oh dear: Majority of voters back tax rises to bolster NHS

[al_cam]

As for procurement, well after seeing a line of pharma reps trying to sell overinflated priced drugs while trying to share their "lunch" with certain parties to sweeten the deal (marks and sparks with enough food to feed 5 people), this among other things (Issues involving RiO & bed blocking) meant I decided to head back into the private sector and forsake ever working again for the NHS.

I know a lot about pharma. I think it unlikely any healthcare professional would order any drug in return for a sandwich. They wouldn't be able to anyway as drug decisions are made centrally.
Drug reps visit healthcare professionals to give them information about the drugs and their use. They hope the drugs then get prescribed but there are no guarantees.
My wife is a pharmacologist first and a rep second. She knows more about her specialist disease area than most of her customers.
Pharma sales is highly regulated in the UK. Think of it like
IR35. The government treats pharma like they do contractors - constantly harassing them. That said, they had a bad reputation in the old days - taking doctors on golfing holidays etc. Those days are gone but the reputation will remain for years yet.

I can see it all imploding soon. The fact is that the NHS doesn't give the best drugs, they give the cheapest even if the big picture shows that overall they are more expensive due to being less effective for instance. The budgets are in different hands and there is no joined up thinking. The pharma companies are sick of the restrictions and so are those prescribing. Most know there are better options for the health of their patients and hate that some bean counter dictates what they can do.

It feels so wrong but I am seriously considering using a private GP. I can afford it. I care about my health.

There are solutions - others have mentioned procurement. I did an NHS gig where they paid full list price for servers. Joined up thinking in prescribing guidelines is needed and why not offer a top up option to patients - for instance, allowing them to pay the extra for better drugs.

It all seems so simple, sadly it never is...

[vetran]

A relative was a medical secretary for years she was offered freebies from drug reps with varying values to try an secure access to the doctors some were fairly high value. That apparently stopped a few years ago.

I worked with hospitals a few years ago and finding their elbow in the admin department would be considered impossible.

The last time I was in I waited days for tests despite it being clear I could get them via outpatients. The Nurses that were busy spent most of the day talking about east enders and the poor sod next to me in his 90s nearly died of starvation.

Another relative who has had cancer for years and had the tumour cut out and was doing well but had a relapse he was throwing up and looked like a ghost they had him a month in hospital before they released him without a diagnosis and a few weeks later finally confirmed it was back. Throughout pretty much every doctor had a different opinion so the poor guy didn't know what the hell was going on.

I know there are plenty that do a good job in the NHS but it is disorganised and feudal from what I can see.

[minestrone]

The wife was getting a grand for a 4 hour Saturday morning shift to sit and administer flu jags.

Mental.

[WTFH]

The wife was getting a grand for a 4 hour Saturday morning shift to sit and administer flu jags.

Mental.

So you’re part of the problem.

[clearedforlanding]

Maybe cutting out this sort of tulip will save the tax payer some money.

CFL bills Hays 800 GBP per day.
Hays bills BT Exact 886 GBP per day
BT Exact bills Accenture 1400 GBP per day.
Accenture bills the NHS N3 project 2600 GBP per day.

In 2004/5. To audit firewall rules. Security project was canned after 10 months. Thats over half a million pounds for **** all.