Reply to: £350 million a week - let's fund our NHS

[NigelJK]

I note the £100M week 'boost' doesn't appear to get a mention here.

[WTFH]

Does it start with the letter 'B'?

Boris.
You're right. He's the one who is being hailed as a saviour for wanting to increase NI contributions, so that anyone over 65 isn't impacted by the rise. Tax the poor to treat the rich.

[lorakeen]

When my late wife was in the hospice I got talking to a student nurse who was coming up to the end of her 6 month placement at Salisbury hospital before going back to Winchester Uni. Not only did she not get paid at any time during that 6 months, but she was also still paying her student fees whilst getting next to no Uni support.

How many of us would do a placement degree, and work for free during our placement year .. and yet it seems to be OK to treat nurses like this?

Just so wrong. Nurses and Doctors should not have to pay student fees so long as they work in the NHS for x years after qualifying. This country is so f**ked up sometimes.

It would also be cheaper. And let's not start on the much better quality of care as a result.
Surely after last year people learned about the vital importance of medical staff?

[Whorty]

Many countries poorer than the UK regard medical training as strategic and offer a lot of incentives to their youth to pursue such careers. The NHS literally preys on these countries' programs of development by luring away their newly qualified doctors.
As it turns out, brain theft only goes so far.

The lack of staff is probably directly related to the fact many of these countries, especially in Eastern Europe have implemented mandatory working-in-the-country-that-paid-for-your-education periods(up to 10 years for young graduates.

When my late wife was in the hospice I got talking to a student nurse who was coming up to the end of her 6 month placement at Salisbury hospital before going back to Winchester Uni. Not only did she not get paid at any time during that 6 months, but she was also still paying her student fees whilst getting next to no Uni support.

How many of us would do a placement degree, and work for free during our placement year .. and yet it seems to be OK to treat nurses like this?

Just so wrong. Nurses and Doctors should not have to pay student fees so long as they work in the NHS for x years after qualifying. This country is so f**ked up sometimes.

[lorakeen]

No, that's down to a lack of training places (too long a reliance on imported labour that mysteriously disappeared when they were asked to prove they could speak passable English), unrealistic educational requirements (other than for doctors, of course) and three month hiring cycles. Add that to high absentee levels, often stretching into months on full pay.

Many countries poorer than the UK regard medical training as strategic and offer a lot of incentives to their youth to pursue such careers. The NHS literally preys on these countries' programs of development by luring away their newly qualified doctors.
As it turns out, brain theft only goes so far.

The lack of staff is probably directly related to the fact many of these countries, especially in Eastern Europe have implemented mandatory working-in-the-country-that-paid-for-your-education periods(up to 10 years for young graduates.

[d000hg]

Does it start with the letter 'B'?

Try again.

[SueEllen]

Does it start with the letter 'B'?

Bovine TB? Alpaca Gone..

[Whorty]

Can you think of anything rather costly in the last 18 months?

Does it start with the letter 'B'?

[d000hg]

The NHS has enough money.

Can you think of anything rather costly in the last 18 months?

[malvolio]

Is this why there is a shortage of doctors specifically GPs, nurses, midwives, etc to fill advertised vacancies?

No, that's down to a lack of training places (too long a reliance on imported labour that mysteriously disappeared when they were asked to prove they could speak passable English), unrealistic educational requirements (other than for doctors, of course) and three month hiring cycles. Add that to high absentee levels, often stretching into months on full pay.

[SueEllen]

the NHS is prisoner to the trade unions, who are forcing it to keep employing an unholy amount of penpushers and jobsworths.

Is this why there is a shortage of doctors specifically GPs, nurses, midwives, etc to fill advertised vacancies?

[BlasterBates]

It's unlikely that the NHS can make savings by cutting admin costs. Around 14% percent of the budget is spent management and admin. The following is a dated but still relevant analysis.

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/project...s/nhs-managers

Recent media coverage and parliamentary debate suggests that the NHS is bureaucratic and over managed. The argument goes that much NHS management is unnecessary and that over the past decade the number of NHS managers has increased at a rate disproportionate to need and to the wider growth of the NHS.

Myth. The NHS in England is a £100 billion-a-year-plus business. It sees 1 million patients every 36 hours, spending nearly £2 billion a week. Aside from the banks, the only companies with a larger turnover in the FTSE 100 are the two global oil giants Shell and BP. If the NHS were a country it would be around the thirtieth largest in the world.
If anything, our analysis seems to suggest that the NHS, particularly given the complexity of health care, is under- rather than over-managed.

[AtW]

And they charge companies also, as usual, even over the normal NIC max limit which currently 2% and they want to make it 3.5%, plus on company side no limit for some reason?

I guess after that it would “only be fair” to increase divi rate

[lorakeen]

The NHS has enough money. Problem is it is being spent on PFI repayments, property taxes, distributed and repetitive procurement by each Trust and supporting an unnecessary army of middle management mostly concerned with largely meaningless performance reporting. Less than half their budget goes on patient care. Put the clinicians back in charge an you might see a difference, but that will never happen.

The public finances are now in such a mess following Covid that a lot of changes will be needed to get things back on track. Sadly, politicians are only interested in their careers so look only at popularity and the next election, and not at anything to do with supporting the country longer term.

Expect more such stories over the next few months. Just don't take them at face value.

the NHS is prisoner to the trade unions, who are forcing it to keep employing an unholy amount of penpushers and jobsworths.

[northernladuk]

...but still expect that £350 million a week, Boris was photographed in front of that bus after all.

I'm sure someone somewhere will write an article proving we are hitting that using some figures from somewhere... even if absolutely nothing actually changed.