Second Life: National Health Service (UK): (Photo credit: rosefirerising)

According to UK Health Minister, Jeremy Hunt, speaking on Question Time, at 10.35 pm, on Thursday 21st November, Dr Alf’s bewilderment at the failure to merge the NHS and Adult Social Care budgets will soon give way to euphoria and what Private Eye likes to call “trebles all round”.

Personally, I will believe it when I see it, and when the test applied by Australian Special Forces, for the recording of a North Vietnamese soldiers’ death, is applied to the serried ranks of Adult Social Care workers in Local Authorities, viz. the test being applied, once these functions are merged.

This means that I do not wish to see these workers transferred to the NHS for the numbers of people employed to remain the same–We need to see all these former local authority posts, from the Director of Adult Social Care downwards, eliminated and these workers put to the sword.

Why?

NHS and Local Authority productivity is running at just 32% or 70 working days per year out of a possible 220 working days (Source :ONS)

With restructuring, Lean /EFQM, and improved working practices around the D55A and D55B targets, earlier intervention, aggressive re-enablement, measures to tackle malingering and overeating, variable taxes on foods, measures to remove salt and sugar content from processed foods and other measures that I have identified in my work for a 3 star County Council in this area, services could be improved even with a 67% decrease in overall staff numbers, given the will to effect change.

That will is lacking because of a fear of pensioner power and the omnipotence of the medical profession and local authority Chief Executives within County Councils.

These barriers to progress need to be taken on and the number of County Councils and Unitary Authorities reduced to just 15 for the whole country or 14 if Alex Salmond wins his referendum which I predict he won’t.

Savings produced by these measures alone, would allow these old people to be looked after at home, and with better diet and re-enablement, there would be fewer of them needing to go to hospital to become bed blockers.

John Gelmini

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