Turn all the lights on and off every 2 seconds, it'll save ££££££££££££££s
I've worked in the NHS on a few contracts in my time - quite often covering for people who were on long term sick leave, would come back to work for the requisite amount of time to keep their job, and then go back on long term sick leave again.
In the administrative and managerial ranks there is a lot of p*** taking and very little done to address poor performance at work.
Re-use needles~ that'd reduce the number of useless pricks
Ok I cant comment on all NHS Trust. But certainly the one I work for has made huge cuts in Management & Admin. As I have said above, clinicians are say this has gone too far, and is effecting their clinical roles.
Danny B sorry your figures are way out.
Private industry has a huge part to play in NHS. Having worked in private industry and the NHS, and know for a fact that companies that deal with the NHS, on the whole try to exploit it as much as they can.
The NHS needs to think more commercially and operate a bit like an iPad app (bear with me here)
Service is free at delivery but you can buy extras (like in app purchases)
In A&E? - You can wait in the waiting room for free or access a lounge with WiFi, coffee and newspapers for £5 p/h
Getting some surgery on you stomach for free? - get liposuction done for an extra £500
Broken collar bone? - get it repaired for free or replaced with a pimped titanium one engraved with your initials for £600
Staying on a ward? - hotel room service inc meals etc for £50 per day.
Painkillers? - Average ones for free, good ones pay extra
Okay some more serious than others but there are a few there that I would pay for.
Frank, thats because your a rich middle class person.
The average person who uses Acute services is not rich and can not pay for those things.
Besides which, there are strict rules about how much private income you can generate
On a more serious note, accountable management backed up by robust policies would go a long way to addressing poor performance and attendance. There are too many average people working in the public sector.
Total cost of the NHS in Scotland is just over £10Bn. Total drugs cost (in- and out-patients) is just over £1Bn of which around 90% are prescribed by GPs. Around 90% of prescriptions would be provided free in any case as they are in England (children, elderly etc). So the saving would be around 1% of the total budget???franksinatra - Member - Quote
I would do away with free prescriptions here in Scotland. I can afford to pay for mine, if I couldn't then I would probably be exempt anyway. That would be a huge saving.
Not to be sniffed at but not a "huge" saving and you'd also need to factor in the cost of administration and the fact that some folk still wouldn't pay and could end up needing more (costly) care.
I was only semi serious Funky.
I used to sell to the NHS, in two different roles. In each role I was able to take the piss and charge far more than any private, commercial organisation would pay.
Trusts need to think much more commercially and ensure that the non clinical side is managed by people with real world, commercial experience.
As someone said: Saturday night drunks should be charged. Cash or up before the beak might work? And add in a sliding scale - twice as much next time.
Around 90% of prescriptions would be provided free as they are in England (children, elderly etc)
Crikey, I'm surprised it is that much. Fair enough then, I cannot fix the NHS.
[quote=franksinatra ]> Around 90% of prescriptions would be provided free as they are in England (children, elderly etc)
Crikey, I'm surprised it is that much.
So was I 😯
Look into his eyes...he really meant it:
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I would urge anyone thinking of voting Conservative at the next election to think very carefully if they would like the NHS to continue exist before marking that X.
On a more serious note, accountable management backed up by robust policies would go a long way to addressing poor performance and attendance. There are too many average people working in the public sector.
I agree with this to some extent. I have worked in top FTSE 25 companies, with some excellent staff, some with way less than average staff. Overall I do not think the mix good/poor is the same in private or public.
However people cant have their cake and eat it. If you want to attract good people to the NHS, you need to pay them good money, but yet everyone on here is saying get rid of expensive managers...
I have worked for 2 NHS organisations. One had too many senior managers who were quite frankly not great, the current Trust I work for has some of the most competent staff I have ever worked with (Private or Public)
I do agree though, the NHS has a great problem with getting rid of incompetent staff (managerial or clinical)
[quote=Papa_Lazarou ]Look into his eyes...he really meant it:
I would urge anyone thinking of voting Conservative at the next election to think very carefully if they would like the NHS to continue exist before marking that X.
Given that Ed Balls has already committed to following Tory policy on everything else, would you like to alter that statement?
Oh and how to save money = GET RID OF TRAIL CENTRES 🙂
This certainly has had an inpact on the number of people needing acute care.
I used to sell to the NHS, in two different roles. In each role I was able to take the piss and charge far more than any private, commercial organisation would pay.Trusts need to think much more commercially and ensure that the non clinical side is managed by people with real world, commercial experience.
This ^^^ . The NHS paying to use their own pharmacies seems a bit barking mad to me....
anything cosmetic.
cut doctors salaries they are a huge expense, do they [i]need[/i] 100K + topped up with private work?
rationalise the management structure. bound to be plenty of savings there
manage third party contracts better with better value for money.
create a 'show back' model. Inform the patient of how much they cost the NHS every time they use it. (don't actually charge it though)... maybe ask for a % contribution, but not mandatory, plenty could afford something
I've never been entirely sure why as someone who can afford to pay for my own food when not damaged I can expect to be fed for free when in hospital. Charge those of us not on benefits for food and board when having a little stay. Probably make square route of f all difference though.
Hypochondriac tax at the GPs? My FIL would be broke if that was brought in!
I would urge anyone thinking of voting Conservative at the next election to think very carefully if they would like the NHS to continue exist before marking that X.
I'd withdraw treatment to Conservative Voters. They can't see beyond their own immediate needs (and consider themselves self-made anyway) so they'll have no cause to complain. Until its too late. And then nobody will be listening. Anyway - that should reduce the burden on the NHS by 1/6th. Is that enough or do we need to cut more?
Cut interpreters and benefit tourists
cut doctors salaries they are a huge expense, do they need 100K + topped up with private work?
An average doctor salary is no where near £100k. Only top consultants earn around the £100k mark, and thats when they have been in post for some years. Besides which they work stupid hours so pro rata it wont be anything like that high. What does private work have to do with it?
As above pay them less, but expect to only attract lower quality doctors.
Cut interpreters and benefit tourists
Yup. Britain poaches medical staff from poor third world countries to treat British people who can speak English, not foreign types. Cheeky gits.
oh - and maybe make suing hospitals a lot harder or find another way to reduce arse covering paperwork the poor doctors have to do. This winter I got to spend the night and day in a ward because they though I might have meningitis. I was placed opposite the doctors work station and I got 24hrs of watching what they did. They were on it the whole time, no pauses for internet forum faffery ( 😉 ) but soooooo much paperwork. You should have seen the number of bits of paper that needed to be filled in for my lumber puncture. The registrar who did it reckoned he spent 40mins out of every hour doing the paperwork and only 20mins doing proper doctoring.
) Patient comes in to hospital with some strips of pills - some of them complete. All these are put in the bin and replacements prescribed. They come to leave - any unused medication is binned and replacements prescribed to take home. Costs a fortune in binned drugs.
None of trusts around here do that. There's even a been a big push over recent years to encourage patients to bring their own meds in and it's one the questions ambulance crews ask "Have you got your meds?".
There did seem to be a common misconception that this was the case but very very few people believe that now thanks to educating them with those pointless leaflets.
An average doctor salary is no where near £100k. Only top consultants earn around the £100k mark, and thats when they have been in post for some years. Besides which they work stupid hours so pro rata it wont be anything like that high. What does private work have to do with it?
Having had this discussion with my doctor mate he said in just his area of a hospital there were 52 consultants. All earning more than £100k. Across the entire hospital the wage bill is huge. Once you get to a certain salary point, the extra cash is not needed...maybe they just buy one less rolex a year? He is 33 looking for his consultant post, and can;t get one, not because the role isn't needed but because the hospital can't afford to pay for another consultant.
Cuts need to come from somewhere. I'd suggest from those who have the highest income / best earning potential (they can top up with private work, not so easy for support staff to do this)
As scotroutes has said, what exactly will the difference be???? I've been shafted by them both over the years!I would urge anyone thinking of voting Conservative at the next election to think very carefully if they would like the NHS to continue exist before marking that X.
As has been said ^^ and contrary to what funcydunc says, it is not a cut in services but a cut in management which is required. If anyone denies there has been a huge amount of managerial 'empire building' over the years, they have their heads well and truly buried in the sand. Cut out the people who's sole purpose is to devise, set, impliment and monitor targets (which change seemingly daily and serve little purpose other than to appease gullible voters and satisfy knee jerk reactions) and we will go some way to getting back to the core 'business' of treating the sick.
I've been shafted by them both over the years!
Both what ......the Tories in the Conservative Party [i]and[/i] the Tories in New Labour ?
If only we had a multiparty parliamentary system, eh ?
Conservatives are more ruthless though Woody having been in long enough to run through them twice.
I'd withdraw treatment to Conservative Voters. They can't see beyond their own immediate needs
^^^this.
Would Labour be any better than the Tories? Well they wouldn't put someone like Andrew Lansley in charge, who used to be on the payroll of one of the major private healthcare providers who went on to get major NHS contracts as it was carved off.
Are you seriously thinking the Tory party have the healthcare of the nation as a greater concern than carving up what they ideologically consider a beacon of socialism for the benefit of their big donor private healthcare buddies?
No matter how good your private medical cover, there are certain parts of the NHS used by everyone, eg: A&E, for which there are no private alternatives.
Just look at the above poster – they promised not to cut the NHS and have done just that.
[b]You can’t trust the Tories with the NHS.[/b]
I think we need to accept we need to pay more to get a better service
I would also cap payments for the top paid staff and also to the pharma companies
If you want to get really shitty force folk to actually diet and exercise to get treatment - ie actually follow doctors orders
Not really sure who we compel healthy living tbh
Of course the Tories hate the NHS and see it as socialist - I really dont get it why they accept compulsory education but not healthcare. Dont they realise they need a reasonably well educated and reasonably educated population in order to exploit their labour for profit?
No point appealing to their sense of morality is there
Cut out the people who's sole purpose is to devise, set, impliment and monitor targets (which change seemingly daily and serve little purpose other than to appease gullible voters and satisfy knee jerk reactions) and we will go some way to getting back to the core 'business' of treating the sick.
and then very quickly run out of money to continue treating the sick. Many targets nowadays are based around affordability of service delivery.
Mrs S is a doctor. She earns every penny fairly. For many years she worked for not much more than minimum wage when her hours were taken into account. As a GP, she works incredibly hard, her decisions carry a lot of risk and it has taken her a lot of years, many sacrifices and hard graft to get to this stage of her career.
One economic theory states that in most cases big salaries are earned by people who have to make decisions that other people do not want to make. Doctors regularly make decisions which can have a dramatic impact on people lives, hence high salaries
Thing is, a lot of the things that improve clinical outcomes are *really* unpopular
like closing small local A&E departments and concentrating resources in dedicated trauma units has been!
My suggestion would be to see local 'minor injuries' and 'walk in' units colocated with permanent General practitioner cover on a duty roster (instead of having out of hours doctors wasting their time driving around) and open from 8am till say 10pm daily - that would take a lot of the pressure off the trauma units and the 'I've got a headache' as they would be referred there by 111 instead of ambulance
Homeopathy should definitely be available on the NHS if it's been demonstrated to have a placebo effect.
But the practitioners should only be paid £0.01 for each patient.
Yup. Britain poaches medical staff from poor third world countries to treat British people who can speak English, not foreign types. Cheeky gits.
Whoops, upset ernie, I better tell my wife (nurse) she's wrong.
I'll keep quiet and read my Daily Mail
the average GP salary is £57 k and the average partner rate is £100k
the former is fine the later is not
I am sure she has worked hard to get where she is today
Of course the Tories hate the NHS and see it as socialist
Not necessarily imo. Certainly free-market fundamentalists such as Liam Fox have a serious issue with state provided universal healthcare, but plenty see the benefit of a system which has provided effective healthcare to Britain's workforce for almost 70 years. A sick workforce or the increases in wages that would be required to cover the costs of much less cost effective private healthcare has little appeal to them. The problem is that as the British electorate, or more precisely the English electorate, has gradually shifted to the right in recent decades a simular shift to the right has occurred in the three main political parties. In the case of the Conservative Party this has meant that the free-market fundamentalists now have considerable power.
Mrs S is a doctor. She earns every penny fairly.
Compared to, say, a banker, I'm sure she does and she may well be one of the many highly competent, conscientious GP's who work hard in their profession. Unfortunately, I've met quite a few who do not fit any of those categories.
the average GP salary is £57 k and the average partner rate is £100k
the former is fine the later is not
Very subjective though. Not sure how may people you will find studying for that long, sitting literally hundreds of exams, working 80 - 90 hour weeks and shouldering immense of responsibility if the end result is £57k.
sm - MemberI better tell my wife (nurse) she's wrong.
Your wife is a nurse ? You should have said so .........I can't imagine how you could possibly be wrong.
firstly treat it like a business not a giveaway at the fairground..
they can keep a supermarket open 24hrs 7 days a week yet the nhs cant keep anything available 24hrs..
the staff work mon fri 9-5 knock that so its everything available 12 hours a day 7 days a week.. reduce waiting times/lists (my last heart consulatant only let people go home on tuesdays and fridays..) xrays not available after 3pm..
staff should be the example of what good looks like.. no more chubbers bursting out of uniform
build hospitals that are physicall the same why do they have to look like guggenhiem museums save lives not pay archtects..
Compared to, say, a banker, I'm sure she does and she may well be one of the many highly competent, conscientious GP's who work hard in their profession. Unfortunately, I've met quite a few who do not fit any of those categories.
Agreed, and that goes back to my earlier point about effective managers backed up by robust policies to ensure they can, and do, get rid of crap staff.
GP's are a bit of an anomaly though and they seem to receive relatively little professional scrutiny of their standards. To receive a salary like that, they should have to be able to prove their standards are excellent.
I dont think that GP's do it for the money or that any Dr does and if they do they should probably leave the profession - not a dig at your wife at all in case it reads like that.
Yes it is hard work for those who do it
maccruiskeen - Member
I'd withdraw treatment to Conservative Voters. They can't see beyond their own immediate needs (and consider themselves self-made anyway) so they'll have no cause to complain. Until its too late. And then nobody will be listening. Anyway - that should reduce the burden on the NHS by 1/6th. Is that enough or do we need to cut more?
If they're self made then surely they can be self repairing too? 😀