Most people in politics, and indeed most people in the health sector, have generally good things to say about Stephen Dorrell. He was a Health Minister and member of the Cabinet under John Major, and then a very successful and influential chair of the powerful health select committee. He is standing down from parliament this year, but has said some very interesting things about the Conservatives health reforms in the Guardian recently. His point seems to be that while there were real advantages to the 2012 Heath and Social Care Act that introduced Clinical Commissioning Groups and Commissioning Support and transferred the majority of the NHS budget to GP led organisations, there were also p
Part two in a "Siriusly Speaking" series. Last month I explained why, in many instances, you simply should not use management consultants. But is that the whole story? Surely they have some qualities worth paying for? So let me give you three reasons why you should, in fact, use management consultants. They can see the wood, not just the trees An ability to see the bigger picture is often lacking in public sector bodies. This is inevitable as all public sector organisations are, to some degree, driven by political agendas. These agendas can often be unhelpfully short term, tied to specific targets and miss the longer term strategic purpose of the organisation. You can see how this short t
Lord Hamurabi served as King of Babylon in the 18th century BCE (Before Common Era). He is famous (in Babylonian scholar circles anyway) for introducing a series of 282 laws which became known as the Code of Hamurabi. This was one of the first ever written codes of law in recorded history, inscribed on stone tablets over 8 feet tall. The code set out a series of rather useful rules and protocols such as “if a son strike his father, they shall cut off his fingers”. But it is rule number 219 that caught my eye, and reminded me sadly of much of modern day NHS management. It reads: "If a physician operate on a man for a severe wound with a bronze lancet and cause that man's death; or open an ab
All the political parties are gearing up for the general election on May 7th. And as expected, the battle of words over the NHS is ratcheting up. This week both the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition set out their positions, seeking support for their vision of the NHS. I was struck by an answer Ed Miliband gave when he was challenged. The Labour leader was promising £2.4bn for the NHS. The interviewer, quite rightly said “But the Chief Executive of the NHS, Simon Stevens, has said they need £20bn. Why are you not committing to that figure?” Miliband’s answer was telling. “This is a transformation fund”. He then went on to commit to additional staff and re-emphasise the need for
