Hi Russ
Thanks for your comments.
If the politicians adopted the 10% rule we would be much further on.
Regards
Julian

To have an effective strategy you need some degree of certainty, both funding and political direction. An economist from British Chambers made an interesting point regarding Germany and Britain recently. In Germany the politicians all understand there are certain areas of their economy they all agree on. Populist policies account for 10% of the manifesto, whereas in the UK populist policies account for 70% of he manifesto, and the politicians bumble on from crisis to crisis.

Without doubt the NHS needs to change, but it needs a degree of certainty about direction and priorities based on the changing demographics. It needs buy in and co-operation from all its constituent parts especially GP’s. They are asked to provide more local services (fair enough) but also to run their practice as a business. A very diverse and challenging business. You would not ask a local company CEO for a medical diagnosis so is it reasonable for a GP to have to run his practice as a business. Some will fail, but in healthcare, we regard that as not acceptable.

Remove some of the strain by reintroducing tax relief from medical cover. People who choose to fund some of their treatment privately actually release resource within the NHS.

You are correct 7 days is not an individual working 7 days. In the 1960’s everything closed on Sundays, and the thought of somewhere being open on Boxing Day was a million miles away. Times have changed, we all need to adapt.

One thing is for certain, the Politicians cannot expect the NHS to change unless that change from populist and ideological outcomes for NHS services.

Hi Ros
Thanks for your very interesting input.
Julian

I agree about having too many iniatitives or new projects: staff become bewildered and adopt the attitude of “let’s sit this one out; another will be along soon.”

To move from the vertical approach would be challenging but a hospital could try the customer care approach with all levels of staff involved in how patients can be treated better and more quickly.

One organisation I was with had a customer care course where the senior partner was sitting next to the office junior and coming up with good ideas. It resulted in a big change in the perception of clients and a greater understanding and willingness to help from staff who were not customer-facing.

Sadly I think that the vote will come first but it could be first in front of a better organisation of individual units of the nhs.