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Amount of private work NHS hospitals can take to rise from 2% to 49%
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My local private hospital has consultations every evening and weekends.
Because thats when the consultants aren't working in the NHS hospital."If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
That's the fault of the so-called highly qualified and experienced management who are responsibility for procurement. No real business is going to turn down work because the purchaser is paying over the odds for it. You can't blame the private sector because the public sector employ idiots!
That "highly qualified management team" was more than likley brought in form the private sector."If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
. That's why factories operate 24/7 by using shifts to run virtually non stop - the plant is so expensive, it can't be left idle every night and weekend. Yet, in hospitals, there are vast amounts of equipment, treatment rooms, theatres, etc., that only work 8-4 - that's only a third of the potential usage time!.
Unfortunately the hardware and buildings are only a small part of the cost. The Government chooses not to afford the staff to actually staff these facilities.
Even if it had the money there are insufficient resources to man them permanently.
As cleaver eloquently points outline this thread the private sector are only interested in "cherry picking" and wouldn't want to be block booking facilities in the "off peak" if they didn't have customers.
I thing the health model in Singapore may be worth looking at more closely.
As Cleaver also points out spending per head is considerably less in the UK than the US. I read, elsewhere, that Medicaid costs more for their lower aspiration "NHS", for the impoverished, than the NHS does across the board.."If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
Yep, that's the top and bottom of it, free NHS care has numbered days.
I think you are right. I doubt whether the average person who relies on the NHS will appreciate what they have lost until its gone. Those advocating a private market are not interested in providing a free at the point of use service. They will chip away at the system until most parts of the service carry charges. Still collectively we all voted for this so it must represent the majority view.Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions.0 -
Considering the amount of resources that aren't being fully used within our hospitals, it makes sense to look for any way of making far more use of them. That's why factories operate 24/7 by using shifts to run virtually non stop - the plant is so expensive, it can't be left idle every night and weekend. Yet, in hospitals, there are vast amounts of equipment, treatment rooms, theatres, etc., that only work 8-4 - that's only a third of the potential usage time! Our village GP surgery only opens five days a week, and even then, it's only half day sessions - there are three surgeries/treatment rooms, a waiting area, reception and office, left idle for 88% of the time! Go to any hospital after 5pm or anytime over the weekend and it's deserted except for the wards - whole areas and wings are completely shut down. For me, any ways of getting more use out of its existing resources must be a good thing. If that means sharing equipment and building space with the private sector, then that's the way forward. If that isn't how people want it to go, then the NHS must make better use of its resources and get away from the 8-4 mentality.
apart from some very specialist equipment (MRI scanners, CT etc), the constraint is not the space or theatre time - it is the people who operate and staff it. The comparison between Fords or Toyota running 24/7 is not really valid. You may as well ask why advertising agencies don't have a night shift or weekend shift to utilise the expensive office space.US housing: it's not a bubble - Moneyweek Dec 12, 20050 -
Waiting time for Dr.ABC, working as an NHS consultant, 6 months. Said I'll go private, waiting time 7 days.
Something doesn't add up."Never underestimate the mindless force of a government bureaucracyseeking to expand its power, dominion and budget"Jay Stanley, American Civil Liberties Union.0 -
No idea.
Firstly, can I just say that I agree GP surgeries should be moving to 24 hour / 7 day services. Completely agree with that. But hospitals? It makes no sense. Obviously a lot of the hospital is open and working overnight. A&E is open and busy, maternity is open and busy and all medical wards full of ill patients, both in terms of general illness and post-op, will be active 27/7. I presume what you mean is why don't hospitals, private or NHS, operate through the evening and overnight? I simply presume for the same reasons shops, restaurants, offices and everyone else doesn't: there isn't the demand and it's not cost effective. It's only really widget factories that can stay open 24/7 as it's the same stuff day in day out.
In summary, would enough patients want minor surgery or an outpatients appointent at 3am to make it cost effective to run? I doubt it, hence why they don't in any major health system.
As for you comments about paying a bit extra for stuff you want I agree 100%, it makes perfect sense.0 -
Firstly, can I just say that I agree GP surgeries should be moving to 24 hour / 7 day services. Completely agree with that. But hospitals? It makes no sense. Obviously a lot of the hospital is open and working overnight. A&E is open and busy, maternity is open and busy and all medical wards full of ill patients, both in terms of general illness and post-op, will be active 27/7. I presume what you mean is why don't hospitals, private or NHS, operate through the evening and overnight? I simply presume for the same reasons shops, restaurants, offices and everyone else doesn't: there isn't the demand and it's not cost effective. It's only really widget factories that can stay open 24/7 as it's the same stuff day in day out.
In summary, would enough patients want minor surgery or an outpatients appointent at 3am to make it cost effective to run? I doubt it, hence why they don't in any major health system.
As for you comments about paying a bit extra for stuff you want I agree 100%, it makes perfect sense.
Likewise, would people want a blood test or smear done at 4am in the morning at their GP surgery?!0 -
vivatifosi wrote: »Interesting post Cleaver, thanks. Here's a question to those of you who work in, or know the NHS well. If you had a blank piece of paper what changes would you make and why?
1. Less management. But the public need to get the idea of men with clipboards out of their head as we need less nursing managers, physio managers, radiology managers as well as less 'standard' managers. Every profession in the NHS has been over-professionalising their roles.
2. Leave people alone to do their jobs and stop rearranging everything. Staff don't know thier objectives one week to the next.
3. Although we need less managers, stop assuming that doctors and nurses are always the best people to manage the process of patients moving through a system. The best people to do this are good administrators who spend 100% of their time doing it.
4. Get rid of SHAs, they're not required. The government abolished them but has now done a very quiet u-turn and has allowed the original ten to merge in to four. So same thing but with a massive and expensive merger process over the next two years.
5. Stop these silly national, massive projects. Rather than, for example, telling every NHS organisation that they have to be on the same £10bn BT computer system simply tell them what their system needs to be compatible with and let them procure their own.
6. It's a taboo subject, but the nursing structure isn't fit for purpose. We just don't need all these hugely qualified nurses on £30k, £40k or £50k. Each ward should have a business manager and a nurse manager. The nurse managers makes clinical decisions, the business manager makes business decisions for the ward. Under them you don't need a myriad of senior nurses at various pay grades anymore. That comment will never make you popular though...
7. Here's a biggy. People need to start taking responsibility for their own health and, if they don't, they should be charged. Why should people be able to eat themselves to obesity and expect free treatment? Or smoke 30 a day and expect free cancer treatment? Or drink themselves into oblivion and take up A&E time and a medical bed? It's controversial but I think the next ten years will see the idea of personal health responsibility become a hot social issue in the same way that drinking and driving and recycling have all become social issues in the past couple of decades.
8. Shut hospitals. Care will be provided more and more in people's homes. We don't need all these expensive hospitals.0
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