Would you vote for a party who say they will raise income tax to fund NHS?

Would you vote for a party who say they will raise income tax to fund NHS?

  • No

    Votes: 7 33.3%
  • Yes

    Votes: 5 23.8%
  • Yes unless it is UKIP

    Votes: 9 42.9%

  • Total voters
    21
  • Poll closed .

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
No. There is an unbelievable amount of money wasted by the public sector, including the NHS. I'd eat my hat if worthwhile efficiencies couldn't be made with some intelligent thinking. You know, like businesses operate.
Perhaps better get the ketchup ready for a hat based dinner then......

The NHS has to spend an insane amount of cash that does nothing for patients because of things like PFI built and operated hospitals at many times the cost of had they been publically financed and built. Or what about the award winning, extremely efficient NHS Logistics flogged off to DHL? Im sure many many other examples can be quoted.

People also seem to forget that public services are not businesses. Call me old fashioned, but the clue is in the name public service: the NHS is not there to be run in a commercial way.
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
Not limited to, but including the NHS, I can assure you that procurement within the public sector is so woolly and poor that if it weren't our money and people suffering from poor services it would be comical. Good, solid procurement done by people who know what they're buying would save a fortune.

In the industry in which I work, there are two types of commercial buyer. Those who have an engineering background (I work in engineering - substitute a suitable background as necessary for purchasing hospital supplies, school supplies etc.) and those who have a number crunching background. Guess who gets the best prices?
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Let's face it, the most profitable bits have already been privitised leaving just the chaff.
Not limited to, but including the NHS, I can assure you that procurement within the public sector is so woolly and poor that if it weren't our money and people suffering from poor services it would be comical. Good, solid procurement done by people who know what they're buying would save a fortune.

In the industry in which I work, there are two types of commercial buyer. Those who have an engineering background (I work in engineering - substitute a suitable background as necessary for purchasing hospital supplies, school supplies etc.) and those who have a number crunching background. Guess who gets the best prices?

Similarly at the college we have a procurement process. We ask for something, it goes out to tender, and 4 weeks later in 90% of the time the quotes are higher than I had at the start. Which is a shame as prices have now risen and the great deal I saw is no longer valid, we pay over the odds and the college loses out. In fact I say 90%, I can't remember a single time in over 5 years they've beaten me. But I can't just spend it myself as there needs to be oversight, just in case they suddenly find I have shares in amazon or something.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Procurement is a huge problem for many organisations - they end up with procedures that make failures almost inevitable.

When I had the occasional misfortune to deal with sales reps, I ended up with a policy of "give me one price, that's it, I'm not interested in playing 'double glazing' with you" - on one occasion, the rep actually refused to give me a price on that basis.

I've had prices where, for identical items, the top price has been more than four times the lowest.

There's a lot of money to be 'made' from careless buyers.....


I had several rules of thumb, which were largely reliable.

Check the supplier's car park - flash, new cars and they're con-artists, knackered old cars and they're dodgy, reasonably good, ordinary cars and they should be OK.

If in a hurry, get three quotes and take the middle one.
 
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John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
Any organisation that cannot find fault with itself is indeed at fault

Indian Railways employs 1.3 million people directly or indirectly

The NHS is bigger than that

Things that go clunk or shunt cannot be managed as easily as things that go click
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Things that go clunk or shunt cannot be managed as easily as things that go click
Indeed, there is money to be saved in things that are clicked - or could be clicked.

Anybody that watched Bombay Railway a few years back, will remember the obvious competence of the 'man at the top'.


Vivek Sahai is a real hero.
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
A company which became the first private firm to manage an NHS hospital says it wants to "withdraw from its contract".

Circle Holdings, which operates Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire, said its franchise is "no longer viable under current terms".

The move comes amid funding cuts and pressure on the casualty department, Circle said.

The Department of Health said it was "disappointed" in the decision.
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
A company which became the first private firm to manage an NHS hospital says it wants to "withdraw from its contract".

Circle Holdings, which operates Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire, said its franchise is "no longer viable under current terms".

The move comes amid funding cuts and pressure on the casualty department, Circle said.

The Department of Health said it was "disappointed" in the decision.

But they signed a contract, feck them! Of course what will happen is more money will be diverted from NHS hospitals to give to the privately run ones to keep Camerons mates happy, we all know this, but the true response should be my initial one.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
But they signed a contract, feck them!

These people will either - take money out of the service - or abandon it, if they feel they're not able to take enough.

It happened on the railway, too, and they're about to re-privatise the bit that was previously abandoned..

..look forward to some other company 'saving' Hinchingbrooke..?
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
I guess that explains why our debts are rising despite the alleged austerity* that is cutting staff and services.


* Turns out I read the wrong dictionary, austerity is latin for 'Screw you peasants"
 

Laurie61

Well-Known Forumite
Circle’s threat to pull out compounds the headache for the Conservatives posed by worsening A&E performance across England because it focuses more attention on the government’s reorganisation. The company said that funding for Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS trust had been cut by about 10% for the current financial year and that the company had spent £4.84m to support the trust. Circle is allowed to withdraw from the contract if it spends more than £5m.

A report by the Care Quality Commission’s new regime is expected to be highly critical of the hospital. The Circle statement said the report’s conclusions, which follow a preliminary report last year, would be unbalanced and that it would contest many of them. In preliminary findings released in September, the CQC reported that patients at the hospital were being neglected, hygiene was inadequate and Hinchingbrooke was facing staffing problems. :hmm:
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
Hinchingbrooke was one of the best hospitals in the country before they privatised it, considered better that Addenbrookes and Norfolk & Norwich if you lived in the area and they were pretty good.
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
So just think how much better it could be if run by the private sector! Oh, hang on....

Surely we should never privatise something that is working, just what is not?
 
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