National Health SERVICE.

Biscuitman · 10-01-2005, 10:15 PM

It's time we stopped trying to reform the NHS.

We need to rebuild from scratch.

First point, the 'S' stands for SERVICE.

Hospitals are not a profit centre, they are there to provide a service, within budget, but a service nonetheless.

Rebuild it from the bottom.

In simplistic terms, A given area.... how many beds are needed to maintain the health of that area?

How many nurses and doctors and technicians are needed to service those beds?

Those beds need to be accomodated in 'X' number of wards, how many cleaners, porters & cooks etc are required to maintain the service in those wards?

What ancilary staff are needed to support the nurses, doctors, technicians & cleaners?

What is the minimum number of administration staff needed to manage those wards?

What is the minimum amount of information required by the ministry of health to keep the SERVICE within budget and to plan for the following year?

Basically, build the pyramid from the bottom - the customer end.

Plus, free biscuits for every visitor with their cup of tea.

Julian Morrison · 11-01-2005, 07:28 AM

I'm sure they've tried all that. It doesn't work, it can't work. They can calculate (within approximations) how to achieve a ratio of n beds per capita. But no tax-and-freebies system can divine what value of n is optimal (versus all the other things that might have been done instead). A bed reserved for every man woman and child would be nice, but would bankrupt the economy. No beds at all would be cheap and cruel. Or some point in between?

The only way to answer that question (and any similar allocation decision) is by letting individuals choose the allocation of their own resources, ie: a free market.

I'll suggest here what I've suggested before: break the NHS apart INTO phpbb_local charities centered around the local big hospital, and detach it from the state entitrely.

10-01-2005, 10:15 PM	#1 (permalink)
Biscuitman Uber Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Reading Posts: 3,485	National Health SERVICE. It's time we stopped trying to reform the NHS. We need to rebuild from scratch. First point, the 'S' stands for SERVICE. Hospitals are not a profit centre, they are there to provide a service, within budget, but a service nonetheless. Rebuild it from the bottom. In simplistic terms, A given area.... how many beds are needed to maintain the health of that area? How many nurses and doctors and technicians are needed to service those beds? Those beds need to be accomodated in 'X' number of wards, how many cleaners, porters & cooks etc are required to maintain the service in those wards? What ancilary staff are needed to support the nurses, doctors, technicians & cleaners? What is the minimum number of administration staff needed to manage those wards? What is the minimum amount of information required by the ministry of health to keep the SERVICE within budget and to plan for the following year? Basically, build the pyramid from the bottom - the customer end. Plus, free biscuits for every visitor with their cup of tea. __________________ IF THE EU WAS THE ANSWER, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A STUPID QUESTION!

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11-01-2005, 07:28 AM	#2 (permalink)
Julian Morrison Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Banbury, England Posts: 198	I'm sure they've tried all that. It doesn't work, it can't work. They can calculate (within approximations) how to achieve a ratio of n beds per capita. But no tax-and-freebies system can divine what value of n is optimal (versus all the other things that might have been done instead). A bed reserved for every man woman and child would be nice, but would bankrupt the economy. No beds at all would be cheap and cruel. Or some point in between? The only way to answer that question (and any similar allocation decision) is by letting individuals choose the allocation of their own resources, ie: a free market. I'll suggest here what I've suggested before: break the NHS apart INTO phpbb_local charities centered around the local big hospital, and detach it from the state entitrely.