English: NHS logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
NHS Job Shop: “Working for Health” in Kentish Town. Closed. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This article in the Guardian is well worth a read. Check it out!
via NHS must use fewer temporary staff and sell land to save £10bn, says Hunt | Society | The Guardian.
As has been highlighted on this blog for three years, the reforms in the UK’s public healthcare system, the National Health Service have been completely ineffective. It’s been cost-cutting using the bacon-slicer approach, rather than deploying innovation leading to real cost reduction. This blog has long taken the view, that the UK needs a new public healthcare system, modeled on best practice, like say Italy which provides internationally recognized good value and quality healthcare.
The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt talks about cutting bills for temporary staff and consultants, plus selling land. Firstly, selling off assets is a one-time desperation measure and will only impact cash-flow in the year in question and is not sustainable. Agency staff are necessary because training facilities have been savaged by austerity. I agree with Hunt about management consultants. What is really disgusting is how the system has been abused by insiders. For example, there have been large redundancy payoffs and yet senior staff have returned via the back-door as consultants or agency workers.
There was a time when the UK’s National Health Service was the World’s ‘gold standard’ for public healthcare.
Let me turn this to an open:
Why is the UK’s National Health Service no longer the ‘gold-standard’ of public healthcare?
Thoughts?
Dr Alf's Blog 