health funding

UK Parties, Politics and Healthcare

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Thu, 03/04/2010 - 06:29

Your politicians - listening to you?I ask you - if you were to design a new national health service from scratch, would you really design it with nobody to think ahead and make decisions on resources?
So why are the main political parties in UK engaging in their favourite sport of manager bashing?

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A simpler tax and benefits system

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Fri, 09/18/2009 - 22:31

The current benefits system is labyrinthine, and needs to be simplified[1]. But then, so is the tax system. Did I read somewhere that this year’s tax guide is twice as long as last year’s? In trying to make it fairer, we just make it more complicated. Whitehall mandarins create sustainable jobs (for themselves) but not a lot more.
The issues:

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Local taxation with local representation

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Fri, 09/18/2009 - 22:08

Sir Michael Bichard is a man to listen to – his proposals are practical and usually sufficiently well supported that they make it into policy. I was listening to him on Radio 4’s Today Programme this morning (Friday 18 Sept 2009) discussing Local Government with Tony Travers of LSE. The gist of the conversation seemed to be that local government has delivered significant innovation, whereas Whitehall had offered no improvement. But local government couldn’t go any further because they are micro-managed – their income is set by Whitehall, and services are also set by Whitehall.

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A revised Inverse Care Law

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Mon, 08/17/2009 - 09:48

An experimental lifeTudor Hart's Inverse Care Law was formulated in 1971, and probably is due for an overhall. Instead of "good medical care varies inversely with the need in the population served", I'd like to propose
"Those who need most, ask least"

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More for Less - NHS Growth Money is coming to an end

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Wed, 06/03/2009 - 17:00

"All bets are off" as David Nicholson tells NHS to prepare for cuts (HSJ 4June - updated Pulse 27Nov09). Massive investment over the last 8 years hasn't improved productivity (HSJ 28May). PCTs aren't making use of the wealth of experience and enthusiasm available through Practice Based Commissioning (PBC) (Primary Care Today May/June 09). The same old ideas are put forward as the solutions to all our problems - more care out of hospital, more innovation, more work led by nurses, more Health centres, more salaried GPs. Why haven't these 'obvious' solutions delivered?

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Judicial System - If I were running the country

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Mon, 05/27/2013 - 22:22

Scales of JusticeHow do we make the courts run more smoothly?  Cases take too long and are too expensive, mired in endless argument and counter-argument that are the hallmarks of our adversarial system.  What if we were to set time limits?  Would that work?

Well, let's try it.  Each side presents their best evidence, and if magistrate or jury isn't convinced, they can ask for more time from each side.  If it works for Cricket, that most venerable of British institutions, it should work for courts.  Who knows, they may even become spectator sports?

If I were running the country - encouraging business

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Tue, 05/21/2013 - 09:33

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Minimum wage

Fantasy government - what would I do if I were in government?  Well how about reduce corporation tax, increase income tax, increase minimum wage and invest in job creation in the regions?  That would be a good start - create jobs where there are workers, then make sure that the right amount of tax is collected and at the same time reduce spend on benefits which are only used to increase profits of selfish organisations.

Would it work?  Have your say.

PwC Report on the Current State of Project Management

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 10:44

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PwC Project Management ReportPwC found that successful companies are getting more mature in their project management ability.  This raises the game – successful companies have lower costs from fewer failed projects, and less successful companies have to work harder to catch up.  There are some important lessons to take this report for everyone – Read more…

Joy instead of tedium

Submitted by Hugo_Minney on Fri, 05/10/2013 - 21:04

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The Office

Every office has them - the tasks that have to be done that nobody likes doing.  Whether it's the audit, the wages, standard letters, whatever it is - someone has to do it and it feels like a waste of time and money.

Why should you care?

So you employ somebody, so why do you care about how tedious the task is? Well they are costing money, to do something that could be done far more effectively.

Learning from the Past

Submitted by HugoM on Fri, 05/10/2013 - 20:27

Evidence for service improvement

Many public service changes have little basis in evidence. Their success (or otherwise) does not appear to depend on how 'good' the policy itself is, but rather on how it has been implemented. This relies on staff attitudes and relationships. My research falls into a number of broad categories: finding out what is currently happening; what people think about it; and what people think it will mean.

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