The English NHS is in a mess and it has little to do with over worked
and under staffed front line operations and a lot to do with political
ignorance, vested interests (medical and Westminster) and ineffective
management from the Department of Health downwards.
There is no understanding by politicians or NHS management on how best
to meet patients needs and expectations - their focus is always on their own wants
of all sorts. I may want specialist treatment in my local hospital but
what I need as a patient is care from a properly trained care team who
have not just had to work 72 hours on the trot becuase of a shortage of
'Agency' staff. My expectation as a patient is I will be appropriately
cared for within the context of my condition or illness which will be palliative or resolved.
How do I know this?
Because I worked from 1996 to 2005, mainly within the English NHS, dealing with shit storms caused by the simple fact that patients needs and expectations were not being met. So much money paid out by the NHS on the back of complaints and litigation could have stayed within the system if NHS management and politicians would understand patient's actual needs and expectations of the NHS are clear and achievable rather than creating self justifiable political wants as patient needs.
Because I worked from 1996 to 2005, mainly within the English NHS, dealing with shit storms caused by the simple fact that patients needs and expectations were not being met. So much money paid out by the NHS on the back of complaints and litigation could have stayed within the system if NHS management and politicians would understand patient's actual needs and expectations of the NHS are clear and achievable rather than creating self justifiable political wants as patient needs.
NHS PFI is the biggest most costly failure for
the NHS in meeting patients needs simply because its has no cohesion
with so many responsibility splits between Trusts and the PFI
contractors.
Folk complain of dirty wards and suggest that nurses should clean them
up, change beds, wash patients. Under a PFI contract the auxiliaries who
change beds and clean patients may well be employed by the PFI
contractor and if nurses undertake these operations they will face a
disciplinary hearing. Likewise ward cleaning in PFI hospitals, this will
be a sub contractor, on tight margins, training the minimum of his
staff to deal with hazardous spills (blood, urine etc). This is why
wards look 'dirty' because if one member of the cleaning staff throws a 'sicky'
wards will not be cleaned that day. If it is one of the Hazardous spill
cleaners blood could lie upwards of two hours before being dealt with.
A
nurse may well see a cleaner is not cleaning the ward as they think it
should be but to lodge a complaint means a whole load of extra paperwork, a
visit to a line manager which will take them away from an already over
stretched ward team and end up with nothing changing because it is a
different cleaner the following week.
This is NHS England and the politically lead lunacy that is wrecking it.
Is it any surprise that third year student nurses left on their own
because of staff shortages or money saving rotas make mistakes in a
system that is designed to kill their enthusiasm stone dead? Is it any
suprise they end up cynical and bitter by their mid twenties? The nurses
and junior doctors are trapped in a managed system that does not give a
'shit' about them or their patients - it is enough to demoralise any
one.
The problems with NHS England start in 10 Downing Street and all the
privatisation in the world is not going to change that.
This is the future for NHS Scotland if the 'No' vote wins in 2014. A public health care system worse than the USA with equally as big inequality in care.
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