Does anyone in Rotherham remember this airbrushed poster of David Cameron?
Probably 20kg lighter then, Cameron in the run up to the 2010 general election frequently pledged that under a Conservative government there would be no more-top down re-originations of the NHS and the NHS would be safe with the Tories, it was all part of an attempt to detoxify the Tory brand.
Well guess what?
Cameron weeks into the Coalition announced the most expensive top down re-orgnisations of the NHS.
Care UK a private sector healthcare company that provides Rotherham`s out of hours GP cover and runs the Walk-in-Centre on a for profit basis made a £21,000 donation to the personal office of the former health secretary Andrew Lansley, no conflict of interest there then.
Prior to the autumn statetement (2012) Andrew Dilnot chair of the UK Statistics Authority concluded that spending on the NHS is actually lower now than it was in 2010, so yet another broken pledge by Flashman and the nasty party.
No doubt the Tories and the Daily Heil will blame PFI deals for the financial carnage in the NHS, remind me who introduced the concept of PFI?
Oh yes, it was the Tory party.
The Rotherham NHS Trust is out to consultation on making over 700 staff redundant, they will have to make £40 million pounds in savings and the NHS watchdog Monitor has placed the Trust on red alert relating to its financial problems.
And what of the chair of the RMBC health scrutiny committee Cllr Ken Wyatt, a man with so many public sector income streams that he cannot find the time to get to grips with the financial crisis about to hit the NHS in Rotherham.
If this wasn’t bad enough we have food banks operating in Rotherham, in the final PMQs before Christmas when challenged by Miliband about the six fold increase in the number of people accessing food banks, Cameron with his very odd splayed fingers gesture and Flashman arrogance said it was evidence of the big society working, did you see the look on Clegg`s face, a picture?
RMBC are providing an interest free loan to a local credit union, hopefully this will prevent the poorest members of society falling foul of aggressive loan sharks, seen the TV adverts for the loan company Wonga?
Interest rates of 2,000% on short terms loans, Wonga has made donations to the Tory party, no wonder Flashman is keen to hit the poor.
Just goes to prove the nasty party is back in town
So as the New Year looms remember the words of Neil Kinnock
I warn you not to be ordinary
I warn you not to be young
I warn you not to fall ill
I warn you not to get old.
Stay healthy, because the Town’s NHS will be in tatters thanks to Cameron
Aneurin Bevan.
Rotherham Politics 
What the NHS was first intended to be for in 1945 and how it now functions are out of kilter. Rather than dealing with the cause, it is fighting the effect of disease. For example when 25% of the population is obese and a further 25% overweight, there has to be a contract drawn up between the individual and the organisation, that the individual is very much the cause of much disease, by choices they make and must address these issues. Diabetes alone will bankrupt the NHS, and in most cases is self inflicted due to a life style choice. Why should individuals who choose healthy lifestyles, have a poor service when they rarely use the service. Health should be about mind, body, spirit and adopt a more holistic approach. Disease in 90% of cases is the effect and not the cause. The NHS isn’t free and many other tax’s prop it up, such as 60% fuel duty. Individuals need to be educated to be more responsible for their own health.
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The Beverage report and resulting welfare state were all set up on the model that 5 yrs after retirement you would be dead. Things you may have notice have changed. When I was at school in the 70s I was taught that men die at 69, now its pretty much 79, and there is no reason to not believe that in another 40 odd years with medical technology it wont be too far short of 89.
So we have now people looking for 20 plus years of retirement income plus increasing medical bills. So where do we get the bill payers, the earners? You might also have noticed that we are having less kids later (the workers of tomorrow) thru a rising costbase (taxes/regulation) young people are forced into their 30s before starting a family, by which time many will have given up hope. Immigration is one way around this but that also comes with a cost, we will have to build a new Birmingham every 5 years for the next 50 years at least.
Then of course we have this 1.4 trillion legacy debt around our shoulders brought from the false boom of the last decade which is a drag on growth and that does not inculcate PFi. Yes John Major came up with the idea but did very few deals as they thought rightly that it was inappropriate in most cases, Gordon Brown and New Labour thought differently and the stats on PFi from 1997 speak for themselves.
So yes the old model of Bevens NHS is dying in front of our eyes, it has been since at least 1976 when the IMF bailed us out, but if if its the current Model what you want it was not Dave and Co who killed it. They are the ones trying to salvage a concept of a public health system which if not reformed urgently will go the same way as big banks, bankrupt.
And strangely enough the analogy is a good one. its not really a left/right issue its like the banks a size issue. The NHS is way too big, I suspect in the future hospitals will be only for the seriously ill, most minor operations will be done in community surgeries. One thing I am sure off is universal health provision through the state is finished. I suspect both opposite inefficient models that are Our NHS and the United States hotchpotch system will morph into something like the German health system, which is the oldest public health system in the world from the 1860s.
You will purchase a insurance product and if you cant afford one the state will purchase one for you. The state will act as universal insurer. You will need to work and get yourself a good policy which of course the babyboomers who stole from their children will not be able to do.
Maybe if they stuck to saving and spending instead of just borrowing their kids would not be at the loan sharks doors?
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The babyboomers did not steal from their children! The vast majority of them had no say in what successive governments did with the finances of this country. To blame a whole generation that did for the most part, have no say in what crooked,venal politicians where doing is ludicrous, but I expect his makes you feel better to be able to blame a whole generation that were as betrayed by crookeed politicians as the present one is being betrayed. I ‘m a babybbomer, but I never voted for Brown or Blair – I am to blame for the mess they left this country in, when they never got my vote!
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I’ll always admire the unprecedented transparency of this government (not complete transparency but definitely unprecedented) but the destruction of the NHS amongst other things is unforgivable.
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No cause for concern for anyone at all re: NHS RDGH. No need for scare stories.
We can rely on the wealth of talent, expertise, corporate knowledge, experience, ingenuity, contacts and proven financial acumen that Mark Edgell, latest Non-Executive Director at RDGH, will bring to the Boardroom table.
Don’t forget he used to run the highly-successful multi-million pound empire called Rotherham MBC, so he’s guaranteed to be there in the thick of it, among the NHS executives burning the midnight oil on our behalf to ensure that we continue to have a world-class healthcare system in lickle ole Rovrum.
If he’s ever stuck for an answer, he could always ring up Da Dodger, whose similar boardroom corporate experience, would no doubt be freely on loan to Pilgrim Mark, the Rovrum Parachute Champeeun.
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The NHS in Rotherham is facing a financial challenge of finding efficiencies/reductions of up to £80 million over the next 4 years. Many Foundation Trusts like RFT are in serious difficulties (some far worse than RTF) and this is not all as a result of PFI issues. As you will be aware the FT Regulator, Monitor is currently in contact with the RTF Board regarding the Trust’s recovery plan. A further meeting is planned early in January with Monitor and the RFT Council of Governors will be receiving an update on 9th January (which is a public meeting). Nationally the NHS is being asked to find £20bn in ‘efficiencies’ as part of the government’s austerity plan; yet the population is getting older with an increasing range of long term conditions.
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The health finance post above was from me.
It was not intended to be anon!
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Thanks for that Ken. Happy New Year.
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And … ?
Have the overpaid RMBC Health & Overview Scrutiny Board only just woken up to this ticking financial time bomb?
What has the plethora of RDGH FT current and ex-Executive and Non-Executive Director talent done about this?
P.S. This include Parachute Mark, the previous failed Leedah of RMBC.
And don’t forget we had the First-Class Rail Travel Guru Cabinet Member trying to trouser £250,000 from RDGH FT very recently to finance a RMBC parking scheme for residents of the Duke of Norfolk posh estate as a condition for planning approval of an on-site hospital parking scheme..
Don’t come hand-wringing now Ken, you and your Corn Fed Grunters, Muppets and Clowns on RMBC have sleep walked into a financial NHS mess of epic proportions.
My health ain’t safe in Rovrum Laybah’s hands that for absolute sure 😦
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There is also an issue of how you measure ‘spending’. It is well known that some NHS trusts have deliberately underspent in order to repair their finances. So are we looking at how much they were given to spend, or how much they actually spent?
The 2010-11 year should not be used a baseline for NHS spending because the budget and spending plans were set in place by the previous government.
I think we need to quantify ‘cuts’. For example;The NHS spent £17 million on interpreters for non-English speakers last year an increase of almost 15 per cent,why should’nt that sum be cut?
it was revealed that the NHS pays £6 for laser printer part that costs just £1.40 wholesale.
The NHS also pays £10.50 for a 4GB USB flash memory stick that is sold at wholesale for £5.28, and available to the public on Amazon for £5.99. A basic three-metre internet cable can cost hospitals £1.73, versus 72 pence at wholesale.
On average, at central and regional levels, the NHS buys computer services and equipment at 28 per cent more than their wholesale price, compared to the best average in the private sector of only 3 per cent, said Mercato, a firm which tracks government and commercial IT procurement. As well as basic items this includes expensive equipment such as servers, and software.
It was found that the NHS overall pays the third-highest prices for computer products and services of any sector, behind only housing associations and retailers, which do not have its huge scale and buying power. Banks, utilities and telecoms firms all pay on average less that 20 per cent margin.
The embarrassing figures come as NHS chiefs aim to save £20bn in efficiencies by 2012.
Most of the overspends quoted above are the result of the last Labour government chucking money at the NHS in the misguided belief that money buys votes and introducing the tick-box culture that saw an explosion in the number of Co-ordinators/Administrators and Managers employed who provide no real benefits to patients care but reducing the overall number of non productive staff is part of the Left wing cry about ‘The NHS Cuts’.
I am not a defender of Cameron but I’ve seen with my own eyes the difference between medical staff-who do make the difference- and legions of paper shufflers.
Why is it considered wrong to bring a sense of value for money into state enterprises? Why is the spend on food per head bigger for prisoners than patients?
Before we get excited about ‘cuts’ it might be prudent to highlight the amount of our money that is being wasted.
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When Rothpol was first elected my union’s convener at a very large South Yorkshire hospital in the early eighties, negotiations took place with those running things then, just two people.
The Hospital Administrator and the Matron was along with a ‘small’ personnel department was all there were running things, perhaps less than a couple of dozen people all told. No one had cars provided and their pay was decidedly modest.
The same Hospital now has dozens of managers, many on very good pay and there are so many ‘company’ cars parked outside the Administration block, mostly BMW’s, there is not enough room for them all. The Admin costs have gone through the roof and this is where the cuts must start.
One of today’s managers gets as much as five front line staff, who are actually engaged in patient care, and their car at least equivalent to another two! It should be a no brainer then, from where the money could be saved?
Why don’t they ever start at the top when savings are to be made?
Oh, what of my counterpart today? If negotiations do take place, a rare thing today, then there is a whole panel of well paid people on the other side of the table. Perhaps at a conservative estimate their pay costs alone, now exceed £1.5 Million! Quite outrageous!
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A thought-provoking response from you, RothPol.
Does this outrageous financial profligacy also apply to the cohort of Trade Union Pilgrims who are now on top-dollar phone number salaries + perks, and not on bottom-dollar minimum wage earnings?
Strikes me there’s a shedload of savings to be made without even touching patient-facing roles.
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You make a fair point there graldhunter.
I forgot to mention, I never received a penny for my Trades Union duties from any source, they were decidedly part time.
Doubtless my counterpart now would very likely a full time Pilgrim.
For the benefit of readers unfamiliar with the term Pilgrim, they are full time Trades Union Officials who’s pay we fund through our taxes, sometimes at exorbitant cost!
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What no-one seems to address is the NHS has been bankrupt from day 1. Bevan wanted to delay the introduction of ‘free’ medical care for at least one year so that sufficient resources could be built up to enable the NHS to cope with expected demand. Unfortunately the myopic midget Attlee overruled Bevan and we can see the evidence of that decision today. Labour have have nothing to be proud of when they crow about ‘their’ NHS. Labour also conveniently forget the National Insurance Act 1911 introduced by David Lloyd George, a small amount was deducted from weekly wages, to which was added contributions from the employer and the government. In return for the record of contributions, the workman was entitled to medical care (as well as retirement and unemployment benefits). Bevan-acting upon the recommendations of the Beveridge Report-increased the scope of state and employee funded health care.
The NHS was never designed to cope with obesity and cosmetic breast reduction-enhancement surgery, it was introduced to improve the health and well-being of our citizens. That goal has disappeared to be replaced by a free-for-all,I-want-it-now medical care system that is going down the tubes. Medical care did not improve under Labour, they chucked our money at the NHS to keep the unions at bay and hoped the introduction of KPI’s and Targets was the answer. It was not.
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Colin Tawn – “obesity and cosmetic breast reduction-enhancement surgery” are not on the list of treatments generally freely available on the NHS. So sadly you have been misinformed or relied instead on the right wing tabloid press, aka Daily Mail for your information.
As a retired NHS primary care manager, probably what you may call “a pen pusher or a bureaucrat” I have had significant past experience of being part of reviews of patients challenging a PCT’s refusal to grant an Individual Funding Request for such procedures.
Here’s an instructive piece of learning from NHS Rotherham on Individual Funding Requests (IFRs) – http://goo.gl/VXAYB
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I got my information from http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Cosmetic-surgery/Pages/Availability.aspx
The few types of cosmetic surgery provided by the NHS are:
breast implants – due to severe underdevelopment or asymmetry (lop-sidedness)
breast reduction – due to back pain or shoulder pain
Weight loss surgery, also called bariatric surgery, is used as a last resort to treat people who are dangerously obese (carrying an abnormally excessive amount of body fat).
This type of surgery is only available on the NHS to treat people with potentially life-threatening obesity that will not respond to non-surgical treatments, such as lifestyle changes.
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Obesity/Pages/Surgery.aspx
So I am not misinformed in my view.
Your link provided me with information I was not aware of so thanks for that.
You do agree the NHS is overstaffed with Administrators/Managers and Co-ordinators do you not?
Do you also agree there is scope for a more rigorous approach to local NHS spending?
Chucking money at a problem is never the answer IMO.
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@colin tawn – “You do agree the NHS is overstaffed with Administrators/Managers and Co-ordinators do you not?”
No I most certainly do not agree with you at all that the NHS is overstaffed as you suggest.
You may not realise it, but the job of NHS clinicians is just exactly that – to deliver clinical care at the front end. But please don’t think that those clinicians manage their own diaries, create their own shift patterns, cover their own and colleagues’ leaves, create patient appointments, provide their own clinical update training, order their own uniforms, clinical equipment and medical gases, and ensure that the consulting room heating, lights, plumbing and infrastructure are in place to welcome the patient.
No that is the job of those who you sneeringly IMHO call “Administrators/Managers and Co-ordinators”. Your comments remind me of Mr Hitchens in the Daily Mail.
The backroom boys and girls do ensure that the NHS clinician is in the right place, at the right time, with the right equipment and patients notes, to spend their valuable time treating you and me and not slopping out the floor of the operating theatre.
The RAF have a similar approach to their use of personnel, i.e. it takes an army of people to put one aircraft into the skies. Just take a look at this wartime picture of “RAF Administrators, Managers and Co-ordinators” waving off a Lancaster, and you may get the picture, peut etre?
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205210629
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Personally I would have died at birth it it wasn’t for the NHS: although it could be said that would have pleased many a bigot in this Tory Government. (I’m disabled you see – therefore in Georgie Porgies Pudding and Lies Osborne’s eyes a scrounger). what price a life of a child or love one. It seems it depends on how much you can pay according to the Tories. Could be you next!
Save the NHS from this genocidal rabble of welk stall Tories.
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