NHS waste - Again!

[Osem]

In a service apparently infested with managers and bean counters how can it be that this sort of thing is still happening?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33071066

The NHS in England could save £5bn a year with improved staff organisation and a better approach to purchasing, a review will say.

Lord Carter came to the conclusion after spending a year working with 22 hospitals on behalf of the government.

He found a wide variation in spending across medicines, everyday items and on facilities, such as heating.

He also identified huge inefficiencies in the way staff were managed, with one hospital losing £10,000 a month through workers claiming too much leave.

The report, which will be published in full later, will also say hospitals need to make better use of staff through flexible working and better rostering.

Meanwhile, better use of medicines could also have a substantial impact, the efficiency review said.

Lord Carter found one hospital had managed to save £40,000 a year by using non-soluble versions of a tablet for liver failure that cost 2p instead of the soluble versions at £1.50.

He also said major savings could be made on everyday items such as syringes and aprons with prices varying by as much as a third.

I seem to recall Gerry Robinson undertook a similar exercise some years ago and discovered a host of similar problems. Surely basic stuff like this shouldn't still be a problem within the NHS, even more so given all the pressure on budgets .

[Ramrod]

There is no incentive for staff to save money. They don't have a culture of cost saving either

[Osem]

I think that's a part of it but what are bean counters for if they're not counting beans? You'd have thought the prospect of cuts to jobs and services might make them see how important it is to implement what are relatively simple savings. If not that, then the concern for patient care we're always hearing about ought to encourage them to make every pound count. It's just ridiculous that so much money can routinely be wasted at a time like this and something needs to be done about it.

I'd like to think the results of this exercise are urgently being circulated throughout the NHS and that there'll be a corresponding decrease in such overspending/wastage but I wouldn't be at all surprised that the next investigation doesn't reveal more of the same.

If Tesco can dictate to farmers the price of milk because of their buying power ,I think the NHS with it's buying power should be able to get a box of plasters the same price across all of it's hospitals .

Another thing is the waste in paperwork ,.When I get notified of treatment dates for my arthritis I really don't need it translating into 6 different languages and I also don't need the expensive looking booklet explaining outpatient procedure everytime I get an appointment

[Osem]

Yes, that's got to be one of the problems with the current system - numerous little and not so little trusts all buying stuff from all sorts of sources and not benefitting from the purchasing power the NHS as a whole could command. I can see it makes sense for certain goods and services to be sourced locally but wouldn't it be more cost effective to purchase the numerous basic consumable items centrally? Of course I'm presuming that those responsible for central purchasing would be a lot more financially astute than those who've been wasting money so blatantly but maybe that's too big a presumption...

[heero_yuy]

It's not just the NHS. This sort of nonsense is endemic across every branch of government national and local. There's just no incentive to save OUR money.

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

It's not just the NHS. This sort of nonsense is endemic across every branch of government national and local. There's just no incentive to save OUR money.

That's right ,local authorities are notorious for it as is the DoD .I think it's sad though that whenever cuts have to be made efficiency and buying costs are the last thing to be looked at,it always seems to be the easier option to cut jobs

[Osem]

You're right of course, it's not exclusive to the NHS. It's just that with the NHS in particular, when you consider the consequences it's even less comprehensible. How can anyone who really cares about the NHS not care about so much money be wasted?

I wonder what, if anything, happened to those responsible for failing to check the price of alternative drugs...

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

There is no incentive for staff to save money. They don't have a culture of cost saving either

This. /\ /\

[Osem]

It's odd that those spokespeople who regularly bang on about cuts, pressure on services etc. etc. seem to be making much fuss about this. Perhaps it's only external pressures they worry about.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by martyh

If Tesco can dictate to farmers the price of milk because of their buying power ,I think the NHS with it's buying power should be able to get a box of plasters the same price across all of it's hospitals .

And this. /\ /\

[arcimedes]

Originally Posted by martyh

If Tesco can dictate to farmers the price of milk because of their buying power ,I think the NHS with it's buying power should be able to get a box of plasters the same price across all of it's hospitals .

Dare one mention the unmentionable. Privatisation

There is no incentive to save.

[Ignitionnet]

Great to see that the billions spent on top-down reorganisation in the last parliament were so worthwhile.

For all the bluster the NHS still have to fight through a sea of red tape to get their jobs done.

I would speculate that many of these issues come down to the organisation of the NHS as a whole, and would like to see how the government will assist the NHS in resolving them.

---------- Post added at 10:13 ---------- Previous post was at 10:12 ----------

Originally Posted by arcimedes

Dare one mention the unmentionable. Privatisation

I refer the gentleman to the costs of healthcare in the USA alongside the debatable benefits of partial privatisation as we have now and suggest it would be a bad idea.

We do need private money in our healthcare system, but perhaps not so much in the NHS.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by arcimedes

Dare one mention the unmentionable. Privatisation

There is no incentive to save.

In my experience, privatisation is the reason behind a lot of the wastage. Certainly when I was working for our local hospital, I raised queries about a *lot* of our contracts when I found we were paying way over the odds for some stuff (e.g. our greengrocer was charging enough that it would have been cheaper to send a member of staff or two over to Sainsburys to get the vegetables every day).

I don't have anything against privatisation as such, but there do need to be adequate controls in place to prevent abuse on both sides, and the government need to take a tougher line when negotiating the contracts. The contracts I've seen define how the government department will behave quite tightly (as they should), but the contractors are often allowed to do pretty much what they want.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I agree totally with Stuart.

I am certain if local hospitals dealt with local farmers, or allotments in there area. They could get a lot of stuff cheaper.

I do know of an allotment in London does have a deal with a local hospital to supply Vegetables etc. and give them a good price - and there are no jumping the queue deals either