This I found extremely depressing, see what you think.
And the comments say it all really.
(Taken from today’s Telegraph)
"When Sajid Javid let it be known that General Sir Gordon Messenger would be conducting a review into leadership in health and social care many of us cheered. Hopes were high that this ex-Royal Marine and former vice-chief of the defence staff – who won the DSO not once, but twice, for defeating Saddam Hussein’s forces in Iraq and leading British troops in Afghanistan – would engage NHS managers with all the tender consideration he showed towards the Taliban.
Oh, sweet Montgomery of Alamein, what a letdown! Instead of delivering a commando’s knife in the ribs, the good general clearly had his guns spiked by the public-sector Blob. The Messenger Review, which should have recommended that a scalpel (on second thoughts, make that a chainsaw) be taken to the monstrous, metastasising bureaucracy that sucks resources away from the life-giving parts of the NHS, landed with all the ferocity of a feather on a futon. It’s as if the general had been asked to write a report about Chernobyl and failed to mention the nuclear power plant.
Supported by Dame Linda Pollard, chair of Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust, Sir Gordon showed worrying early signs of going native. In an open letter to “all those who work in health and social care”, the pair said they would be “mindful of the strain that you are working under”.
Sorry, what about the strain that more than 6.5 million sick people are under [as they languish on a hospital waiting list?
How about the strain on the taxpayer caused by a National Insurance hike designed to pour extra billions into the NHS frontline which, so far, appears to have delivered a huge increase in the number of managers and only a 7 per cent rise in nurses?
In what spirit do you reckon should they have approached a review into the leadership of a health service that is outperformed in nearly every area (stroke, cancer survival and heart attack recovery) by 18 comparable countries? A service which, furthermore, has seen its clinical negligence bill soar from £582 million in 2006-2007 to a staggering and scandalous £2.2 billion in 2020-2021?
“We very much want the review to be regarded by you as an opportunity,” gurgled Gordon and Linda. “Our starting premise is that the NHS and social care are staffed by a hugely impressive, dedicated, well-motivated workforce which deserves a system and a culture where its full talent and experience can flourish and where the right skills can be applied to where they are needed most. We acknowledge that the excellent leadership and management currently evident across many parts of the system can be built upon to the benefit of all.”
At this point, it may help to picture your columnist’s face contorting into that primal howl depicted in Edvard Munch’s The Scream. “You are all marvellous, let’s have a group hug and think of a few minor ways in which you could be even more marvellous!” That was Sir Gordon’s battle cry.
Little wonder that the NHS Confederation welcomed the review. Why, its members could almost have written most of its flatulent recommendations themselves. Given the report’s trusting nature, they probably did.
It paints a very different picture to the one I’ve had described to me by disillusioned NHS staff. They talk of institutionalised mediocrity, colleagues on semi-permanent “sick leave”, a culture of secrecy and bullying to keep clinical staff in line, exorbitant non-disclosure agreements to silence whistleblowers, chronic misuse of public money and a gravy-train which sees managers given big pay-offs only to jump aboard again after yet another futile reorganisation.
In a rightly excoriating piece in the Sunday Telegraph, Lord Lilley, trade secretary in Margaret Thatcher’s government, pointed out that the final document focused far more on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) than on efficiency or patient care. Headlines suggested that Sir Gordon had called for the NHS to cut EDI jobs as “[part of a war on waste and wokery
If only. He did nothing of the kind. The report contains the meekest possible suggestion that EDI positions could be allowed to reduce over time once highly paid managers demonstrated “that they are equipped with the right skills to address inequality and create inclusive working cultures for all”.
Thus, one of the country’s most diverse organisations (42 per cent of medical staff are from a BME background, compared with around 14 per cent in the general population) can become even more diverse until we reach that perfectly diverse egalitarian stage where there are nowhite males left. Except, that is, for thousands of NHS managers.
By the way, my strong hunch is that Sajid Javid was privately appalled when he read the report, draft versions of which are said to have been even sappier, advocating “crazy anti-racism targets”. Did the Health Secretary perhaps get his staff to brief that the review called for major reforms of leadership in the NHS while fervently hoping that no one would read it?
Well, I have read it. And I’m appalled. The saintly entity known as “our NHS” comes across as a socialist state within a state, entrenching a rabid Left-wing ideology within the health service for which the British people most certainly never voted. Managers appear to be dedicated to their own advancement at the expense of millions of vulnerable people who need prompt care. Pah, patients – who are they?"
