‘Cool’ ambulance service parody website launched
Saturday 8th May 2010, 2:00PM BST.
A former Shropshire ambulance worker has launched a website to expose what he feels is an appalling waste of NHS money on a research project to find out what makes a leader “cool”.
Two members of staff at the West Midlands Ambulance Service have won a £10,000 bursary from the regional strategic health authority to carry out the project.
They have asked service colleagues in a questionnaire to say who in their opinion is, or was, a cool leader and a list of names to score include Richard Branson, Gordon Brown, Hitler, Winston Churchill, Martin Johnson and Fabio Capello.
Staff have also been asked how they wish to be led and what traits are important in perceiving a leader to be cool.
But Steve Jetley, of Shrewsbury, who resigned from the service and helped lead a campaign to try to save the Shropshire emergency control centre, said he was angry that money was being spent in such a way.
He has launched a website www.howcoolishitler.net to give people the chance to have their say and vote on whether or not the project is a good use of NHS resources or whether it should have been spent on patient care.
Mr Jetley said he will send the results to the chief executives of the strategic health authority and ambulance service trust, and the health minister.
Mr Jetley said: “It is an appalling waste of money. There are so many things that the NHS as a whole, and the ambulance service specifically, need to spend money on. An ambulance is operating in Shropshire with more than 300,000 miles on the clock.
“The service is also trying to make savings by asking staff to find the cheapest petrol for vehicles and yet money can be found for this sort of research.”
This week the ambulance trust defended the year-long study.
It said: “The project is important in identifying the key characteristics of good leadership, to allow the organisation and the wider NHS to be more efficient and effective which, in turn, will have a direct and positive impact on improving patient care.
“The project sought to discuss different styles of leadership and the characteristics of leadership to help staff at all levels develop their career.”
By Dave Morris
UK News
Most Commented
- Clampdown on Shrewsbury chuggers
- Bishop's gay marriage views do nothing to support bible teachings
- Letter: Alcohol price plans annoy me
- Planners ordered to stay on Newport visit bus
- Letter: Angered by close encounter of the furred kind
- Letter: No sense in overseas job adverts
- The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff doesn't raise a smile
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
Someone at the ‘regional strategic health authority’ needs to justify this nonsense. On a brighter note maybe satire isn’t dead after all.
Report abuse
Would the money not have been better spent on equipment? This is a disgrace :(
Report abuse
A very naieve approach – I don’t see a full outline of the research project in the news article so I would imagine that it would be very difficult to make a judgement about its merits based on the complainers and newspapers restricted views. Would the money have been better spent on equipment? Depends – you need strong management and you need to develop managers so that they are operating effectively. It is extremely difficult to keep talented people in the NHS because of the selective rubbish like this that keeps getting printed. So if you want to take a simplistic short term view and think that an ambulance service can be run without management then yes it would have been better spent on equipment. But if you believe that an organisation needs to function effectively and that effective management can save money in the long term then no – it shouldn’t be spent on equipment.
Report abuse
Bemused – Regardless of the merits of the research project, at a time when wards are being closed, ambulance services are running out of date vehicles, and patients are refused drugs on a cost basis, it is clearly both morally and economically wrong to fund this kind luxury. It is the equivalent of me buying a new car whilst my children have no beds and are forced to sleep on the floor. It is a case of priorities.
I would also argue that the NHS needs ‘strong’ management – what it really needs is management that staff respect; and spending 10k on a project that asks ‘what makes a manager cool’ when crews are tired and overworked because overtime has been cut as a result of a shortage of funds, will certainly not help.
Should a time ever arise when the NHS has a surplus of funds, then by all means spend £10,000 and one year to find out how to improve management in the NHS. Meanwhile – read one of the many books that have already written and published by respected and qualified authorities on this subject. You can get them from Amazon for about £25. That would leave £9975 for REAL patient care.
Report abuse
What a complete waste of time and our money. The person who authorized this should be sacked,and get somebody with a little common sense to take charge. What will they come up with next,something like. Why has a human got a brain?
Report abuse
How cool is Hitler ? Depends on the weather conditions in Brazil, surely.
Report abuse
Why are we paying all the managers in the NHS so much money when they do not know what makes a good leader.
Perhaps when this survey is complete they should all be sacked and new ones employed based on the survey results
Report abuse
Whats even more depressing , other than the total waste of time and money this survey takes , is its very nature . Again , we seem to have to be ‘COOL’ in our life , behaviour , and now the people who we work with . I don’t want a manager/paramedic who is ‘COOL’ , i want them to be good at their job at saving both my and others lives ! What a concept . But in these days of ‘COOL’ and perceived ‘performance targets ‘ and other spin phrases why would that matter . Maybe we should have a survey on the uniforms and equipment colours to make sure they are fashionable as well !
Report abuse
still bitter you lost your job then jettly?
Report abuse
Maybe if they hadn’t been spending money on nonsense like this then they wouldn’t have had to put lives at risk by leeching ambulances into the West Midlands and leaving Shropshire without cover, or closing the Shrewsbury control centre – then I wouldn’t have had to resign in protest! – But in answer to you question – ‘Yep!’
Report abuse
[It is the equivalent of me buying a new car whilst my children have no beds and are forced to sleep on the floor.]
Steve, if I could take the role of a cool/strategic/efficient manager and say your situation was that by getting the car or maybe a secondhand car you could get a job that would quickly enable you to purchase beds for your children, would you think that advice was to your advantage?
Report abuse
Eva land – this survey is never going to make the difference between getting the job done or the objective met – I can’t wait to see the results of this strategic investment and how it has contributed to improving the efficiency of the ambulance service!
Report abuse
Britain is being run by a totally useless, wasteful, management structure when it comes to public sector.
They need slimming down and then maybe, when they have enough “proper” work to keep them occupied during the day, they will forget about wasting OUR money on pointless exercises that just make work for idle hands.
Report abuse
Why has the government allowed this sort of nonsense ?
The money should be repaid to the taxpayer by those who wasted it.
So much for Mr Brown and Prudence.
Report abuse