Today there’s a lot of coverage about a suggestion to reduce the workforce of the NHS by 10% – and the resultant kerfuffle between Government, the NHS, and management consultants.
Currently the Government is saying that they have rejected this advice by McKinsey and Company, (Never heard of ‘em? Me either.) which included closing 137,000 clinical and admin posts in order to save £20bn by 2014.
I’m pretty sure I could show how to save the NHS that much money by 2014, without losing a single clinical staff member.
Mind you, it would involve getting rid of shitloads of middle-managers, consultants, and fuckstick accountants. And of course that’s a plan that would never achieve approval – because it’s got to go through all those levels of shitbag middle-managers, consultants and fuckstick accountants before it can happen. And those self-serving fuckers are never going to do themselves out of a job. (Which is the same reason the “paperless office” will never happen)
I’m not suggesting getting rid of all the managers, as I think most people would agree that there need to be some of the buggers around, if only in order to make sure that the clinical professionals don’t drown in paperwork and procedures in the meantime. (Although of course if you get rid of enough of the middle-managers, you probably get to eliminate a whole host of the bullshit paperwork at the same time – sorry, it’s “streamlining” now isn’t it, not “getting rid of the shit”)
Still, wield a big enough axe, drop it from high enough, I’m pretty sure it’d still work…
In the ongoing work towards gaining fitness and losing weight, the current work environment is actually pretty good. In work I’m on the fourteenth floor, and in the Travelodge I’m currently on the 6th.
First of all, I’m walking between Travelodge and work – it’s roughly half a mile each way, which is fine. That now takes me about six or seven minutes (my kind of commute!) and a bit longer when I’m lugging my Big Bag on Mondays and Fridays.
Now, I’m also a lazy bastard – I admit it freely. So I really can’t be arsed to walk up the flights of stairs (if I could even find them – I know they’re here somewhere, but no idea quite where) to Floor 14 – besides which, I’d be a sweaty lump of dough by the time I got there.
But I do walk up/down the six floors of stairs (i.e. twelve flights of stairs) at the Travelodge rather than using the lift. I’m not knackered at the end of it, but I know I’ve done it (well, on the way up anyway) which is probably a good indication of how out of shape I am. But at least I’m working on it.
What does bemuse me, though, is the people – both at work and at the Travelodge – who take the lift to go up one floor. Fine, if they’ve got loads of bags or whatever, I’m not going to begrudge it. But seriously, if all you’ve got is your sodding iPod or whatever, one floor of stairs isn’t going to break you into a sweat.
