But don't worry, the MPs are getting another pay rise this year.
Ekona wrote:From a totally outside POV, there has to be massive savings made at the management and supply levels. I believe I'm right in saying that, as a rule, the NHS massively overpay for the basics as Trusts buy stuff individually not as a collective, so the potential purchasing power is huge. Medicines as well, I bet there's a fortune to be saved there.
Force the Trusts to work together, give them a couple of years off of the targets to see if they CAN actually do a better job, and if they can't then get people in who can. I'd rather pay more tax for a system that works than what I'm paying for one that doesn't.
OH GOD THIS SO MUCH THIS.
Me and a mate were having one of our "put the world to rights" chats recently and he said that the way to fix the NHS (you know, it's that simple!) was to start by improving transport links everywhere, then ditching a lot of the underperforming local hospitals and replacing them with fewer, larger, "super-hospitals". Keep remembering the improved transport links, as this is the critical bit. I was talking about needing local A&Es and so forth, but if you could be quickly, cheaply and easily taken somewhere with an awesome hospital, would it be such an issue if that hospital wasn't as local?
Of course, it'll never happen because
a) people are precious about their local hospitals (understandable given that it's currently not that easy to get to other places in an emergency, especially in rural areas)
b) it would be political suicide to suggest closing hospitals, even if it was genuinely a good idea
and c) the government won't put the investment into the transport situation, let alone the NHS itself...