How the NHS wastes money.

argymargy

dalrymple23

Sadly, Alira, this is not the case. Competency in the English language was disbanded some years ago when either the BMA or the GMC decided that it was "discriminatory".

I have frequently had conversations with incomprehensible medics. The Trust for which I worked many years ago, had an unwritten policy that all medical secretaries should be English, so that they could translate the incomprehensible letters which were dictated!!

The waste is absolutely phenomenal and a disgrace. No privately run company would allow it. Do you know that all the expensive equipment which is freely put into a patient's home, in order to allow them to live there - wheelchairs, commodes, hoists and slings, walking frames, hospital beds, rails and other paraphenalia - is disposed of when the patient no longer needs it? Even if it is in good working order? Most of it (not commodes) is very easily sterilised (I saw it being done in one of the Scandinavian countries), therefore can be reused.

Whenever one of my clients was returned home from a brief stint n hospital, they would arrive with blankets, pillows and sheets, despite them having a full complement of bed linen at home. On one occasion I tried to return these to the local hospital. The nursing staff did not know what to do with it - apart from putting it all in the bin. How wrong is that? What is the national cost?

I can tell you much more but will let you have a big yawn instead!!

Completely wrong. International Medical Graduates (IMGs) are required to pass an English language test before they can register with GMC. Please stop with the racism.

It’s not racism! I posted a few weeks ago on here how embarrassing it is for both medical staff and visitors and patients if the staff cannot make themselves understand.

I felt an idiot asking a person a number of times to repeat what she had said to me. I kept saying “I’m really sorry but I can’t understand you.” Situations like that put all of us in an unfortunate position. It shouldn’t be like that. I mentioned at the time that I thought all staff coming to work in the UK had to have a certain level of written and spoken English.

I also read about a nurse who was sacked for several reasons and one of them was because she had been warned many times about her poor English but had not complied with instructions to undertake more English courses.

FGS it's not racism for someone to talk about their experience of not being able to understand what someone was saying to them, due to an insufficient command of the English language.

I can’t pretend to know what I’m talking about here, but a suggestion might be to charge patients for wastage under our control? Missed appointments is an obvious option, but also things like not using taxis that have been booked, or completing courses of treatment (assuming it was possible to do so).

I am having physio just now, and some patients get free taxis but don’t turn up. They have a place on a 12 week programme that could have gone to others, but turn up sporadically, despite the taxi charge going to the NHS, and their place being wasted. I think drugs are rather different, as doctors have to prescribe them, so they should be monitored, but I understand there is a lot of wastage there, too.

I don’t know- I am very intolerant of ’flakiness’ and letting people down, but I’m sure that if people were paying for treatment they would respect it more. I don’t ever want to see the NHS restrict treatment to those who can afford it, but could we look at charging those who don’t attend what they have agreed to attend? And use what they have agreed to use.

It’s not racism!

No, it's not racism because I understood that any doctor, nurse or midwife coming from overseas was required to take an English test regardless of their country of origin, even if the first language of that country was English.

I can’t pretend to know what I’m talking about here, but a suggestion might be to charge patients for wastage under our control? Missed appointments is an obvious option

Yes, I agree but some of the missed appointments might be due to the fact that the texts, emails, letters with the appointments have been known to arrive after the appointment time.
That is beyond the control of the medical staff and the patient and a complete waste of time and money, so the appointments system was at fault for wasting resources.

There is also a great deal of money lost in the NHS due to thefts of drugs and equipment by medical staff.

A nurse used to live next to me and her kitchen cupboards were full of NHS wipes, bandages, tubi grip, scissors, plasters, gauze, anything she could get for nothing. She told me it was a perk of the job and they all did it.

I am currently trying to locate a valuable and extremely sentimental piece of jewellery which was “removed” from my seriously ill husband in hospital the night he had a stroke. I have spent hours on the phone trying to get to the bottom of this and will not give up. It sickens me that such people are working in the caring profession.

Allira

^I can’t pretend to know what I’m talking about here, but a suggestion might be to charge patients for wastage under our control? Missed appointments is an obvious option^

Yes, I agree but some of the missed appointments might be due to the fact that the texts, emails, letters with the appointments have been known to arrive after the appointment time.
That is beyond the control of the medical staff and the patient and a complete waste of time and money, so the appointments system was at fault for wasting resources.

Yes, which is why I gave a caveat.

The people not using the taxis is annoying though. It is a 12 week course which runs twice a week, on the same days. Some get free transport and they are the ones who don’t show up, but the taxis are still paid for to keep the contract. I assume they go to the houses of the patients (the physios discuss the charges in front of the rest of us).

I don't understand it either.
People complain about waiting lists, not being able to access the services they need then don't turn up when they do have a regular appointment like that.

Primrose53

There is also a great deal of money lost in the NHS due to thefts of drugs and equipment by medical staff.

A nurse used to live next to me and her kitchen cupboards were full of NHS wipes, bandages, tubi grip, scissors, plasters, gauze, anything she could get for nothing. She told me it was a perk of the job and they all did it.

I am currently trying to locate a valuable and extremely sentimental piece of jewellery which was “removed” from my seriously ill husband in hospital the night he had a stroke. I have spent hours on the phone trying to get to the bottom of this and will not give up. It sickens me that such people are working in the caring profession.

I'm not sure if that is widespread. In my close family I have a doctor, a midwife and a nurse. None of them have quantities of hospital supplies in their houses, or if they have they have them well hidden. I've even had to get some paracetamol out of my handbag for one of them as they hadn't got any painkillers in the house.

Maybe things have been tightened up or you just had a kleptomaniac neighbour.

I was surprised to find 3 months of medication on order but uncollected and later destroyed for a friend who had been in hospital. There is no mechanism for the gp to stop the prescriptions going forward to the pharmacy when a patient has been hospitalised it would seem. I now phone the pharmacy 7 days in advance to confirm the request. I wonder how much this wastage across the NHS is costing the taxpayer ?

Allira

I don't understand it either.
People complain about waiting lists, not being able to access the services they need then don't turn up when they do have a regular appointment like that.

I cancelled an appointment last week at very short notice, about an hour I think. I had caught a bug from GS that he'd probably caught from nursery. I don't think they'd have welcomed me as I was vomiting. That can't explain it all but some must be genuine reasons.

ronib

I was surprised to find 3 months of medication on order but uncollected and later destroyed for a friend who had been in hospital. There is no mechanism for the gp to stop the prescriptions going forward to the pharmacy when a patient has been hospitalised it would seem. I now phone the pharmacy 7 days in advance to confirm the request. I wonder how much this wastage across the NHS is costing the taxpayer ?

It must vary, my doctor won't issue a prescription for more than one months med and I have to request it. I've got an underactive thyroid and have been on med for it for nearly 20 years. I've looked at it the other way round and thought what a waste of his time checking the requests every month and issuing new prescriptions.

Our GP has a checking system built in, its month by month.
It is a good idea to keep an eye on this tho.

Try googling theft in NHS. There are loads of cases of doctors, nurses and paramedics stealing drugs and equipment.

Many get struck off and lose their jobs and you can check that out on GMC site.

The jewellery I am trying to get back involves one of the categories I mention above. I cannot tell you how upset my husband is as it belonged to his Dad and was given to him as his Dad was dying of cancer at 62.

I worked in the NHS and I can assure you there are far too many middle managers

Surely if a Japanese or any other tourist needed a translator in an NHS hospital their insurance should pick up the bill

So forty years ago I briefly dated a hospital porter. He used to, among other things, steal loo paper. Not rolls but huge bales.

We do need managers - the NHS is an enormous organisation and it is too easy to be anti-manager. Things would be much worse without them and of course some are more effective than others. It is also true that no large organisation gets everything right but large commercial organisations do not have the same scrutiny as the NHS.

Dooskedog I totally agree with your statement if you don't turn up I have had 2 occasions where I haven't attended an appointment one with HF I was in intensive care in another hospital and missed my son's asthma appointment and Dr reported me to SS as I was told it was neglect and unacceptable. The latest one was sent an appointment needed to be rearranged kept calling and calling no answer so missed the appointment when I managed to get another appointment I apologised Tobe told oh don't worry that number doesn't ring through so you're not the only one 🙄

Working hard OR hardly working!!!!!

Why is this concerning!!!
Shouldn't patients be aloud an interpreter.
If you were hospitalised abroad wouldn't you want one.

Primrose53

Another hospital visitor told me today of something he witnessed recently.

He works in the building trade himself. He was visiting an older relative and stayed 4 hours. He said there was an NHS maintenance man looking at a small hole in an interior wall. He had all his gear with him including a tub of filler. He put a barricade around his work area, put a sign up, did a lot of looking at it. Went off for a break. Had a chat to everybody who passed by. After 4 hrs he finally put some filler in the hole!

The visitor had a few words with him and they talked about various sites they had worked on. The NHS guy said “This job is a doddle. Best one ever. Nobody on your case, take as long as you like.” The visitor said that was a 15 minute job maximum!

There is an out of order toilet on my husband’s bay. The loo was leaking and they had to remove it and take up all the flooring. 10 days so far and it’s still not useable because “someone ordered the wrong loo.”

This is just one hospital. 😥

Despite being told by the current government and its predecessor not to hire anymore Diversity & Equality jobs and to start cutting existing positions, NHS managers have ignored our representatives and continue to advertise EDI posts. Some 'lead positions' attracting a tidy £91,000 per annum. 35 EDI roles have been created since the current government came to power. 29 of those positions are to work from home for three days a week, and to be in the office for two shifts a week. The Health Minister has asked the NHS not to allow 'ideologues' to impair the service's performance. The government's attempt to sort out the wasteful bloated bureaucatic nightmare, cut waiting times, and help improve front line services seems doomed to fail. The NHS bureaucrats obviously feel safe enough to defy their boss and spend tax payer's money as they please. (Source: The Telegraph, 29th of January, 2025).

I have a voluntary role in governance of a local NHS trust. We recently completed the procurement of a contract worth around £450,000 per annum. I have grave doubts about the process anyway, and graver doubts about the sheer waste of time, effort and energy that went into it. At the moment I'm am thinking long and hard about writing a formal letter to the board chairman. I'm not unhappy about the result, but I am unhappy about how we got there.

I am with you Allsorts, and I think it is especially important for those caring for sick and vulnerable people to be able to speak English. As for the cost of interpreters, if it is really £113 MILLION then that's appalling - how many operations does that amount to? For those in extremis, any smartphone will give a translation

undines thats my thoughts regarding using smartphones for translations, would save so much money