Monday 3 November 2014

It's Far Worse Than That, Mr Allnut...

After the inquest her father Richard Allnutt, 61, a site manager, accused the NHS of only working a five day week and said the family was considering legal action.
Not so surprising. I remember when my father was in hospital, and a 'temporary' drip, only meant to be used for a couple of days, was left in too long & his arm swelled up like a balloon.

Not that any of the nurses noticed or took any action, until we complained.

As Al Jahom notes, the NHS is failing badly, but I'm not so sure about this:
"I’m sure those at the coalface are (generally) doing their best, but what a crock of shit the wider organisation is."
You see, you cannot blame everything on policy, or bad senior leadership team management. At some point, you have to look at the people on the spot.

If they are failing, it's quite often because they are the wrong people, and not because they are good people who are badly managed.

5 comments:

Antisthenes said...

An organisation is only as good as the system and the people employed by it and how good those elements are are depend on those who manage. If those who manage get one or both wrong then that organisation ends up dysfunctional and not fit for purpose. However what makes for good management is having the right environment and conditions that motivates them to manage well. The NHS is one organisation that does not have the right environment or conditions so will never have a system or employees that are geared to work for what is in their clients(patients) best interests. It will in fact cater primarily for the needs of those providing the service above those who receive it.

Of course we know why this state of affairs exists not just in the NHS but all other public sector providers is because it and they are monopolies and have no profit motive. Until both those things are reversed then the NHS will go from bad to worse.

Anonymous said...

Attitudes at the bottom are formed by those at the top ie salaries, pension and greasy pole are the chief focus, patient care is an inconvenient coincidental. Only prosecutions, firing minus pensions and payoffs and in extreme cases a hanging will make any difference to an organisation as bloated and selfserving as the NHS.

Anonymous said...

Nurses stopped being nurses ages ago.
And foreigners really dont care too much about the native inhabitants of the UK.
Why should they?

Anonymous said...

Please see
http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/health/nhs-lothian-chief-takes-retirement-amid-waiting-times-scandal-1-2262026

Also have a look at the record of his replacement Tim Davison, late of Lanarkshire N.H.S. If you can find it.

My personal experience is that N.H.S. staff fall into one of three categories:

1) Labour loyalists who believe that Comrade Barbour was stabbed in the back by the evil Tartan Tories (i.e. S.N.P.).
They believe that the N.H.S. is a solely owned subsidiary of the Labour Party. They believe that patients are just a nuisance.

2)People who, every working day, do their very best to help patents.
They dare not speak out openly about Type 1s (unless they are close to retirement or have another job lined up).
We all know what happens to whistle blowers.

3) people who have found a sinecure where they don't have to work too hard or bother too much about anything.
The sad thing is that lots of Type 3s started off as Type 2s, then got worn down over the years by the effects of the Type 1s.

I have come to the conclusion that the NHS was originally designed not to be changed. I have yet to meet a (Type 2) "manager" who is allowed enough power to do their job properly.

JuliaM said...

" The NHS is one organisation that does not have the right environment or conditions so will never have a system or employees that are geared to work for what is in their clients(patients) best interests. "

But it used to.

"Nurses stopped being nurses ages ago."

Yes! That's the crux.

"Also have a look at the record of his replacement Tim Davison, late of Lanarkshire N.H.S. If you can find it."

Quite!