It’s being reported today that Conservative advisor Sir Peter Gershwin has leaked some of the ways David Cameron intends to save £12billion to pay for the national insurance freeze.
According to reports, up to £2bn can be saved immediately by not replacing back office staff that leave or retire from the public sector. Financial boffins have stated that this could lead to a cut of between 20,000 and 40,000 jobs, but given the range they have quoted, their methodology and calculations must be far from precise.
The Tories rebuked this, saying it’s not a direct cut and no job losses will be enforced. Apparently 400,000 vacancies arise in the public sector each year, but if the Conservatives get in, a fraction of these positions will cease to exist.
It all sounds very nice and streamlined, provided of course that it’s managed properly and key back office roles are not culled. Note, of course, that these are back office jobs only and not front line ones. I would suggest that back office performance impacts on front line services though.
Also, Sir Peter said that renegotiation of contracts with suppliers could save another £3bn and cutting consultant expenses would save another £2.5bn. Cuts in IT spending could reach a further £4bn.
A Tory spokesperson said;
“Sir Peter has now comprehensively demolished Gordon Brown’s whole argument by showing that the numbers do add up and that our plans would not hit the front line.”
These savings are on top of an already forecast £15bn efficiency drive – identified by Alistair Darling in the budget – to cut the dead wood from Whitehall. But Dave accepts that this is far from enough to halt the slide into financial oblivion and a lot more is going to need to be saved…
Or taxed.
Well I’m not immediately in favour of this as an idea. It’s fine not replacing staff if they were really unnecessary in the first place, but it’s far too random to be a good strategy. A good example of this is how Fylde council cut costs under the current administration. They put on a staff hiring freeze and consequently didn’t have anyone capable of producing meaningful accounts. For several years they were heavily fined by the audit commission and the figures the Councillors were using to make decisions were very different to the final figures produced. As and any business person knows – hell almost any adult – you have to know how much you have to spend when income is limited. As such a massive loss on the Streetscene department went unnoticed for 10 months and we lost the pool (to be re-opened allegedly soon now that a £11million loan is being taken out – but only £0.5 million is being spent on the pool because cash-strapped councils apparently need a new Town Hall and can’t make do and mend like the rest of us.)
So in summary – a foolish plan if not carefully monitored. But at least they realise they need to cut costs.
Torys are turning in to fucking crackpots.
I back reform, especially in areas of IT, I could tell you a story about that, believe me.
Get rid of PC positions, anything with race,diversity, equality etc, get rid, useless jobs that create nothing but resentment.
By the way, I work in the public scetor, the waste and red tape makes me seethe,over to you TB!, lol
Thanks for the intro Harold, like most things this Liebour Government has touched there is so much money just wasted on non-causes and non-jobs. It makes me cringe and makes me sick hearing Brown harping on about ‘record investment in the NHS’. I don’t give a toss how much he claims to have invested, the facts are it is money squandered on non-jobs and red tape and stupid targets and it is wasted money we can’t afford with a massive deficit. We need to end this Government interference in the NHS. LABOUR OUT 2010!!!!!
Good point TB let people like Shipman run the NHS let them set the targets.
Why do you keep bringing up the Shipman thing? I work in the NHS and the fact is there is too much interference and pointless targets and red tape all to make the politicians like that slimy smug toad Andy Burnham look good. I became a nurse to help my patients not to help politicians feed their egos. All this ‘record investment’ is not being spent on doctors and nurses, it is being wasted on jobsworth managers and pen-pushers. Labour just squanders money for the fun of it.
lol Hooray for Harold Shipman sorry Lloyd! lol
TB I understand you position and frustration to some degree,its the waste that gets to me.
Sorry TB but you seem to keep asserting that the NHS is best left in the hand of Medics (be they nurses or Doctors). I feel it is worth pointing out way this is a mistaken assumption (and Shipman is the best well know example of this there are many more). The increase investment in the health service hasn’t all gone on nurses and doctors you are right but there are more healthcare professionals employed by the NHS now then ever before. I am a nurse myself (but in fairness I now always refer to myself as a manager) and I have to ask the question how as a nurse are we qualified to judge what is required and how to manage these requirements for the population as a whole. Private hospitals are managed with little financial input by medics and do very well. You seem to be suggesting that we just give a pot of money to a hospital and let the Doctors spend it as they feel would this really be the best idea?
That is not exactly what I am saying, I am simply pointing out how the ridiculous number of unecessary managers and jobsworths are interfering with everything. Like I said I came into nursing to make a difference, I have no interest in being a manager. I agree managers should manage, doctors and nurses should practice. But there is too much Government interference and too many needless managers sticking their noses in. We should be left to do our jobs to the best of our ability. I don’t want that slimy twat Andy Burnham telling us how to do our jobs. He is about the worst Health Secretary we have ever had. There is so much money just squandered by this Government that could be better spent. Like why couldn’t money be spent on life-saving drugs and providing a 24-hour CT scan and thrombolysis service for stroke patients instead of squandered on managers and red tape to make this wretched Government look good.
“I am simply pointing out how the ridiculous number of unecessary managers and jobsworths are interfering with everything”
spot on TB 100%!
I agree that the NHS is used as a political tool by this Government and its target culture serves only to provide a blinkered view of what’s actually going on.
I think there should be a relatively bottomless pit of money available to the NHS, but I believe that access to it must be well and truly justified and that there must be a perpetual efficiency drive within the service.
Encouraging hospitals to jump into bed with PFIs doesn’t help patient healthcare. In fact in some cases it was shown that the financial management and money allocation had meant that some hospitals were failing patients.
Vince gives em hell!
http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/latest-national-news/Lib-Dems-turn-on-proTory.6217447.jp
so has education; been used as a political tool by TOOLS…….
I like Vince Cable I think he could be the best Chancellor we might never have. But I could say exactly the same thing about trade unions. I think they have a much tighter stranglehold over the country than big business.
I agree I dont like idea of either group having a straglehold over how the country is run,big business nor TUs.
If there is a hung parlaiment, i want Vince to be chancellor.
I agree John. The problem is, what you finished up with there is exactly what the Conservatives claim their NHS policy is!
I think with private healthcare or private anything there are clear financial boundaries. With the NHS there appears to be an unlimited pot of money so they just ask for more instead of seeking efficiencies.
All this “doctors and nurses” stuff is just Labour propaganda. What we want is a better service: as a customer I don’t really care how many employees there are. I don’t think it follows that employing more staff equals better service.
When I go to my GP, I never get seen on time. Never ever, even when I’ve had an appointment before 9am. It took me 10 visits to 4 different GPs over a period of 2 years before they believed that I had severe pain in my ankle (clearly they were oblivious to the limping and other factors).
I was referred for physio and it took 4 months before I could actually see one, by which time my symptoms had for the most part disappeared.
The two times I have been to the hospital I’ve had to wait way over what can be called a reasonable time.
I had to wait 3 hours beyond my appointment time to see an orthopaedic consultant because all the other consultants had been allowed to go on holiday at the same time. Then I had to wait 4 hours to get an injection by a consultant which I later found out could have been done by my GP.
If it’s this much of a shambles now, what was it like pre-1997?
You can have as many doctors and nurses as you like but there’s no point unless they have people to allocate them properly and ensure that they are providing value for money to the taxpayer.
I agree there Phil, quality not quantity. Labour thinks more is better with everything. They claim ‘record investment’ but where is the real improvement. But I feel one cause of the problems you point out is the massive interference I speak of. Too many targets and bureaucracy, if we we’re just allowed to get on with our jobs maybe things would be more efficient. Here is an example, I once heard if a patient is being transferred from a ward at BVH to Parkwood (which is on the same site in a separate building) they have to go by Ambulance because it is separate trusts. It is this sort of waste that annoys me.
Right haven’t got time to post all my thoughts on the NHS now but I will tonight I do feel, and I think I can put up a very good argument why I am right, that the NHS 2010 is better then the NHS 1997.
I don’t think anyone is denying that it’s better now, the question is whether it’s better in proportion to the amount of additional money and resources that have been pumped into it. If you can make a case for that, then I’m all ears!
Hit the nail on the head Phil,last 2 times I went to hospital, on both occasions both nurses said they wanted out,due to the excess red tape etc;it shocked me.
They may ell do John,but the same reason from 2 different people on 2 different occasions?
Too much of a coincidence?
Well Phil if we are agreed that the NHS is better now then 13 years ago you now ask a very difficult question. Was the money well spent? In part the answer is clearly yes people were dying from all sort of preventable deaths because of the stay on the waiting lists. The organisation of hospitals and specialty centres under the government was also money well spent. To a large part investing in training for healthcare professionals has paid off look at the jobs done by non doctors which sucked up so much of the medic’s time and this now releases them to do more. Again in the main investing in managers has also paid of (I know this is a unpopular view but look at how much time consultants spend with patient care now compared to before. Phil your story of all orthos gone on holiday at the same time I think someone lied to you. I know in the NHS hospitals from which we get our patients and consultants this cannot happen. It did before this government took the power of the doctors but no longer.). Waste in the NHS is at a record low (still high compared to my sector)but this does point to good management.
Now to your question phil is it cost beneficial? In truth I don’t think it is the NHS is clearly trying to do too much. Under this government the NHS has improved beyond compare to what it was. I feel it is better ready to meet the new challenges then it has ever been before. Do I feel the Labour government is ready and willing to make the next bold steps, No I don’t. The NHS in my view needs to cut down on what it treats in what services it offers. This government will never do this.
TB feels that more resources should be poured into the NHS (more CT scanners). This can’t go on in the paper you read every day of so and so denied life saving cancer drug. We all know why this happens one patient having three extra years of life or 200 hip operations or 800 cataracts procedures. A line does have to be drawn. Medics will not draw this line nor should they this is the choice of our elective government.
Now phil where has this government failed? One of its big failings is the GPs these are paid for by the NHS but are not run by them but by the doctors who own them. The GPs should be brought into the NHS as soon as possible this government is trying with the super clinics. It is worth noting that the GPs (doctors) are fighting tooth and nail to stop these clinics telling all sorts of lies about them.
I will take you as an example why the GPs are failing us. You went to your GP with a simple joint complaint; the GP you saw had little knowledge of joints or orthopaedics so he fobs you off rather then admitting it. This clearly happened a few times before you where referred. The GP practice should have offered to do the injection for you but with no direct government control on how they operate they can do what they want. If you went to a super clinic it should operate something like this.
You go in you say you got a joint pain the orthopaedic specialist in the centre see you (this could take time depending on the patients which come in that day but at least you see a doctor which will help you). The doctor diagnoses your problem (or says this isn’t joint pain it’s something else and it’s a referred pain he will then hopeful send you to a doctor in the centre who can help you) and then offers you treatment.
This is how it should run but it will take money away from GPs all ready up and running and these practices will fight to stop these clinics from ever opening.
One final point to Harold don’t trust nurses who say paper work has increased by any large amount. What they are really saying is the managers are now making sure we are doing our paperwork correctly and not skipping things.
Just re read this post could have done it a bit better. it does jump about a bit but i think you can get my point. Hopfully
Good post John, this is the kind of view I have heard from other (unbiased) NHS staff.
That is a very good post John, I don’t agree with all of it, but some excellent points. I see what you mean about the life-saving drugs but what I am saying is that money that the trusts refuse to spend on the drug is being squandered on some non-cause. I agree it is a question of benefit the many who need those operations over the few who need the drug, we don’t have a bottomless pit of money like Labour seems to think.
John the comments were made by nurses who showed me round the hospital, I dont know what positions they held, but to get that kind of responsse when I asked them how things were shocked me.This was the VIC and both said they were looking for jobs OUTSIDE the hospital.
It didnt inspire me with confidence
.
If you went to Tescos and each occasion were told that things were bad, and that cashiers were wanting out,wouldnt you think, whats going on here?
TB you are confusing me now are you saying the NHS is better now but its costing to much and we should cut back on services. Or are you saying its been mismanaged which all available data sort of says its not. I would also be interested to know what you don’t agree with and why.
Harold I do understand why nurses want to stop being nurses I also understand why people want to leave one organisation and join another. Just don’t feel the paperwork thing is the reason its just a excuse they are giving.
Yes John, I guess that is what I mean there is too much money being spent and in the wrong places. I disagree on the points about managers. There is nothing wrong with having some managers because I am trained to treat patients not be a manager. But I feel there is too many needlessly costing a lot of money and I feel there is far too much interference from the Government. I will be glad to see the back of that slimy toad Andy Burnham next month as Health Secretary.
count me in as well TB!
All political partys promise the earth and deliver nothing why?
View the following websites if you already haven,t.
Frankfurt school political correctness
Common purpose uk exposed
well said Sir! PC is the no 1 enemy of free thought and speech.