazackerley, 15:00.

        1. a-tracy
          January 14, 2023

          Simon Trickett, chief executive of the NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire integrated care board, said they were spending just over Ā£70m this year on locum and agency staff because they donā€™t have enough doctors.

          How very short-sighted of this government, the training centre is in a Conservative MPs area, I hope that he goes and sorts this out, why wouldnā€™t you train home students where the local hospital needs them on four year fast track doctor training courses.

  7. Cuibono
    January 14, 2023

    Next question.
    How much did that ā€œRetention Programmeā€ cost?
    One look at that would surely strengthen my resolve to leave!

  8. Philip P.
    January 14, 2023

    SJR, the answers to your parliamentary questions are utterly damning for NHS management. The scale of the resources the government says it has put in leaves no doubt that fault lies with managers, who are failing to use extra resources properly. The NHS always has a winter crisis but this one seems worse than ever.

    Unless of course demand for medical treatment has risen so enormously in recent years that the extra resources were never going to be enough. Perhaps we could hear more about the demand side.

    1. graham1946
      January 14, 2023

      Ten million extra in population in the last 20 years surely must have something to do with it. Traditionally population increases average around 50,000 per year I think, not half a million as now. No wonder nothing works properly. About time government spending was based per capita, not just percentages of GDP, or as lately ‘we’ve given X billions more’ with no idea how it is spent.

      1. hefner
        January 14, 2023

        The present UK birth rate is 11.3 per 1000 inhabitants (macrotrends.net ā€˜UK birth rate 1950 -2023ā€™) which for the present population of 68m would be 768,300 births. The current death rate (from same source) is 9.46 per 1000, which would make the instantaneous increase computed from these rates, 68 m x (11.30-9.46) = 125k. This does not account for in and out migration.

        1. Bill B.
          January 15, 2023

          Indeed it doesn’t! So your point was….?

          1. hefner
            January 16, 2023

            It wasnā€™t clear enough, is it? G46ā€™s 50,000 average annual population increase is way out. Sorry, I forgot that not everybody here is able to make an inference.

        2. graham1946
          January 15, 2023

          Govt population figs.
          1999 – 58.68 million
          2022 – 67.60 million
          So why are you doing all that stuff you quote? What is your point – none by the looks of it – just trying to look clever? You may be good with figures, but the conclusion is rubbish without all the facts.

          1. hefner
            January 16, 2023

            From your own figures the annual increase is (67.60-58.68) / 23= 0.387 m.

  9. agricola
    January 14, 2023

    Despite the recognition of a “Multitude of factors” affecting staff retention in the NHS they continue to leave. All this while the none medical staff seem to be expanding. It tells me that there is something fundamentally wrong with the construction of the NHS apart from failures in its parts. As I have said earlier, a model that was good in Nye Bevan’s time is not fit for purpose in 2023.

    1. a-tracy
      January 14, 2023

      15,000 extra doctors and nurses and 26,000 others (what do the ā€˜othersā€™ do?)

      1. Dave Andrews
        January 14, 2023

        Pile more bureaucracy on the doctors and nurses.

    2. Mickey Taking
      January 14, 2023

      Surely an ‘exit interview’ independently required should have blunt reason (tick all that apply) questions to be asked for data anlaysis by hospital, group, region and as a whole?

  10. Berkshire Alan
    January 14, 2023

    I find it amazing in this day and age where wage rates vary from one region to another, that the NHS has a national wage scale, albeit with a London bonus.
    I am given to understand the scale not only applies to front line nursing staff, but also administrators and office workers of all types, and of course managers.
    Thus it is a one for all policy, give the front line nurses a rise, and all the admin side on the same salary band get it as well.
    Perhaps time to separate out the front line salary salary bands, from the admin side just for a start..

    1. a-tracy
      January 14, 2023

      Alan, the admin side seems disproportionate and as it is mainly computerised now could a lot be centralised in a lower cost to hire area?
      Admin should be less than half the hires of front line workers including none clinical Management.

      1. Berkshire Alan
        January 14, 2023

        a tracy

        Agree absolutely, but then we need creative but sensible thinkers, how many Ā£ Billions were wasted on failed IT systems in the past.
        We also had a period of patient letters actually being typed out in India at one point, now ceased after a huge amount of mistakes.
        Amazing that it has taken a whole series of Governments and Government Ministers, 20 years to work out we need to train more of our own front line staff here in the UK.

        1. Mickey Taking
          January 15, 2023

          I’m confident most of the ‘failed IT systems’ were due to the following: mission creep where it was expected to produce miracles, constantly changing requirements before the previous set of demands was produced and tested, no stress testing to determine weak points in overload transactions, big bang it has to work expectation instead of stage proving gradually adding facilities. And finally inadequate team experience of developing systems, and weak test data to prove what works and what doesn’t. As a byproduct of all that lot costs will go through the roof.

  11. Iain Moore
    January 14, 2023

    Sorry off topic, but I have just heard on BBC R4 a segment where Nick Robinson and Alistair Campbell are campaigning for Labour and Starmer to roll back Brexit , in this case the BBC is using Khan’s foray into Brexit as a reason why Starmer should follow his example. It is clear, ever since the Tory party got rid of Johnson and Truss, the Remainer establishment have been on the move, making unsubstantiated claims about Brexit that haven’t been knocked back. The Remainers are being given a clear field to say what ever they like about Brexit without any counter from the Brexiteers, who have been complacent in their silence. The BBC are back to full on Remainer campaign mode, amongst other things why else would they put Soubry on Question Time?

    1. ChrisS
      January 14, 2023

      I heard this as well. As usual with the BBC, nobody was brought along to present the counter-argument.
      SImilarly with last week’s 09:00 am series on climate change.

    2. rose
      January 14, 2023

      The BBC Today Programme actually had two Labour spin doctors on this am to lie on its behalf about the effects of leaving the EU. Not a single lie from either of them – Campbell and Ayesha Hazarika – was challenged by Robinson.

  12. Bryan Harris
    January 14, 2023

    So the answer is ‘NO’ – clearly the people involved in the project don’t understand how a pay rise for individual effort and a realistic annual assessment can motivate staff. A shame they don’t have real experience of working in the private sector. Another opportunity lost.

    Motivation should come from the top, meaning that the NHS badly needs top class management that don’t take advantage of staff or impose upon their good will.

    Has Will Qunce and the others actually come up with any items they can apply?

  13. Cuibono
    January 14, 2023

    From The Long Term NHS Plan 2019 ( how much did that gobbledegook document cost?)

    ā€œOur National Health Service was founded in 1948 in place of fear – the fear that many people had of being unable to afford care for themselves and their families. And it was founded in a spirit of optimism – at a time of great uncertainty, coming shortly after the sacrifices of warā€¦.ā€

    So a Ā£260,000 salary and an ā€œaccountable to Parliamentā€ c Ā£3.3 billion per year has landed us in exactly the same position then?

    Except that lies are told regarding pre 1948 medical care.
    Oh how they LOVE the sacrifices we make in the situations entirely of their making!

  14. glen cullen
    January 14, 2023

    If the NHS paid staff on ā€˜bankā€™ or ā€˜agencyā€™ the same rate as permanent staff ā€¦.staff wouldnā€™t leave due to getting more pay for the same job elsewhere
    Stop all recruitment from agency and encourage full time permanent employment

    1. a-tracy
      January 14, 2023

      If I were a nurse Iā€™d do three days full-time and 1 to 2 days extra bank, much higher rates per hour because not a big a pension contribution, no employeeā€™s NI on the agency job and I wonder if Student loan could get put on that, probably not so a 21% tax saving on the overtime. It is a bit shortsighted pension wise but they want more money today and private agencies provide that.

      1. Berkshire Alan
        January 14, 2023

        a.tracy
        If anyone were really clued up they would do as you suggest, but then work full time for the last 3 years of their employment, as the NHS Pension is based on the average earnings over the last 3 years.
        At least that used to be the case, is that still the situation ?
        Hence few will ever tail off their employment and go part time before retiring, as you penalise yourself with a smaller pension.
        Many will wait to get the full pension entitlement, then apply to go back if they wish to keep on working.

  15. Cuibono
    January 14, 2023

    According to Andrew Gilligan the BMA ( Drsā€™ trade Union) has been infiltrated by the hard left. Go figure re strikes!
    Tories canā€™t say they werenā€™t warned. But would they listen? Not on your life!
    Maybe it is now a question of ā€œIf you canā€™t beat ā€˜emā€¦.join ā€˜em?

  16. a-tracy
    January 14, 2023

    Peter on here the other day made a good point about comparisons to the National Living Wage and Supermarkets having to keep the differential between that and their base offer, the NLW/NMW went up 6.6%/9.9% in 2022, this year in 2023 it is going up another near 10%, how can you only increase a grade 2 starter in the NHS (the starting grade for an unqualified healthcare assistant) by 4% and not expect the call for differentials to be kept. The call for 19% is just ridiculous and when inflation is discussed it was only from when it peaked at the end of the year and it is falling again.

    When you then increase grade 2, 3-7 want the same % otherwise their start pay at the start of each grade doesnā€™t match where it was last year.

  17. Ian B
    January 14, 2023

    The main problem for the NHS as it is for most things that Government should be managing. Once you get passed the fact there is no management just money thrown around here there and everywhere with no accountability or responsibility to deliver attached ā€“ all in hope that something sticks.

    Then from all endless speeches and pontifications when you consider what is said it is just huff, puff and a dream, there is never any management direction offered.

    Essential it is easier than the egotists think, anything that requires money from others (in this case the taxpayer) only works when the recipient of the money knows who their Customer is. The Customer is always the consumer of the service.

    The hard bit for the Central Group think of Government and the leaders of the NHS trusts in this instance, is they cannot recognise that everyone is different and that the one size fits all will never provide for the Customer. It gets simpler, the Staff are happier when their Customers are happy.

    The NHS needs to be broken down to be more localised, so it can better serve Customer needs. Then add in the element of the money chases the Customer. Having NHS Institutions for the most part being paid for just being there has corrupted everyone involved.

    1. graham1946
      January 15, 2023

      The NHS is already broken down into 220 Trusts, all duplicating each other’s work in the so called ‘internal market’ the Tories were so obsessed with. How much further should it be broken down to? If anything it needs a central buying agency with all the power the NHS has which would not result in such anomalies as things costing 5 times as much in one area as to another for rubber gloves or whatever.

  18. Ian B
    January 14, 2023

    Elsewhere today we learn the Office of Budget Responsibility was wrong yet again. The Treasury is now set for a big up-tick in tax receipts, today’s position puts it around Ā£11 billion they missed. Meaning the tax increases being forced on us were never needed.

    That is not to suggest we are out of the woods, but it does indicate that if the Government were to start doing its job, managing instead of refusing to manage and had a focus on creating money (the economy) and not finding new ways to remove money from the economy(taxes) ā€“ we would have been even further ahead.

    Iā€™m sort of reminded of the parable of the sponge ā€“ the Government walks on to the stage and ā€˜sucks all the energy and life from the audienceā€™.

    How many times does Sir John and the rest of the World have to keep repeating the words of a Left Wing President ā€˜Itā€™s the economy stupidā€™

  19. Original Richard
    January 14, 2023

    Itā€™s no wonder that doctors leave the NHS when theyā€™re treated so badly by the admin staff. As an example :

    A doctor arrives at 8am at a hospital car park on the first day of a new rotation to begin work at 08:30am. The car park attendant says they cannot park without a car park pass. The doctor goes into the hospital to request their pass only to be told car park passes are not allowed to be issued until 09:00am half an hour after their start time.

    Apparently this occurs every six months at this hospital when a new doctor arrives on rotation.

  20. XY
    January 14, 2023

    Another non-reply. Pointless legislation allowing you to ask a question when there’s nothing to monitor the quality of the answers – or non-answers.

    Ask a politician a question, they always answer another question.

    1. Lifelogic
      January 14, 2023

      Of 1st year junior doctors 25% leave year one, this usually after 5 or 6 years of training.

      1. a-tracy
        January 16, 2023

        How many of that 25% were foreign doctors were simply returning home? We do train international student doctors and don’t tie them into a number of years working for the NHS. Perhaps because they’re charged around Ā£28k per annum. Is Ā£168000 enough if they leave before foundation training?

  21. glen cullen
    January 14, 2023

    ā€˜Government says the public overwhelmingly supports the plastic ban this yearā€™, reports Sky News ā€¦.everyone Iā€™ve discussed it with thinks its pathetic and woke, and they know the three major sources for plastic pollution is the river deltas of north east of Africa, India and China
    Why is this government so against the people of the UK

    1. Original Richard
      January 14, 2023

      glen cullen : ā€œWhy is this government so against the people of the UKā€

      Not so much the government but our institutions who hold the real power ā€“ the civil service, the judiciary, the educational establishment, MSM, quangos, and institutions such as the NHS etc.. Parliament are but puppets.

      Not only are these institutions now working for themselves rather than the people they were set up to serve but by destroying the private sector with idiotic ideology such as Net Zero and continually expanding rules, regulations and their payroll to control us we and we will eventually run out of money ā€“ even printed money ā€“ and the result will be continuous decline if not a collapse.

      To quote Robert Conquestā€™s second and third laws of politics :

      – ā€œAny organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.ā€

      – ā€œThe simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.ā€

  22. turboterrier
    January 14, 2023

    How many of our nurses are from the military? The military have had to close their own hospitals due to cuts one would suppose. They have no choice but to stay on duty like it or lump it.
    I know of three NHS nurses, one a sister no longer working in the organisation.
    One of their biggest gripes was that 12 hour shift patterns are not compatible to family life especially with children and grandchildren. It is not beyond the realms of possibility to create split shift systems to tempt them back. Working the hours best suited to their family needs.

    1. glen cullen
      January 14, 2023

      That 12 hour continental or european shift pattern was brought into the NHS & Police under the Blair government and never repealed under any Tory governments ā€¦and is universally hated by all staff, its was brought about to make us more european centric

  23. turboterrier
    January 14, 2023

    The Retention Programme.
    How effective is it really and and what cost. Does it really take on board the comments and the cost to actually run it.
    I carried out a staff perception survey (because perception is all there really is ) for the chairman of the organisation asking the one question he wanted the answer to. ” what really pisses you off about working here for me and the company”? After 16 months and over 4500 interviews he got a clear understanding of what people wanted.
    The survey covered all levels of the structure. He loved it, his directors hated it every week at the feedback session. A lot of the concerns were dealt with quite easily once people applied real focus. No more turning up leaving your brain on the gate and setting auto pilot.

  24. Iain Gill
    January 14, 2023

    Rishi sending tanks to Ukraine is inviting world war 3, sheer madness.

  25. APL
    January 16, 2023

    Mr Redwood, would you kindly find out which Tory ( MP, Peer or whomever ) is running the company that block books British hotels for accommodation for Refugees.

    Currently, I believe there are nine thousand such people in hotel accommodation around the country. As you will no doubt be aware, some of these poor people are in the media complaining about the accommodation that they are being provided free at the British tax payers expense.

    Given that British people are having to make the decision, should they heat their home or buy food. Do you think this is a fair or just use of British tax payers money.

    How many more foreign countries is the British government going to invade, destroy, then volunteer ( not the MPs nor Political class, mind you ) to foot the bill for this insane policy ?

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