In praise of the NHS
Monday 16th November 2009, 8:00PM GMT.
I think it’s fair to say the National Health Service is groaning under the strain, but we all knew that already. The real question is what are we going to do about it?
I spend more time than most watching the way hospitals work and how the folk on the ground – doctors, nurses and auxillary staff – work their socks off to keep things running and patients happy. Not easy amidst falling budgets and soaring targets.
Perhaps the problems stem from the fact that where once nurses outnumbered managers by five to one, that ratio across the NHS has settled on an all time high of one-to-one. That’s one manager to every nurse, across our hospitals nationally. I don’t know about you, but I know who I’d rather have looking after me!
Another obvious money-pit overseen by managers is the sudden need to have expensive artwork adorning the walls and corridors of hospitals, mostly far too high-brow for us mere mortals to understand, let alone appreciate.
Take the hospital which, in recent years, spent £50,000 on a huge pebble, the size of several men, to sit in the hospital foyer. Now I like pebbles and I like art, but if it comes to a choice, I prefer the NHS to either.
But hospitals could be a part of the community, loved and supported by local people and I think this idea could perhaps offer part of the solution.
What if managers began involving the local community in the simpler aspects of creating the hospital environment? What if local schools were invited to host art competitions with each picture displayed on hospital walls and the winner voted on by patients? Imagine the sense of ownership that would create among local children, who’d grow up loving and caring about their hospital? Imagine how much brighter that hospital would be?
And imagine the savings managers could enjoy whilst creating a homely atmosphere? We might even get back to a time when hospitals start to look like hospitals again, instead of looking more and more like trendy, modernist airports.
Let’s take it one stage further. Many pensioners and disabled people would be glad of a chance to volunteer – how about recruiting them to carry out some of the hospital’s lighter duties? Portering, gardening, fetching files and even some cooking and cleaning could feasibly be carried out by local volunteers. Supermarkets have caught on to this cheap and willing workforce, why not the NHS? And goodness knows there are enough managers to manage them all.
But now talking of hospitals, I must say a big thank you to everyone at RJAH Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen who looked after me during my recent incarceration . . . even you, Ginger Jane. I have only praise for those responsible for my care.
And not a manager in sight!
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And where, precisely, did the ‘fact’ come from that there is a one-to-one ratio of nurses to managers? The only reference I can find is in a ‘News of the World’ article – and let’s be honest, they’re hardly unknown for making stuff up…
Really Emma – I’m surprised at you believing such nonsense – you’ll be telling us Elvis has been found on the moon next!
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Quick point to good report -> as time goes on, less and less older people will volunteer, because they may be willing to do the work, but if they’re like me, they’re not inclined to pay through the nose to have their lives delved into by the CRB people – a pre-requisite for anyone working with or near to “vulnerable” people, (and that includes hospital patients of all ages).
I used to volunteer for loads of stuff, but since the state got involved in super-nannying, I don’t bother. You can’t even pay a visit to relieve the boredom of an old person in a home if they’re not related to you any more without a CRB check.
It’s “me” time for me now and I am sure that there are many more like me – sensible people fed up of the intrusive system.
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Wow what an original piece. I can imagine the thinking – lets look at hospitals and get a bit of manager bashing in as well.
To quote you
“That’s one manager to every nurse, across our hospitals nationally. I don’t know about you, but I know who I’d rather have looking after me!”
Putting aside the facts that show that is incorrect (7% of staff in the NHS are managers)I’d rather have nurses looking after me too – get rid of managers and then the nurses and doctors wouldn’t just have to tend to the patients they would have to:
Fix the IT systems
Work the Payroll system to ensure everyone gets paid
Purchase the supplies ensuring that all stocks are purchased at a suitable price and not wasting money – often putting in tendering documents.
Carry out recruitment checks on new staff and ensure that recruitment is carried out in a legal way
Deal with the legalities of negligence cases
Ensure money moves between the providers of services and those who commission services
Carry out needs assessments to ensure that the NHS is providing the right services to the right people at the right time.
Ensure the budgets don’t run away thereby threatening the whole stability of the health care system
and many more day to day tasks that ensure the smooth running of health services
So yes I too would prefer that nurses and doctors looked after me. And I am also grateful that there are people willing to do all of those other thankless tasks which ensure that care is delivered smoothly and efficiently. People who do an excellent job yet have to put up with ill informed rubbish like this. Perhaps before you write something like this again you might want to find out what managers do. It is incredibly naive to think that the health service could run without them!
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Whilst management in some structure is necessary to take the admin requirements away from doctors and nurses as was quite rightly pointed out I still believe there is some discrepancy in how those managers run hospitals. Maybe it stems from managers originally coming from a corporate background and not fully appreciating the differing goals and objectives of maintaining the structure of a public service. I believe there is room for improvement in the managerial style and that these improvements could be made to reduce costs but that is going to take a very extensive time consuming investigative exercise.
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I thought I’d check out another Emma’s ‘factual’ claims.
The hospital that has the huge ‘pebble’ as entrance artwork is, I believe, University College Hospital in London. The artwork was provided by an establishment called ‘The Slade School of Fine Art’, which has provided six art works to the hospital. All of these works of art were funded by charitable donations, and not a single penny of NHS money was spent on these items.
Now we’re all entitled to our opinions of art in public places, but it took me a couple of minutes of Googling to find out these facts – why can’t Emma manage to do the same?
Does no-one check this rubbish before it goes to print?
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I could also point you in the direction of a lot of clinical research that shows that the surroundings people find themselves in has an impact on their recovery time and general wellbeing. A lot of this is around the arts and health movement which has saved an awful lot of money due to reduced lengths of stay in hospital and the like. That’s from proper clinical research. As a previous correspondent pointed out – this could be found out quite easily.
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