Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP (Wokingham) (Con): Does the right hon. Member agree with me that if you wish to improve service you do not go on strike and if you wish to pay for higher wages you do not go on strike? Will he give that advice to the rail unions?
Pat McFadden, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Lab): I had anticipated one or two interventions on strikes, so let me say to the right hon. Gentleman that whoeverâs responsibility the strikes are, it is certainly not that of a party that has been in opposition for 12 years. He and the Ministers he supports will have to take responsibility for the industrial strife they are presiding over. I say that to him in the anticipation of other interventions in the same vein.
…
Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP (Wokingham) (Con): When I asked representatives of the Health Department how many chief executives there were in NHS England, they said that they did not know. Has my right hon. Friend had any more success than I have in finding out how much senior management there is, how it is aligned with the interests of patients and how wisely it is going to spend the extra money he is giving it?
Simon Clarke, Chief Secretary to the Treasury: My right hon. Friend is right to say that with this budget for the NHS comes a responsibility for that organisation to be absolutely open and candidâin a way that, frankly, it has too often not beenâabout where its resources are deployed, and certainly to avoid funding a culture of managerialism at the expense of the patients. We have had recent success in securing some of the data that we have been looking for, but this is a subject where ongoing pressure from across the House for greater transparency is welcome. Certainly if there is any data that we hold that my right hon. Friend would like to see, I will do my best to facilitate that.
July 2, 2022
Good morning.
So they don’t know who is on the payroll ? Tell me how many business operate like that ?
If ever there was a sign of such mismanagement, and there is plenty of competition, then that is it.
In the Private Sector, you either live or die. In the State Sector you just go on and on with the begging bowl outstretched, using opposition MP’s, unions and the media to extract more cash to paper over the endless cracks and keep the monopoly wheels turning.
We really have to start to call this out and to find better ways of doing things.
July 2, 2022
I think you have been very restrained in your comments. It blank blank blank beggars belief that Ministers have been doling out egregious amounts of money with zero understanding of the organisation it is going to.
It proves that both Ministers and their civil servants are totally unfit for the jobs they do.
Note the answer, if I get any more information. Bloody well go and find it.
And in a similar vein the Government had been protecting the useless Cressida Dick for years despite scandal after scandal. The Met has now been put in special measures. Another example of HMG accepting awful service to protect the person at the top and we see it wherever we look.
A blog topic for you Sir JR. Why does Government fail to hold senior management to account?
July 2, 2022
ever heard of ‘old pals, or friends of pals’? – that;s why ‘cos!
July 6, 2022
Oh come on, I can’t name names of course but the creeping which goes on to senior management and the voiced expectation that if certain individuals invite large managed managerial contracts into places of work then they will maintain or newly behold senior clinical positions is embarrassing .The clinicians themselves are usually not particularly good but bring everyone down and have loud bullying voices.
July 2, 2022
There is no automatic âcorrectionâ system in the public sector. In the private sector you can go bust. In the public sector failing organisations are assumed to have not a high enough budget. A massive downsizing of the public sector is well overdue.
July 2, 2022
So what does Sir John recommend that people whose wages have stagnated in numbers since 2008 but have also been very seriously eroded by inflation should do, then?
July 2, 2022
9% to teachers. Tories giving way now to their friends in the collectivist public sector while threatening private sector companies. An utterly captured party by the Neo-Marxist thugs and that in itself is a huge threat to all of us
July 2, 2022
Dom, exactly the private sector forced to take the higher taxation burdens, nest as well as the extra employerâs ni, whilst telling us to keep restraint on prices and pay, then bunging the public sector massive increases. Itâs all going to end in tears.
July 2, 2022
+1
We are being turned communist replete with political correction, newspeak and thought police.
The Tories are toast at the next general election. By then the Lockdown debts and Boomerang Sanctions/Military spend (Ukraine) will have made living so difficult in this country that “Labour would be worse” simply won’t work anymore.
Labour couldn’t possibly be worse. Lockdown was a huge HUGE mistake, demanded by communists and extended waaay beyond the few weeks it should have been tried. ÂŁ410 bn down the drain and climbing.
Never again.
July 2, 2022
Sensible rail employees dissatisfied with their pay or conditions are free to make better choices elsewhere in the market. Some might attract employers with any values their skills provide to paying users of such services.
Striking to obstruct and hamper paying customers destroys the value of all.
âInadequate payâ is the symptom causing their headache. More pay to buy paracetamol is no solution. Rail workers should deal with the cause, and stop Striking themselves on the head with a hammer.
July 2, 2022
The NHS is too big and clumsy to untangle its own muddle. The User pays anyway. Their bill arrives as a tax demand instead of an invoice earlier.
It would be simpler to allow each person a budget, to buy whatever health services they need. This could be balanced with a bonus for those who keep themselves healthy, added to their pension.
July 2, 2022
The NHS must be broken up into businesses, which may or may not be funded by Government with a Board representative being accountable for communication to Cabinet. Likely separation includes but not limited to : Hearing, Vision, Communicable diseases, Mobility, Dentistry, Children say under 11, Youths under 17, Cancer, Heart, Lungs…..it will take time but this root and branch division is required and accountability restored for the service user.
July 2, 2022
Worry about productivity does not afflict Chief Secretary I note, there using 119 words when he could just have said “no”.
Whilst Mr. McFadden is not responsible for the strikes (some being undertaken with encouragement from his Labour colleagues) he presumably aspires to have the responsibility of government so why cannot he give answers to your questions? His anticipatory prowess did not run to that, clearly, but can he not think on his feet?
July 2, 2022
Do we laugh or cry? The Minister “in charge” of the NHS who can’t find out how many Chief Execs it has essentially admits defeat. Why bother having a Minister, if he’s just an apologist for the NHS management?
The government is full of rot.
July 2, 2022
Doesn’t the Minister have a large staff, who one would reasonably imagine, has contacts with all Chief Execs?
And if not WHY NOT?
July 6, 2022
Oh come on, I can’t name names of course but the creeping which goes on to senior management and the voiced expectation that if certain individuals invite large managed managerial contracts into places of work then they will maintain or newly behold senior clinical positions is embarrassing .The clinicians themselves are usually not particularly good but bring everyone down and have loud bullying voices.
I was shocked to work for a well known private firm for a very short time where cheeky young girls were reading individual problems off a script with heartless intervention and rudeness to their fellow employees. It was just one huge management structure and a way to obtain money.
We mustn’t break services up into little pieces as the human being is a whole physiological process where one system impacts upon another. We must look at the whole and teach practitioners again to look at the whole. Referrals from one speciality to another is not cost effective , is time consuming and not good quality care. By all means maintain any one specialist in any category to investigate and act further , but the generalist sees the whole picture.
July 2, 2022
Donât put any trust in statistics as the quote âlies, damn lies and statisticsâ tells us.
I was recently referred by my doctor to see an NHS consultant. The referral letter gave me a list of several hospitals I could go to. I went through the list and not one of them was accepting new appointments. Where does this leave me? Certainly not on the NHS waiting list statistics. How many others are in the same position?
Of course, if I was an illegal immigrant with my own NHS and dentist facility I would go to the top of the list but Iâm just a British taxpayer so I have to wait. This country disgusts me, this government disgusts me.
July 2, 2022
I suggest you identify the Senior Consultant for the relevant speciality at your local Trust main hospital, make certain he was trained in this country, then make an appointment to see him privately for an initial consultation. You may be pleasantly surprised that you will then be fast-tracked to see either him or a member of his team in addressing your issue.
July 2, 2022
According to The Kings’ Fund, there are 219 NHS Trusts in NHS England, including 10 Ambulance Trusts. That would mean there is a minimum of 219 Chief Executives.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury could have Googled that on his phone while you were asking your question, Sir John.
Reply Yes I know but there are very many other quangos in the NHS I want the numbers on.
July 2, 2022
reply to reply ….so we can ask for them to be closed down?