The New Cabinet

Hunt wants his version of 24/7 without any extra expense. The phrase is cost neutral. It is not possible. He thought just tinkering with overtime rates would solve the problem. It will not. He is just spreading the same number of staff over more days.

I do not want my hospital to be compared to Tesco.
However, lately, I have noticed that some supermarkets are changing their hours so they are not open 24/7. Tesco's was one of them.
In fact, Tesco was never open 24/7 because it has always been illegal to open for a full Sunday. Should Tesco workers get a better deal than the NHS?

Jayh, hope your foot is okay. Presumably your husband will be doing lots of extra jobs around the house to make up for it.

Well if we must have the shopping analogy, there are unlikely to be any senior managers, certainly no office staff and very few checkout people available in the middle of the night. Exactly in fact the situation that happens in our hospitals already. If you were to suggest to Tescos that they should provide exactly the same staffing at all times of the day and night they would laugh out loud and tell you it wasn't financially viable.

I would certainly not expect it to be 'cost neutral'! Good care costs money. If 7 day working could be implemented (obviously with increased staffing to run all the shifts) then waiting lists would be reduced. Only snag being trying to do it with insufficient funding. Och?

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/07/15/rsa-animate-economics-is-for-everyone/

Do you think Hammond has seen this?

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

DJ what a silly post.

Well not a cat's chance in hell of getting more funding Jane10. During the election campaign I remember Cameron (in the only TV debate his minders allowed him to appear in) saying that he was kindly "giving" the NHS an extra £8billion over the next 5 years. In the next throwaway remark he mentioned that the NHS is also going to have to make £22billion "efficiency savings" This at a time when the NHS was already stretched with demand growing quite fast due to our ageing population. Unfortunately none of the other party leaders pointed out this amounted to a £14 billion cut in funding. Health economists are agreed that the NHS has been starved of the funds it needs just to maintain status quo, since the 2010 election.
So why suddenly start saying they need to provide a gold plated 24/7 service in all departments at this point?

Why is dj's post silly?

I know further funding is unlikely to be available. I was just thinking in writing I suppose. Having worked in NHS I can see that its possible to work differently to achieve better results but this is the face of increased expectation and new expensive treatments being developed all the time. I'd hate to have to be the Health minister. Its a really tough situation all round and we're all actual or potential patients.

www.health.org.uk/sites/default/files/Spending-Review-Nuffield-Health-Kings-Fund-December-2015_spending_review_what_does_it_mean_for_health_and_social_care.pdf

Figures here, Jess.

Which post, Anya? Note she didn't call me silly, just the post, whichever one that is.

Jane, the government has always said that the NHS is ring-fenced. However you look at it, giving it £8 million while asking it to save £22 million is not ring-fencing.

nhap.org/dr-paul-hobday-leader-of-the-national-health-action-party-responds-to-jeremy-hunt-remaining-in-post-as-health-secretary-in-theresa-mays-new-cabinet/

Interesting to see what Theresa May said when she was in opposition.

Why don't the GPs cover weekends on a rota. Covering a certain area. Most people don't need to go to A%E Their own staff work with them.

My Dad was a GP on call 24/7/365. He and another local GP used to take turn about for weekends off.
Dj I never said it would be was but then it never was!

Missing word 'easy'

I was a GP who worked in a rota that worked out at about one in four.

However, the alternative was my head hitting the wall at the bottom of the stairs, so I probably came off lightly.
Ah - that is how I sprained my ankle really badly years ago. It was either my head or my foot.
It must have been instinct, as it probably was with you djen

I think savings could be made in some areas of the NHS, in particular the cost of medicines.

Procurement could be thoroughly investigated and firms over-charging the NHS brought to task; charges for agency workers are extortionate too. The same staff who claim to be so over-worked in the NHS will sometimes go and work for an agency during their holiday - therefore getting no break at all.

I have seen two or three NHS nurses or healthcare assistants in clinics leisurely doing the work which one could carry out, whereas ward staff are at their wits' end trying to cope.

galen my Dad was in single handed practice. So was the other doctor so every other w/e he was sole cover for 2 entire GP practices! Those were the real bad old days.

I see this morning that the Medical Agency, at the moment located in Carany Wharf, is now expected to go into EU - it has a big say in the medicines used in Europe and world wide - this was known prior to Brexit and Farage just said he was sorry but they should be looking at alternative Health!! 890 jobs will be gone - Sweden and a few other countries hoping to get the work instead - another great loss and less of a say from GREAT Britain.!
I wonder if this great new Cabinet can do anything to stop it.

As we bow out of having a say in which drugs and treatments are to be approved for use across Europe.
It's Ok though because homeopathic "remedies" won't have to be carefully scrutinised because sugar pills are completely safe.

@ww

I know somebody who works there and she's not happy (as you can imagine). The ridiculous think is that the UK will have to set up its own agency, if it wants to sell medicines abroad. If it doesn't, British pharmaceutical companies might relocate. Pharma is one of the UK's biggest exports.

Oh God. More reason for saying brexit stupid stupid stupid!