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NHS Wastes Money
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I don't know, you just can't escape it can you.
There I was happily enjoying a well-earned (in my opinion) holiday on the Costa Brava and what should I see staring out at me from the English papers on display?
"NHS Wastes Money"
Trouble is, I just can't ignore a story like that, so I'm ashamed to admit that I actually bought the offending rag.
Details is the story can be found here as well.
To say I was a little annoyed by the article is an understatement. Had I not been so relaxed that I was almost horizontal I would probably have exploded. :mad:
Some of the comments around this used the following stats to justify their claim that the NHS is wasting money:
260,000 nurses
100,000 doctors
270,000 managers and "support staff"
Apparently this showed that money was being wasted on managers and "support staff" rather than being spent on nurses.
So let's just clarify this shall we?
Firstly, there isn't a Trust in the country that wouldn't employ more nurses id they were available. But they just aren't there. I vacancies exist but there are no candidates available. So that was a little misleading to start with.
Secondly, what is covered by the term "support staff"? Well, these would be that patholgists, radiologists, pharmacists, physiotherapists etc who are vital to the care of each individual patient. These people are health professional in the same fashion that nursing staff are. So are they really a waste?
The next part of the article referred to some jobs currently being advertised. These included posts for people to help the cessasion of smoking, and drug rehab. According to the article these were a waste of £30k - the insinuation being that this moeny could have been used to fund a nursing post (thus again missing the fact that there are no nurses available anyway, even if the funding was set aside) and that they offered nothing of value to the NHS. Again what the article failed to appreciate is the cost to the NHS of treating drug abusers and smokers (for example). This figure (per patient) is greatly in excess of the £30k for each post, so even if these postholders managed to stop ONE person from smoking/abusing drugs they would have paid for their own post.
Anyway, rant over for now, but tell me, do you believe that the NHS is wasting money - if so where would you spend it instead?
There I was happily enjoying a well-earned (in my opinion) holiday on the Costa Brava and what should I see staring out at me from the English papers on display?
"NHS Wastes Money"
Trouble is, I just can't ignore a story like that, so I'm ashamed to admit that I actually bought the offending rag.
Details is the story can be found here as well.
To say I was a little annoyed by the article is an understatement. Had I not been so relaxed that I was almost horizontal I would probably have exploded. :mad:
Some of the comments around this used the following stats to justify their claim that the NHS is wasting money:
260,000 nurses
100,000 doctors
270,000 managers and "support staff"
Apparently this showed that money was being wasted on managers and "support staff" rather than being spent on nurses.
So let's just clarify this shall we?
Firstly, there isn't a Trust in the country that wouldn't employ more nurses id they were available. But they just aren't there. I vacancies exist but there are no candidates available. So that was a little misleading to start with.
Secondly, what is covered by the term "support staff"? Well, these would be that patholgists, radiologists, pharmacists, physiotherapists etc who are vital to the care of each individual patient. These people are health professional in the same fashion that nursing staff are. So are they really a waste?
The next part of the article referred to some jobs currently being advertised. These included posts for people to help the cessasion of smoking, and drug rehab. According to the article these were a waste of £30k - the insinuation being that this moeny could have been used to fund a nursing post (thus again missing the fact that there are no nurses available anyway, even if the funding was set aside) and that they offered nothing of value to the NHS. Again what the article failed to appreciate is the cost to the NHS of treating drug abusers and smokers (for example). This figure (per patient) is greatly in excess of the £30k for each post, so even if these postholders managed to stop ONE person from smoking/abusing drugs they would have paid for their own post.
Anyway, rant over for now, but tell me, do you believe that the NHS is wasting money - if so where would you spend it instead?
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Comments
I don't particularly think the NHS is wasting money, I have been arguing a similar point on another thread that simply haveing more money does not lead magically to more doctors etc.......
I don't know a lot about it but like you said all these other staff are vitally importnat and aricles such are this can be incredible ignorant.
It is also ridiculous to demand (as many do) an NHS that resembles more and more a private sector establishment whilst critiscisng performance targets and the salaries of managers, disgusting hypocrisy.....
I agree that the targetting system could do with reform but i doubt it could ever be made perfect..........
One of many. We all know that it is easy to criticise the NHS, but hard to glory in what it has achieved. Even in the link I posted they give a single line to the reduced waiting times which this money has bought :rolleyes:
Oh, do give me a link, I would like to see that thread...
It is also ridiculous to expect that additional money will lead to a pro rata increase in activity (number of patient treated) - clearly many of the complaints about the NHS isn't the number of people we treat, but the quality of treatment given...
I agree that the targetting system could do with reform but i doubt it could ever be made perfect.......... [/B][/QUOTE]