Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

The NHS is facing a sustained squeeze. An ageing population, the rising cost of new treatments and increasing patient demand on the one hand, and the impact of continued austerity on the other. What can it do?One answer might lie in improving productivity. In the first of two programmes on the NHS, Louise Cooper explores its productivity puzzle. What does increased productivity look like in the health service? She meets clinicians, across the country, who are trying to do more for less. Can their efforts be replicated across the NHS? And, if so, will it ever be enough?
Presenter: Louise Cooper
Producer: Rosamund Jones.…


Doing more for less is something I am familier with the trust I work for sometimes only has two HCAs on for a ward of 26 people , getting them up fed,washed,dressed and out,and the patients sometimes have dementia as well as there are not enough beds in mental health units for them.

Lots of trusts such as University NHS trusts get one pot of money a year from the government and no more if they run out, efficiencies in these trusts as nearly reaching optimum level believe me.

We as the article says are already doing our best to do more for much less.

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Now on the appoointments and agency nursesI think you have a fair point.

But agency Nurses are only needed as they cannot fill nursing roles in many trusts.

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

I also think there's a big problem with unnecessary testing. Both myself and a near neighbour were treated at the same hospital and after having been assessed for surgery were told at the last minute that we needed to have MRI scans. There'd been no change to our conditions and neither scan revealed anything the quacks didn't already know but would have cost the NHS hundreds no doubt. Were they done for the sake of it or to avoid missing targets or was it just a case of excessive caution? I think we're getting to the point of overkill when it comes to certain tests and whatever the reason for it, unnecessary and duplicated tests cost a lot of money.

Yes of course clinical judgement is a factor and qualified people are required to make judgements but I have a feeling fear of litigation is a factor in this also and is imposing huge direct and indirect costs on the NHS.

What needs to happen is not spending more money all the time, it's ensuring we get value for the money we spend and avoiding the situation in which costly hospital beds are blocked up because a form filler somewhere didn't get around to ordering a basic household aid in good time. Saving pennies but costing pounds comes to mind in NHS land.

Reforming social care would go a long way to easing the NHS's problems but unless the fundamentals change that problem will just be replaced by another.

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

Great post .

And your right trusts have a great fear of "Blames r us Lawyers" .

Also bed blocking is rife in some areas as social care packages need to be arranged via county councils,and money is tight there too.

Yes the fundamemtals need to change as do our reluctance to finance social care properly.

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

Many of my Nursing friends and their mates have left the NHS to become Agency Nurses. Better pay, fewer hours, more scope to choose when you want time off.

And the trend was going to continue until Nursing Bursaries were stopped. Now many are paying their way to train, then going directly to the private sector.

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

They get better pay and the agency makes loads of money on top - it's a double whammy for the NHS which winds up paying more for the same staff. :shrug:

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

Yes its pretty much what is happening .

The agencies pay better rates with the 7 year virtual freeze on NHS wages thanks go to Jeremy hunt for that guess what we call him.

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It does but as OLD Boy told me earlier the private sector which most agencies are saves the NHS cash.!

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

The thing is 'private' is no more inherently bad than 'public' - they both have their shortcomings and I just wish we could find a middle way.

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

Ok that's fair enough.

But what I can say is this a staff Nurse who is skilled earns about £34000 a year a train driver who is also skilled gets £52000 a year.

When it comes to skilled NHS staff there is a market we have had staff go to Saudi Arabia ,and Australia both countries have regular jobs fairs here.

Hunts 1% pay rises mean more are choosing to work privately or go elsewhere.

Those that do not work in the NHS and only repeat what they hear not you don't help ,the reality is for a lot of us these days its a real graft to fill in the missing gaps.:)

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

Actually these are the pay scales

https://www.rcn.org.uk/employment-an...scales-2017-18

Staff nurses top pay is just over 28k and a junior sister gets around 35k while the ward managers are around 41k

It does take around 7/8 years to get to this top pay band

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

Guess who managed to keep his job in the so called reshuffle today? :rolleyes:. Doing a wonderful job obviously ! A nurses strike is his next little problem.

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

I don't disagree at all about the relative values or the desire to earn more pay - we'd all do that. That doesn't however alter the fact that it places the NHS under even greater strain and it's the taxpayer who foots the bill.

There are plenty of public sector and private sector workers who deserve more than they get but who's going to pay for it and what impact will that have on costs in the case of the NHS and prices in the case of for example, retail staff?

Just for information my eldest son has just been offered his first job in teaching from September. He could have done something else and quite probably earned more but he hasn't chosen to do so, he's also in debt to the tune of over £25k as a result of his choice to pursue that chosen career. If we're going to pay everyone what we think they deserve and pay for their training, we'd better accept we're going to have to pay a lot more in tax and prices because an awful lot of people deserve more than they get. Who's going to vote for that?

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

Agreed. We can't have our cake and eat it and credit to any party that acknowledges this.

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

Pesky facts

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

Facts?:confused:

Re: The Naylor Report... selling NHS assets ASAP
 

Er, no, I didn't say that! I said the private sector was able to make a profit from running things more efficiently, and there is plenty of scope for that in the NHS.

The use of agency staff is itself inefficient when used to the extent that it is, and you can hardly blame the private sector for capitalising on that.

Instead of demonising the private sector, we should use it as appropriate where it is best to do so. It shouldn't matter whether any service is provided by the public or private sector, as long as it achieves value for money.

Unfortunately, the Labour Party has this ideological view that if people have to go on a waiting list to be treated by NHS doctors, then so be it, even though they could be treated more quickly if they used private sector provision. That's just nuts! As long as the patient isn't paying more for the privilege, why should it even matter?