NHS is drinking in ‘last chance saloon’, says Labour health advisor
Alan Milburn, former secretary of state for health who had success slashing waiting times under Tony Blair, will return in a role as Wes Streeting’s key adviser on reform, making him lead non-executive director of the Department of Health.
He told The Times: “The NHS is in the worst state I’ve ever seen and I’ve been around health policy now for 30 years. I genuinely think it’s drinking in the last-chance saloon.”
“Keir [Starmer] has got religion on public-service reform,” Milburn said.
Why would anyone take these characters seriously when they come with tabloid clichés such as ‘last chance saloon’ or Starmer has 'got religion' on public-service reform. It belittles a serious issue, but I do like this comment -
Alan Bates
I'm not trivialising NHS problems and it does need reform, not more money. But this has been said for decades. They said it in Yes Minister in 1981!
2 comments:
ONS overview of public sector productivity:
"Based on new experimental methods, total public service productivity grew by an average of 0.2% per year between 1997 and 2019, with variation by service area, and periods of faster and slower growth over the period.
Service area productivity growth rates ranged from negative 1.4% (public order and safety) to 0.9% (healthcare) per annum over the same period. "
So that's less than 1% increase in productivity per year on average, in the time when we have had big breakthroughs in health technology, plus the internet, apps, social media, and new computers. Can you see any private company that could have stood still like that and remain trading?
Whatever they are serving in the last chance saloon, they should try putting it to one side and having a mug of strong coffee.
Sam - thanks, I must delve into that because it's an interesting issue. How they measure it for one thing. As you say those big breakthroughs haven't had the effect we'd expect from private businesses.
To take one example, email could have reduced productivity in that too many people spend too long answering them, but that may not be reflected in any measurement protocol.
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