Job hopping managers in the NHS

Lions led by Donkeys - the modern NHS healthcare worker



Where the troops died in the trenches of WW1 and Britain stood alone against Europe, patients now die in the beds of the NHS

The NHS was set up to provide medical care for the working people of this country. Its purpose, to help people recover from illness without being concerned about medical bills and get back to work. The NHS has become the largest bureaucracy in Europe and the third largest in the world. Equally, the welfare state was set up to protect people from the worst effects of poverty. The Welfare State has mutated into Social Services (the SS) and has also developed a life of its own.

Worse, as a self serving bureaucracy, the NHS has been infiltrated, if not strangled by management consultants.

The NHS spends at least £350 million a year on Management Consultants or Consultoids (I use the term Consultoids, because in the NHS, the term Consultant has a different meaning.) Of the £350 million, at least £273 million was on projects unrelated in any shape or form to patient services. Management Consultoids damage the NHS in the following way

1 - Money spent on Management Consultoids, is not spent on NHS patients or staff
2 - Real NHS management is dumbed down, because the interesting and challenging jobs go to outsiders
3 - A nasty web of paid for political contacts is built up
4 - Management Consultoid culture infects NHS service ideals
5 - No one is accountable. Once a Management Consultoid has finished the project, he or she is off, clutching their pay check bonus and slip for promotion

Management Consultoids have brought a JP Morgan, DeLoitte or KPMG culture into NHS management, where "drive, ambition and potential" matter more than the ability to do the job.

Now as an NHS manager, it no longer matters how you do your job, or whether you do your job only that you are seen to display "drive, ambition and potential". What was long suspected, was made clear in a recent article in the (Health Service Journal Click here)

Senior NHS managers are laying themselves open to accusations of lack of commitment by “job hopping”, according to Royal College of Nursing chief executive Peter Carter. He went on to say that there are “copious examples of where criticism [of managers] is deserved”. Part of the blame lay in the “huge turnover and lack of commitment” among senior NHS managers.

The comments on this article were as interesting as the article

At best they report "I would have been delighted to stay in one post, but not only are there glass ceilings, I was the subject of re-organisation constantly. In the end, if there is no organisational loyalty to the indivdual, it becomes evident by churn"

At worst "If you don't move every couple of years you are seen as lacking drive and ambition! And you can always say you were responsible for some initiative or another (even if you didn't start or see it through)".

What purpose does Job Hopping serve? What common nebulous self serving framework does is suggest? is it ok to make mistakes as long as you are not bothered by them? does it doesn't matter if you don't know what you are doing? can you lead without authority as long as no one notices? work in a non-job as long as you bring a sufficiently bizarre set of values? including tying your son to an anchor rope on a boat; are overpaid and you get promoted well above your ability. Sounds like the blueprint of a lot of modern NHS Management.








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Copyright (c) Dr. Liz Miller
http://www.lizmiller.info/