This has to be the ultimate in waste of NHS funds.

I feel the problem with the NHS is too much management taking the money which should be spent on nurses and treatment.

Joelsnan and Rosina, me too and I felt it was a huge relief as I found the test very uncomfortable. One the other hand, I did have a small negative thought about how it highlighted I could never become pregnant again.
However, I do have the knowledge that I was born a woman, feel like I am a woman and happily living as one. I guess it is harder to understand somebody feeling that they are a lesser woman unless we've walked in their shoes. Which is more expensive, testing them or ongoing counselling about their distress at not feeling like a real woman? Whilst my natural instinct is to say ffs, just man up, my rational thought process can see that it is a minefield.
I've worked in small business, Education and the Civil Service. In Media it seemed that the more money you could spend getting "the look" was fundamental, in Education you could waste many a work hour for the entire staff arguing about which eraser to buy and in the Civil Service you were too idle to worry about who was spending what. In small business, every penny counted so you went for best value.

I agree with Granny pauline, PFI is a huge waste, we're just giving money to shareholders that should go on treatments

petra no I haven't worked for a nationalised industry TG.
But I did work for a LG Ed. authority and this accountability thing was getting worse when I retired. In the 90s.
So I know what you mean. I think.

Joelsnan I had the same op; I wonder if we should be offended, kick up a fuss and insist that we are called for testing even though we don't have that particular bit of anatomy any longer? I too found the article beyond belief - but there it was, in the Telegraph.

When I had my hysterectomy I received a letter saying I would not be called for smear testing as I no longer had a cervix. Surely this should be the only criteria.
I cannot believe the content of the OP, but maybe the world is crazy, it certainly seems so a lately.

I spent my life working for the real world of state schools where money spent has to be accounted for and justified and scrutinised again and again!

Where the faults lie, in any state run organisations is at central government level and not at the front line! Targets, dictats, 'good ideas' & continual changes from the centre is what wastes the money.. especially when they ignore the skills, knowledge and expertise of those that actually know! (AKA 'experts'.. but they are out of fashion with the right wingers!)

I had a big-wig business partner once ..he was supposed to help be run my schoolas part of some government scheme to show us how the real world worked( for which his company got a tax break for getting involved)
He was horrified that one person, i.e. me had to do the range of work required of me and did not have a PA. He was horrified at the staff room, the lack of resources, quality of décor, the fact staff paid for their own tea & coffee. That was before we actually got to the classrooms or looked at the budget
In his 'real world' at Goldman Sachs he ran a department with fewer staff than I had but he had a PA, an expensive & original art work on his luxurious office wall (mine kitted out from IKEA!) & his taff had some fancy coffee machine at their disposal and a subsidised restaurant (not even a canteen!) He drove a state of the art sporty soft top. I had a Ford Ka His job was to buy music futures mine was to ensure human futures.

I have many friends who run small businesses and I know it is different for them... more like my experience of trying to keep a small school going!

If it wasn't so serious it could be a scene from 'The life of Brian'
In fact there was a scene where Reg wanted to be a woman.
Fennel
Have you ever worked for a nationalised industry?
They have a completely different mindset to people who work in the real world where money spent has to be accounted for and justified.

I don’t think immigrants ‘pour’ into our country and nor should the NHS be under pressure from such a small increase.

Contrary to populist opinion JenniferEccles most contribute taxes etc to the U.K. economy and thus are not draining our public services if these taxes were funnelled into Education, the NHS, police and other services.

There are two basic reasons the NHS is failing in some areas; lack of funding from central government and lack of qualified staff. Thousands of nursing positions are vacant because they cannot be filled....especially now that many nurses from the EU are returning to their home country.

"‘Migrants are healthier and contribute to our economy and the NHS,’ UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health chair says"

And more from the Independent:

"Populist claims that migrants heap pressure on the NHS and swamp schools by having more children have been debunked in a major international review which finds they are actually healthier and reproduce less than non-migrants.

Stricter anti-immigrant policies, like the UK’s “hostile environment”, actually increase the risks and costs for health systems and reduce GDP, the Commission on Migration and Health claimed."

Any FACTS forthcoming from the anti-immigrant lot?

The increase in those with chronic ailments, those with disabilities living longer, the growth in the elderly population, - these groups much more likely to make demands on the NHS than younger working age people who make up the majority of migrants, ( yes and many of those work on healthcare), so why not bash those groups as well.

I think the NHS needs a complete overhaul. It was started to help those who were ill or injured - not for non-medical surgical procedures. Do those running the NHS actually try to save money - perhaps there should be incentives in place for those who authorise the use of funds.

There was a story a few years ago about a hospital which needed a new blind (not in a surgical area). The usual supplier was contacted and quoted several hundred pounds to supply and fit. A nurse appalled at the overcharge contacted a local supplier who supplied and fitted the blind for a fraction of the original quote

Successive governments haven't had the common sense to realise that with our population increasing none of them have made allowances for lots of things------housing, NHS, DWP, and nameless other things.
From around 55 million in the '80's to today at 70 million !

I've never known of such a volume of sick people-----and getting worse. We're going backwards at break-neck speed.

So the 300,000 plus increase in our population per year due to immigration should be ignored as a reason for the NHS being under pressure?






So the 300,000 extra people pouring into our country each year has no bearing at all on the NHS burden?

The worlds gone made !!! How you be tested for something you don't have ???

Im offended as a woman that this is even considered grrrrrrr

Having been back in the UK for a year now I'm also amazed at the surplus amount of paperwork. Making sure the patient is aware of this or that, and some of it contradictory and confusing. I get a letter from them nearly every week about one thing or another.
Sorry to go on about it, but in France the responsibility is more on the patients to monitor their own problems. Though we always got copies of blood test results, x rays, specialist reports etc.

EV the waste is still happening regardless of only
ordering what we need, meds’ scripts are changed,
people die, good people bring in unwanted meds
thinking they are doing something useful, save your
steps, all trashed.

With you there Grannypauline

As regards immigrants, I quote from the Channel 4 website:

"This research from the Nuffield Trust points out that the additional cost pressures on the NHS are largely driven by reasons other than migration – namely, our ageing population and the rising cost of wages."

So can we dump the scapegoat?

The BIG waste of money in the NHS is the PFI interest repayments, hiked cost to them by the pharma companies, and the outsourcing of services and staff.

Still, if you want to argue about the smaller costs I'm sure that's what we're supposed to focus on..

Pressures on the NHS due to immigration - couldn’t leave this unproven statement unchallenged- if it wasn’t for immmigrants we’d have hardly anyone working in the NHS.

Yes -there is lots of waste more than just issuing a few mistaken invites for testing. My MiL has huge stockpiles of medication which she doesn’t take - some of it really expensive - total waste. Replicate that over the country and it must cost millions.

Totally agree with your last sentence Terribull putting lives at risk as well. Unbelievable.

Cross posts paddyann ! Maybe ordinary folk like us is what is needed!

Isn't this an example of the madness which is draining precious resources from the NHS?

Successive governments of every persuasion have poured billions into it over the years, but surely what is needed is a radical overhaul to see exactly where all this money is going.

Yes, we all know our health service is under enormous pressure due mainly to immigration massively increasing our population, but the amount wasted must be huge.

I make a start by getting rid of a lot of the very well paid managers.

I've been saying for years its management in the NHS thats the problem ..too many chiefs and not enough Indians as my granny would have said and the ones at the top have no real concept of whats happening below them .Needs a complete overhaul .