The weekend news, the revelations and the thought of what is still to emerge and…
… a hundred thousand discontented citizens on the streets of the capital… ouch!
HMG has the look of a team at half time, dreading the second half.
All governments get buffeted by events, the unexpected. How they respond is the important bit.
Reshuffles, u-turns… it’s obvious, all this has made the Labour Party restless and distracted by its own turbulence.
It’s hard to recall more stormy times. Times of such indecision. Lack of focus and purpose. Bojo, perhaps?
Frankly, all the political classes look set to be swept aside by forces they cannot yet describe, other than in the language of political rivalry. Society is so much more complex.
Most of us are bystanders but we are not spectators when it comes to the NHS.
The collective experience, insight and understanding has accumulated enough practical knowledge and serious thought to know when things ‘just aren’t right’…
… and they aren’t right.
Things are ‘not right’ in the nation. Certainly not in the NHS.
The organisation has come to mirror the government that runs it.
Problems piling up:
- Unfunded redundancies,
- an undeliverable plan for the future,
- workforce chaos,
- reorganisation in disarray,
- longer waiting-lists, that will get even longer through the winter and
- a cadre of advisors who made horrible policy errors twenty years ago, back to do it again.
I don’t get the feeling the future is under control.
I suspected Number 10 were less than confident with Streeting’s progress at the DH+ when they seconded Tom Kibasi, author of the 10YP, to Downing Street as Starmer’s health policy advisor.
Why would they do that?
Kibasi only lasted a couple of weeks for reasons that no doubt time will reveal… but the move was important.
Streeting is politically powerful and an obvious successor to a weakened Starmer… who would benefit from him failing at health.
Maybe that’s why Streeting has been unable to get the Treasury to support the £300m costs of the doctor’s strikes.
He’s now saddled the NHS with finding the millions. Mackey should say to Streeting, ‘It was your strike… you pay for it, mate’.
The chair of NHSE has acquired an executive-chair epithet and is busy stripping out NHSE to half a dozen ‘project management’ style departments. Neither she, nor the DH+ has any experience in service delivery, at scale.
The new league tables? They’ve landed badly.
Weighted as they are, by financial considerations, making them worthless to the public and demoralising for staff…
… who have no control over the financial management of where they work… places that are shaped by their geography, history and demand.
Last week, the national director of mental health services, Claire Murdoch, resigned her role.
Her ‘stuff-yer-job’ letter to Jim Mackey, was written with a pen dipped in passion. It makes desperate reading. It is a list of success and innovation, yet it is a letter of despair.
Murdoch pulls no punches;
‘… political leadership don’t want to engage with me..’
That is shaming for Streeting. If he won’t talk… the money speaks for him…
… the share of the NHS baseline spending devoted to mental health is set to fall. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has pointed out;
‘… mental health services could be missing out on an estimated £300 million or more, relative to what would be, if their share had been protected.’
Mental health is a cats-cradle of complexity for a leadership that has tunnel vision. Thinks only of finance and cuts.
If the NHS is anyway an indicator for the rest of Whitehall… I sense we are drifting. Caught in the cross winds of politics, buffeted by the Treasury.
There are four things missing.
Clarity of purpose. I have no idea what the aims of government are and no inkling of the purpose of NHSE, other than; cutting, sacking, closing, dissembling and pretending. Perhaps it’s organising leaving parties?
Consistency of message. Waiting lists are why we elected Labour. No one voted for Streeting&Co to uproot, turn inside-out, demoralise and set the system back ten years.
Assurance in uncertainty. Do we feel reassured, confident that ‘there is a plan’. Does anyone really know what they’re doing? Is anyone’s mind put to rest? No.
Stewardship of people. Valuing people, their expertise, knowledge, legacy, developing their potential? No.
The winds of change may be blowing through Whitehall, but they gust wherever they please…
… we can hear them but can’t tell where they come from or where they are going…
… all we get is hot air.
News and Comment from Roy Lilley
Contact Roy – please use this e-address roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net
Reproduced at thetrainingnet.com by kind permission of Roy Lilley.
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Hot Air
The weekend news, the revelations and the thought of what is still to emerge and…
… a hundred thousand discontented citizens on the streets of the capital… ouch!
HMG has the look of a team at half time, dreading the second half.
All governments get buffeted by events, the unexpected. How they respond is the important bit.
Reshuffles, u-turns… it’s obvious, all this has made the Labour Party restless and distracted by its own turbulence.
It’s hard to recall more stormy times. Times of such indecision. Lack of focus and purpose. Bojo, perhaps?
Frankly, all the political classes look set to be swept aside by forces they cannot yet describe, other than in the language of political rivalry. Society is so much more complex.
Most of us are bystanders but we are not spectators when it comes to the NHS.
The collective experience, insight and understanding has accumulated enough practical knowledge and serious thought to know when things ‘just aren’t right’…
… and they aren’t right.
Things are ‘not right’ in the nation. Certainly not in the NHS.
The organisation has come to mirror the government that runs it.
Problems piling up:
I don’t get the feeling the future is under control.
I suspected Number 10 were less than confident with Streeting’s progress at the DH+ when they seconded Tom Kibasi, author of the 10YP, to Downing Street as Starmer’s health policy advisor.
Why would they do that?
Kibasi only lasted a couple of weeks for reasons that no doubt time will reveal… but the move was important.
Streeting is politically powerful and an obvious successor to a weakened Starmer… who would benefit from him failing at health.
Maybe that’s why Streeting has been unable to get the Treasury to support the £300m costs of the doctor’s strikes.
He’s now saddled the NHS with finding the millions. Mackey should say to Streeting, ‘It was your strike… you pay for it, mate’.
The chair of NHSE has acquired an executive-chair epithet and is busy stripping out NHSE to half a dozen ‘project management’ style departments. Neither she, nor the DH+ has any experience in service delivery, at scale.
The new league tables? They’ve landed badly.
Weighted as they are, by financial considerations, making them worthless to the public and demoralising for staff…
… who have no control over the financial management of where they work… places that are shaped by their geography, history and demand.
Last week, the national director of mental health services, Claire Murdoch, resigned her role.
Her ‘stuff-yer-job’ letter to Jim Mackey, was written with a pen dipped in passion. It makes desperate reading. It is a list of success and innovation, yet it is a letter of despair.
Murdoch pulls no punches;
‘… political leadership don’t want to engage with me..’
That is shaming for Streeting. If he won’t talk… the money speaks for him…
… the share of the NHS baseline spending devoted to mental health is set to fall. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has pointed out;
‘… mental health services could be missing out on an estimated £300 million or more, relative to what would be, if their share had been protected.’
Mental health is a cats-cradle of complexity for a leadership that has tunnel vision. Thinks only of finance and cuts.
If the NHS is anyway an indicator for the rest of Whitehall… I sense we are drifting. Caught in the cross winds of politics, buffeted by the Treasury.
There are four things missing.
Clarity of purpose. I have no idea what the aims of government are and no inkling of the purpose of NHSE, other than; cutting, sacking, closing, dissembling and pretending. Perhaps it’s organising leaving parties?
Consistency of message. Waiting lists are why we elected Labour. No one voted for Streeting&Co to uproot, turn inside-out, demoralise and set the system back ten years.
Assurance in uncertainty. Do we feel reassured, confident that ‘there is a plan’. Does anyone really know what they’re doing? Is anyone’s mind put to rest? No.
Stewardship of people. Valuing people, their expertise, knowledge, legacy, developing their potential? No.
The winds of change may be blowing through Whitehall, but they gust wherever they please…
… we can hear them but can’t tell where they come from or where they are going…
… all we get is hot air.
News and Comment from Roy Lilley
Contact Roy – please use this e-address roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net
Reproduced at thetrainingnet.com by kind permission of Roy Lilley.
Related
Discover more from The Training Network
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
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