Apr 16 2007
The glossy brochure industry is alive and well in the NHS
I received another four glossy brochures just today from different parts of the NHS telling me how wonderful things are - or could be if only there was proper partnership working between local Trusts, PCTs and local authorities. Apparently it takes more glossy brochures to get these parts of the public sector to talk to each other and to decide who is responsible for what!
My day was made, however, by a letter entitled "Dear colleague" from the Chairman and Chief Executive of NHS South Central. The letter wisely explained to readers who do not recognise "South Central" as their home that it is a new SHA (cue budgets for PR, new letter heads, extra recruits and don’t forget the focus group research and letter writing) covering an area from Milton Keynes to the Isle of Wight.
The whole letter was about the generation of "surpluses" in 2006-7 and 2007-8. A most helpful table appended to the letter shows that they expect a surplus of?? ??33.5 million overall. Of this ??29.1 million or 87% of it comes from the surplus of the South Central SHA itself.?? You might think that’s impressive, until you pause to see that the SHA credits itself with an eye popping ??283.5 million or nearly 10% of the total going to the SHA and the hospitals combined. Why do they need so much? Is it really well done that they have created a surplus when they have held back ??29.1 million that the SHA bureaucracy did not need, that might have done some good in the hospitals?
We are told that "PCTs have performed remarkably well given the reorganisation that has taken place this year". Could that be the same reorganisation that was?? going to improve services and raise efficiency? Why is it now seen as a possible drag on performance? The largest deficit in 2006/7 is forecast as the Buckinghamshire PCT at ??17.7 million. We are merely told that "further challenges remain in Buckinghamshire"! What challenges? What is the SHA doing about it? Are they diverting cash from places that have balanced the books to pay for the overrun? Milton Keynes PCT has a forecast deficit of another ??6.9 million in 2006/7 - my geography tells me that’s in Bucks as well, but I am reassured to learn that they will?? break even next year!
??The advantage of all this hard work controlling deficits they had run up in previous years will be felt next year, we are told. In one of their more memorable split infinitives we learn "Our improved financial position will enable us to better plan for the national priorities that have been set out this year". Wow. What a promise. What are these priorities? Are they the same as the needs of??their patients? Will my constituents be dancing in the streets that at last there is money for the national priorities? Does it mean the backlog of operations and treatments will now clear? How easy will it be to reach a Doctor out of hours?
??The authors admit that the??"financial difficulties"??"have at times caused public alarm and anxiety, especially when the deficits??have been accompanied with clinical service re-configuration proposals." Please understand, all you who live in the jargon filled world of NHS senior management, that constituents are not staying awake at night worrying about the deficits of NHS trusts, but patients do worry a great deal about cuts in services and closures of facilities which are often the way NHS managers respond to deficits. They rarely undertake a glossy brochure cull, or cut the number of managers. It is usually some local facility that closes, which worries those who used it.
Today I visited an NHS facility. The GP unit was closed, with the NHS discussing if it should be sold off for housing development. The palliative care centre that was open was grateful to local charitable groups for raising money to buy some much needed new equipment.
I look forward to a letter from South Central NHS telling me that they are going to use the extra money to expand medical staff and facilities. I will fear I will grow old waiting, but at least I will have plenty of glossy brochures and letters to read instead!
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John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
It is unfortunate that you choose to discuss how the NHS ‘wastes’ money on literature when you yourself have two websites dedicated to yuor own ramblings about the state of the world. Taking the argument that NHS money would be better spent on care rather than informing patients and the public about what is happerning in the local NHS in a more balanced light then surely your are wasting significant sums of money on your websites which I am sure are read by very few people.
Stop using the NHS for political point scoring and recognise the excellent work all staff including managers do on patients behalf. It appears from your diatribe that one manager is one too many in the NHS - fortunately most of us live inthe real world and recognise efficient management equals better services for patients. Would you really like to see a situation where front line clinical staff like nurses and GPs have to take time away from treating patients to manage the NHS??