Morning all. Bit pissed off, because of something I read yesterday - that some stupid percentage of people apparently want fewer non-clinical staff in the NHS, in relation to the usual election bullshit about 'efficiency savings'.
I work for an ambulance service. Our ambulances see all kind of unpleasant things, so it's essential that they're kept clean.
But without non-clinical staff, we have nobody working in Cleaning, so infections spread.
And we can't have a plan to bring these infections under control, as we now have no Infection Control staff. What, you thought Infection Control was a clinical job? You probably thought everything was a clinical job, right? Guess what? Just because a role is in some way connected to medical things, doesn't mean it is classified as 'clinical'.
Also, we don't have anything with which to clean and stop infections, because no non-clinical staff means no Procurement staff out there buying what's needed.
Even if we could procure what we needed, how could we pay for it? We'll have nobody in Finance.
Perhaps, okay, we can have Finance staff, but who's going to do that job if we can't pay them? Because we can't pay anyone, if we have no Payroll staff.
And if we have someone doing Payroll, presumably they'll be using payroll software on the computer. Except, they can't do that, as we won't have any IT staff.
This is a bad idea, right? Let's bring back Cleaning, bring Infection Control, bring back Procurement, bring back Finance, bring back Payroll, bring back, IT. Except... actually we can't do that either, because no non-clinical staff means no Recruitment team.
Non-clinical support staff matter as much in the NHS as any other organisation. Without non-clinical support, there is no NHS.
This has been a public service announcement on behalf of Support Staff Who Are Already Overworked And Underpaid As It Is, And We're Really Fucking Tired.
I think you are being thoroughly disingenuous!
No one is saying sack all the clinical support staff obviously that would be a disaster for the NHS but junior managers have a dreadful reputation in many trusts as does the 'administration'. I know of one trust where one major speciality has 'divorced' itself from the administration and does its own admin; so dreadful is the central administration dept in that particular hospital.
Now here's a strange thing, I live in Luxembourg which spends a bit more per head of the population on healthcare than does Britain but the spend per head of population is nowhere near double that of the UK.
Over here in Luxembourg, there are no waiting lists worth talking about, even elective surgery is carried out within weeks, there is no problem whatever getting an appointment with the GP (if I phone up tomorrow, I would expect to be offered a GP appointment either tomorrow or the day after) and there is no problem whatever getting an appointment to see a dentist under the equivalent of the NHS, as all dentists work for the equivalent of the NHS. I have undergone two operations since I have been living here and in both cases I was given a private room with its own bathroom. The biggest wards over here have a maximum of two beds in them.
The healthcare system here generally is very different indeed to that in the United Kingdom! However, what I cannot understand is how the figures pan out. Here, both doctors and nurses are paid double often much more than double what they I earn in the United Kingdom. The same applies to ancillary staff like physiotherapists; In fact, everyone in the healthcare business over here he's paid much more generously than the equivalent staff in the United Kingdom. So, my question is; given that this is a very expensive country indeed and that most if not all healthcare staff are paid roughly double what they are paid in the United Kingdom how come the spend per head of the population is not double or even more than double what it is in the United Kingdom? There has to be a reason!
I suppose the next question is “where would I rather receive treatment for a serious illness, would it be in Luxembourg or in the United Kingdom” and the answer is, without one moment’s hesitation, in Luxembourg
