[Gllug] NHSnet Choose and Book

[Vidar Hokstad]

On 1 Feb 2008, at 10:24, t.clarke wrote:
>
> The funadmental problem with the NHS, it seems, is that the whole  
> thing runs
> for the convenienceof the system rather than for the convenience of  
> the patients
> (sorry, we are all 'customers' or 'clients' now, in new-speak)


My wife works for a company that's providing outsourced support to  
managers in an NHS trust regarding personell issues. From what I hear  
from her, there's also clearly problems with attitude a lot of places  
- they get all kinds of cases related to employees that clearly are  
there not because they want to help anyone, but because they've  
realized it's a place where they can get away with nearly anything and  
still keep their jobs.

I'm sure most people there do want to help, but it doesn't take a  
large percentage of people who don't care, or that care more about  
having an easy ride, to make things grind to a halt. In fact, when  
implementing the advisory service, the company my wife works for ran  
into all kinds of problems with a couple of people that clearly saw an  
interest in making it fail and did what they could to delay things or  
mess people about (delay relaying messages regarding changed meeting  
times or locations until the absolute last minute even though they'd  
been told days before etc.).

In fairness, though, the reason for establishing the advisory service  
in question was that the current management of the trust in question  
really _do_ want to get things running smoothly, and part of the  
problem was that even managers that did want to make people work more  
efficiently and provide better service were unable to do so because  
the people they were meant to go to for training and support in  
handling things like disciplinary proceedings or firing people weren't  
doing their jobs and provided mediocre support at best. As a result,  
they are now cleaning up lots of cases where people should have ben  
fired for cause years ago but where the employees in question knew  
exactly how to game the system. Some people are in for a rude  
awakening...

I think outsourcing more non-essential services like that would be  
good for everyone if it's well managed - in this specific case, the  
company in question gets evaluated on very clear criteria like how  
many cases go to tribunal (they expect the reduced costs from fewer  
tribunal cases alone will make the service pay for itself several  
times over for the trust), but beyond that it'll also make the lives  
of those who want to do a good job so much easier.

Vidar

-- 
Vidar Hokstad <vidar at aardvarkmedia.co.uk>
Technical Director, Aardvark Media <http://www.aardvarkmedia.co.uk/>




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