Is one NHS Executive worth 20 nurses?

Question

Anyone who uses NHS services knows - and greatly appreciates - what nurses do. But do you know that these hoards of executives get paid ten times more than nurses? But what do they actually do to earn it? Apparently they 'attend meetings' !! The current NHS crisis is proof positive that they do very little else. At around £280K a year they still need to pay 'business consultants' - at £20K a day - to tell them how to do the job! When I worked in the real world of industry, anyone who fell down on the job was promptly booted out! But this lot get 'performance bonuses'!! It seems that these days bungling incompetance and ineptitude are lavishly rewarded! So what would you do to sort out the NHS - other than the obvious first step of booting out all these executives and taking on more trained nurses.

Answer 1

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!

With the introduction of the NHS Trust in the early 90's, I witnessed a massive waste of money and quite a bit of nepotism. Jobs were invented for people who were surplus to requirements.

The hospital I worked in had 5 psychiatric units...2 elderly services admissions, 2 acute admissions and 1 day hospital.

these units had 1 manager working day shift and 1 manager working night shift.
When the trusts came in, they took on 5 managers..1 for each ward and gave them 24hr responsibility. Bonus' were introduced for on-call and that on top of the inflated pay rise they all got, sent the budget spiralling.

After a few years running like this...the Trust was complaining of overspending..not by a little, but by millions and millions of pounds.

I don't ever recall being overspend by these ridiculous amounts of money before the introduction of so many managers.

No wonder there are so many problems in the NHS today..all due to lack of funding.

Enough said!!!

Answer 2

This is a really good question and one that as a nurse, I've asked myself thousands of times. The NHS is now run as a business, and therefore managers do not need to have any clinical knowledge or experience whatsoever. I currently work as a pre-operative assessment nurse under the Directorate of Anaesthetics - our manager is actually an accountant. Trustwide, there is a Director of Nursing & Quality and I wouldn't know her if I tripped over her in the street.

On the other hand, I don't know of any nurses that would want to do the job - there is no direct patient contact, it's not 'hands on' which what most of us love to do. It would be one meeting after another, trying to balance the books...nurses in that role would become de-skilled.

I don't know what the answer is, but whatever it is someone needs to come up with it quickly cos the NHS is sinking fast right now.

Answer 3

....and yet if the attitudes of the private sector are attached to the NHS all you angry people start to shout about how it cant be ran as a business as it needs to be for the people and not for profit.
The problem is that public and private sector require different skills they really cant be compared. In a public position you must be target driven and politically competent otherwise the political systems that have been set up will fall down around you.
This is true in a lot of cases anyway as many of the political systems cannot work as they are already the proverbial camel. This means that top jobs are usually final jobs as your reputation can be ruined, if you are never going to work again after taking a certain job then you want a very high salary and a very large pension after you finish.

What we need is not a change of upper management it is a change of policy that does not base health services on how well they are doing compared to other health services, we need a total re-write and re-build. We also need someone who understands the service to design it as a service that serves the people with good care in clean environments. It will be expensive so then the argument is would you pay for it, and then the problem is why the health service first, why not schools, policing, fire service.
I actually wish that a party would form that would run and say, we are going to do this and this for 5 years, we will tax you heavily for it and we will fix it. You will hate us as we wont listen to public consultations, faith groups, minority groups or other distractions because as far as we are concerned people are people and we dont know of any differences in brain or biology, we will just do it and do it well. Then we will get out.
I would vote for them

Answer 4

I agree and these over paid paper pushers do such stupid things. A new hospital I saw is going to be oval rather than rectangular. Have you ever tried painting a curved wall - it will increase building costs and maintenance costs and the NHS is going to lease it from the private sector. But some nurses have climbed the ladder to "nursing officer" and they can be useless too. But I suppose if they left them on the wards they would be even more dangerous! But when the books don't balance they always get rid of 20 nurses rather than one paper pusher. Computers can do the work of 50 bookkeepers. But a computer can't do the work of 20 doctors or nurses. Well actually I would prefer a computer to my GP. But the hospital doctors are usually quite good. Some of them!

Answer 5

I have been a nurse for 34yrs working in the same hospital .
We used to have a couple of Nursing Officers who knew all the staff and ran the place like clockwork. I now have so many *bosses* I don't know what they do or who they are,but they certainly go to a lot of meetings , don't know what most of them are about either but patient care is definitely not top of their list.

Answer 6

Promote from within. Those highly qualified staff need to be given the opportunity (and incentive) of career progression. Appointing so called "Executives" who seem only to fleece the system must be so disheartening for the real workers in the NHS.

Your question is very good - and really well put.

Answer 7

There like woodlice lift up the wood the scuttle back to somewhere dark.
What happened to the good old marton who was in charge,ruled the roost & got everything done, including getting her/his sleeves rolled up when thing got busy.
I'd like to see a so called executive with a bed pan in his/her hand.

Answer 8

Put it on the list of everything that is wrong with this country and I will sort it out when my party "The Common Sense Party" is elected to government.

Answer 9

Put a panel of dedicated, experienced nurses and health care assistants in charge.

Answer 10

Esquiresr for Prime Minister!!

Hear Hear!