In reply to Rob Exile Ward:
Roy Lilleys view this am: (he loves his joke names... Tarzan is Stevens, Tinkerman is Hunt)
News and Comment from Roy Lilley
Letter to The Maymite;
We've no idea why you want to fight with Tarzan. You can't win. He is right and his duty of candour means he can speak up if he wants to.
You can't sack him. Only the board of NHSE can do that. They won't.
Even if you did; it wouldn't get people through A&E quicker. Neither would it get the thousands, marooned in hospital, home safely.
You could sack the Tinkerman. With a majority of 12 you need friends and it strikes me you don't make them easily. Bad idea.
Anyway, would that stop ambulances queueing outside A&E? Would it create more doctors and nurses? No.
You inherited a bad hand... but it's yer own fault. You voted for the Lansley reforms and for Osborne's austerity.
The way things look; there's a fiver on Tarzan outlasting you.
Your latest idea is to punish GPs who don't open for longer. I agree with that. Tie them to a lamppost, give them 40 lashes with a stethoscope. Bound to work.
You talk about a few hospitals having 'problems' and it's 'always the same in winter' You are wrong again; all the data points to a longitudinal drop-off in performance and nearly half of Trusts parking patients in everywhere but the broom cupboard.
...I fear somebody is going to tell you they are!
Why can't we figure out what you are up to? My guess is you don't know what to do and who you can trust.
I don't want my prime minister to look like a klutz. I want my PM to be across it, on it... not run over by it.
In the spirit of being helpful here are some ideas.
Realise 1.3m people in the NHS have a vote. You are going to need them, or you'll be calling Pickfords.
Call-in ADASS; sort out how much they need, now, to get social care back up-and-running. Bring forward Better Care Fund cash to pay for it. Or, take the money from the contingency reserve. Claw it back from local government over 15 years.
Give LAs power to take over and run, failing care homes. We need all the care-estate we can muster. Yes, it's Corbyn's idea but it is a good one, steal it, you can deliver it, he can't. Call them social enterprises.
Block-book Premier Inns; create step down care. It's £45 a bed a night. Include a matron and care assistants and you'll do it for £150. Hospitals cost £400.
Find out where we really are; ensure bed-occupancy counts are consistent. Ensure Trusts are honest about their true position and not hiding it to avoid getting out of special measures. You need to know. Slim down the data requirements to something meaningful and less onerous to collect.
Phone or contact 'at risk' patients every other day and check for declines. Prevention is cheaper than care.
Change the threshold for care-home registration to require one qualified, prescribing nurse on every shift, a Telemed link to a GP 24-7 and a weekly visit from a pharmacist.
Get the GPs in and onside. Not the BMA, ask the NAPC; they are much more sensible. Ask them to explain their Primary Care Home system. It works.
Forget extending GP opening hours. 7 day appointments led to no reduction in emergency admissions. £45m was spent to save £3.2m. 26 extra appointments for 1 less A&E visit.
Instead; close struggling GP surgeries, move them to the local A&E, with open access for all comers. If that's where people want to go, let's make it happen safely, on our terms.
Use tax-breaks to encourage call-centres for telemed support for people with long-term conditions. Get these services up and running - pronto.
Promise to get NHS funding back to the EU average by the end of 2022. It's a vote winer.
Do some focus group work on '2p on income tax, hypothecated for the NHS'. My guess; it's a vote winner.
Talk to the CBI and IoD about making it easy for people with elderly relatives to have carer's-leave to look after older relatives at critical times. Take the pressure off the system.
Guarantee the rights of existing EU NHS staff to stay.
Oh, one more thing; stop saying the NHS is doing a wonderful job; we know you really mean, 'work your backsides off so I don't lose face and have to put more money into the NHS'.
You are seen as neither a leader nor a listener. No vision, no grasp, no smarts.
I hope this billet-doux will help you change that. Now, please, get on and do the people's business.
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Contact Roy - please use this e-address
roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net
Know something I don't - email me in confidence.