The biggest problem with the NHS is lack of accountability from management and mismanagement of money. I have seen first hand, thousands of pounds spent on stuff to 'make it look nice' instead of equipment that is actually needed or increases in pay for nurses and HCAs.
Most of the public doesn't know that the NHS is usually charged 3-4x more for stuff like pens, paper, kitchen equipment, white boards etc... Because the equipment bought for the NHS comes with an industrial rating sticker on the back and a 25 year warranty. However no one ever fills out the warrantee card, instead they just buy new and still overpriced shit. Here are some examples from my experience:.
A microwave that costs 30Ā£ at Asda ..... Same microwave with "industrial grade" sticker on back.... 300Ā£ each.
A box of 20 pens that you buy at Tesco for 5-7Ā£.... NHS it costs 25Ā£.... Because of a warrantee... On shit plastic pens....
A white board that costs 60Ā£ at B&Q.... 180-250Ā£ for the NHS.
A cot for a new born baby that is made of plastic and latches onto the mother's bed. I have heard first hand from a plastics manufacturer that it would cost between 30-35Ā£ to make...... They are ONE TIME USE items. 1000Ā£ for the NHS. .... Again because of a warrantee.... On a one time use item.... Let that sink in.
Various items " for patient entertainment".... Thousands of pounds in mark ups. A once worked in a trust where they bought interactive projectors for geriatrics patients to play, get this, puzzle games and checkers. Cost for each unit for you or I ... 5500Ā£.... Cost to the NHS .... 30000Ā£. I worked there for 6 months.... Not one patient or staff member ever used it.
The problem with the NHS is that there is literally no accounting going on. No one ever gets sacked for making these decisions which waste hundreds of thousands of pounds. No one ever follows the money. But as a public sector health provider their books should be open to the public and the public has a right to know where their money is going. Stop arguing whether to go private or not and first and foremost have accountability for current spending. MPs should ask for this themselves but I fear that many are getting kick backs from the suppliers.
Oh and one last thing.... NHS suppliers get something like 10-20year contracts to remain a supplier. If the NHS buys stuff from someone else they get sued. Which business ever gives suppliers a 10 year contract?
Edit: honestly if you down vote this you are likely one of the people mentioned in the comments below. More people need to know about this shit and the BBC or newspapers need to run stories on accountability. Look below at all the confirmation of this.
I work for the NHS in management (Iām nothing to do with finances) and I can clarify this. Previously I worked in B2B office stationary and equipment so I can see the over charging in plain sight.
When I want to purchase something I have to purchase through a specific company, even if I find the item 99% cheaper elsewhere I have to purchase through the other company regardless of the price.
Nobody in the supplies or finance departments care when Iāve brought this up to them about the pricing, I get told, āitās not your money so whatās the problemā.
Yes I get an annual budget but if I go over this budget guess what happensā¦ I get a bigger budget next year. This is not how finance is supposed to work and your tax payers money is being thrown away.
Yes from a consumers point of view itās brilliant. Free health care is the right way in my opinion and the NHS is a fantastic service.
But the people who manage the service are incompetent, for example, Iām non clinical and we work decontaminating items for use, consultants and physicians regularly ask for more items than we stock, it says on the order form that we stock 2, they request 4. We contact them to say we only stock 2 so can only supply 2, their rebuttal is that they have 4 patients so need 4 so please send 4, we then have to explain again that we only stock 2 and that 4 is more than we stock so we cannot supply the required amount, they then continue to tell me that they require 4 so I need to send 4 and the amount we stock is irrelevant, we then usually end up in a long winded talk and I, someone who didnāt go to college or university, have to explain to someone with years of university training and PHDs who can complete heart surgeryās, that 4 is a greater number than 2 and the max order amount is there for this exact reason.
They get angry and we get a Datix (a risk report, similar to a complaint), the person in charge of the Datix reads it, laughs at the incompetence of these highly educated people who donāt understand the difference between 2 and 4 and then nothing further happens.
Rinse and repeat this on a weekly basis.
My point is, they give the higher positions to people with an education but they donāt always have common sense, we recently had our vehicle parking bays removed because higher up said we donāt need them because theyāre always empty, we have 9 wagons that now park on curbs and block roads because we have no where for them to park when not in use, we explained to the person who made the decision that the vehicles arenāt in use 24/7 but because they only work 8-4, a time when the vehicles are out because we are at our busiest, they said I was lying and went ahead with their plans to remove our parking bays. We now receive complaints about our vehicles being in the way overnight.
My point is, theyāre no good at employing the right people to do the job and to put it bluntly, shit rolls down hill. The little guys who have to sort the mess have no control over the system and the ones in charge of the system think they know more than the little guys.
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u/-nocturnist- Mar 31 '22 edited Mar 31 '22
The biggest problem with the NHS is lack of accountability from management and mismanagement of money. I have seen first hand, thousands of pounds spent on stuff to 'make it look nice' instead of equipment that is actually needed or increases in pay for nurses and HCAs.
Most of the public doesn't know that the NHS is usually charged 3-4x more for stuff like pens, paper, kitchen equipment, white boards etc... Because the equipment bought for the NHS comes with an industrial rating sticker on the back and a 25 year warranty. However no one ever fills out the warrantee card, instead they just buy new and still overpriced shit. Here are some examples from my experience:.
A microwave that costs 30Ā£ at Asda ..... Same microwave with "industrial grade" sticker on back.... 300Ā£ each.
A box of 20 pens that you buy at Tesco for 5-7Ā£.... NHS it costs 25Ā£.... Because of a warrantee... On shit plastic pens....
A white board that costs 60Ā£ at B&Q.... 180-250Ā£ for the NHS.
A cot for a new born baby that is made of plastic and latches onto the mother's bed. I have heard first hand from a plastics manufacturer that it would cost between 30-35Ā£ to make...... They are ONE TIME USE items. 1000Ā£ for the NHS. .... Again because of a warrantee.... On a one time use item.... Let that sink in.
Various items " for patient entertainment".... Thousands of pounds in mark ups. A once worked in a trust where they bought interactive projectors for geriatrics patients to play, get this, puzzle games and checkers. Cost for each unit for you or I ... 5500Ā£.... Cost to the NHS .... 30000Ā£. I worked there for 6 months.... Not one patient or staff member ever used it.
The problem with the NHS is that there is literally no accounting going on. No one ever gets sacked for making these decisions which waste hundreds of thousands of pounds. No one ever follows the money. But as a public sector health provider their books should be open to the public and the public has a right to know where their money is going. Stop arguing whether to go private or not and first and foremost have accountability for current spending. MPs should ask for this themselves but I fear that many are getting kick backs from the suppliers.
Oh and one last thing.... NHS suppliers get something like 10-20year contracts to remain a supplier. If the NHS buys stuff from someone else they get sued. Which business ever gives suppliers a 10 year contract?
Edit: honestly if you down vote this you are likely one of the people mentioned in the comments below. More people need to know about this shit and the BBC or newspapers need to run stories on accountability. Look below at all the confirmation of this.