Nhs

[canary]

May I add an observation as someone who has recently retired from a lifetime of working as a clinician in NHS hospitals?
Recently there has been a new "buzz phrase" around - it is "remote management" ie management is remote from the things it is managing. IMO this is what is seen in the NHS - managers are very seldom seen in clinics or wards and they do not really understand what is happening. They also do not see the results of their decisions (BTW, this is also true of government). Manys the time management has come up with a new way of doing things, or changing the organisation that have left my colleagues and I blinking and open mouthed saying that it would be unworkable. We have then been accused of being "resistant to change" and the diktat has gone ahead anyway. 6 months later when everything is much worse and there are complaints we have pointed out that the latest scheme is unworkable and the only response is that we "have to make it work"

PS: I have always tried to do my level best for all my patients, despite the constraints.

 

[AlsoConfused]

canary, I think you're right about a key organisational problem being "remote management" (management not being in close enough contact to see their brilliant wheezes won't work as they'd hoped).

I also think managers that are stressed and under pressure time-wise are more prone to adopting the "remote management" style.

My personal experience of the NHS has been of staff doing their best - and more than anyone could ask them to do - more often than is commonly the case in other organisations. That said, there is variance. When I was an in-patient on an eye ward, I noticed that when one Ward Manager was on duty everything seemed to "work" and patients were very well looked after. When another Ward Manager was on duty, everything seemed less organised and there seemed to be more time-wasting at the nurse station.

 

[Moonflower]

There is a huge amount of money wasted. Making management staff redundant, with big payoffs, and then immediately rehiring them should have been stopped, but it hasn't been.
In my experience, some frontline staff are caring, hard working and genuinely doing their best. Some are doing the bare minimum, speak rudely to patients and carers and couldn't care less.

 

[SerenaS]

Hi everyone,

I'm going to temporarily close this discussion, as a number of political posts have been made.

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