Next CEO of NHS

Credit where its due.....

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sajid-javid-vetoes-dido-harding-for-nhs-chief-executive-8cf3557ff

Brilliant. They've told it like it is.WWM2

WWM2 Exactly.

Tory dogma v the NHS ethos

Baggs Whilst you don't need to be a health professional I think that it's essential that whoever runs an organisation should believe in its ethos. It certainly should not be someone who supports a govt that would like to see the NHS privatised.

Dido Harding 's kick in the teeth to NHS staff

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/21/dido-harding-overseas-nhs-staff-nhs-england

Baggs the NHS is underfunded, and has been forced to close over 10,000 beds since the Tories came into power. That’s why there are problems when there is a heavy flu season.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/25/hospital-beds-at-record-low-in-england-as-nhs-struggles-with-demand

Can we do anything to prevent this travesty coming to fruition?

What I do think is that the NHS needs to be better run than it is at present, where it seems to be "in crisis" every flu season.

In reply to those who have commented that Dido Harding is "not even" a health professional, I'm not sure one needs to be a health professional to run a health service. Most GP practice managers are not health professionals but people qualified to 'run' the office side and the logistics of delivering a health service.

Which is not me saying that I think Dido Harding is the right person to be CEO of the NHS – I am not in a position to judge that – only that not being a health professional doesn't disqualify her, nor anyone else who might apply for the job.

“ The left-wing rag The Times ”. ?????????????

effalump

Hmmm! Do we really want a person who made such a hash of the track and trace system running to whole show?

I think that the answer is a resounding NO, but, this might be a good place to put this story from last year:

Shahmir Sanni
31 March 2020

I have worked for Conservative lobby groups. I have worked for the Brexit campaign. I have drunk with the people running this country; partied with them; cried with them; dined with them; and loved them. They were a community that supported me, people who came to me for compassion and emotional support. I was the friend they called “wet” for my liberal beliefs, but “smart” for my prowess in the digital landscape.

I have been in rooms with Conservative politicians and hacks where discussions around the NHS have centred around its privatisation. Behind closed (and sometimes even open) doors, the ideas are the same and often lack much nuance. Just pick up some research papers by Tufton Street think tanks and see for yourself.

Discussion centres around a simple idea that anything funded by the state is wrong. Many of these people reiterate the same one-liners to each other so much that they are convinced that there is no other way. At private dinners, I have heard public workers depicted as enemies of progress, the civil service conveyed as pointless and many key public services that make Britain what it is referred to as a nuisance. Whether it is care workers, teachers, nurses, doctors, civil servants, it does not matter – all of their roles can be replaced by the private sector and, in the eyes of many Conservative politicians, they should be.

“The NHS doesn’t need reform, it just needs to be sold-off,” is a phrase I have heard used at these private dinners. Along with: “Publicly-funded care workers aren’t essential, if people are getting old they should have worked hard when they were younger. Why should taxes pay for their laziness?” I have heard them jest “but what about Grenfell!” at the television whenever someone who asks for more funding for the NHS is being interviewed.

bylinetimes.com/2020/03/31/behind-closed-doors-johnson-and-his-cabinet-do-not-applaud-the-nhs-they-ideologically-oppose-it/

Hmmm! Do we really want a person who made such a hash of the track and trace system running to whole show?

I remember Dido Harding, trying to explain the failure of Test and Trace to stem the rise of covid cases last September, saying "no-one could have foreseen that students would be returning to universities in September" (or words to that effect). I could not believe it!!!

Ian Birrell, writing in the "i"says -

"Dido Harding’s bid to lead the NHS is symptomatic of a grim populism. Despite her dismal track record in both private and public sectors, she might just get the job"

inews.co.uk/opinion/dido-hardings-nhs-chief-executive-test-and-trace-1062603

Sadly Dido Harding is quite likely to get the job, going by past histories of hospitals and councils even.
Locally in the past, there have been several cases of people that have been CEOs and left because they have done an appalling job, had a lovely pay off that should be enough to live on for us normal people , for several years if not enough to retire on, but 6 months or so down the road , have popped up in a similar job, elsewhere in the country!

Cronyism, she's not even a qualified health professional as far as I know

A poor job record is no bar to promotion if you have friends in the right places - this government is the living proof of that.

How sad to think that Dido Harding does not realise how poor her record is.

Just looked at the "HSJ" for leading candidates for next CEO for NHS England. They have her in under the "Outside bet" category.

The post war Tories were against the NHS but went along with it. Thatcher wanted to privatise it but was prevented by her ministers on the grounds that the British public wouldn't stand for it. It's still in the Tory DNA to privatise it.

I regularly sign petitions against Virgin or American companies taking over GP practices. At least 3 this month.

May the gods save us. Old Hunt has tried to reinvent himself as the saviour of the NHS, presumably hoping we have all forgotten the devastating cuts he inflicted on it when he was Secretary of State for health, plus the small matter of his writings about how the NHS should be dismantled and replaced by private healthcare. i can't actually think of a Tory or any of their chums who I would want anywhere near this role. How about someone who actually has experience in the business and therefore a slight clue about it?

No!

It seems to me that the British public don’t actually care about our wonderful NHS until they need it. Then they wake up. This government is hell bent on privatisation, if they have the chance Dido Harding, despite her track record of incompetence will get the job. It will be a case of god help us all if we permit the Americans to get their hands on the service but I fear with a majority of 80 in the House of Commons our fate is already sealed. I do have some knowledge of the American health care system and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone but the very wealthy.

as an aside, my husband actually thought she was that depressing singer!!

They have been slowly privatising the NHS for years. My Mum has just had to pay for an operation that would have been on the NHS, it is counted as a cosmetic treatment but she has had it done because of pain my son was also ill a couple of weeks ago and his eye became infected. Pharmacist said he needed to see a GP and the medical centre said we don't do eyes anymore so gave me a number to ring which was a private practice eventually I was given the number to an NHS eye clinic who did a consultation and prescription over the phone but even they seemed a bit confused that the GP service wouldn't see him. I realise this is off subject slightly

There will be quite a few seriously experienced people who will throw their hat into the ring... I will be surprised if she gets it?