Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Huntingdon

[David Johnson]

As we all know the NHS is safe in Dozy Dave and Boy George's hands.

And here we have an example of it. The Circle Foundation (groovy name, I guess it kinda means the NHS has gone full circle from being state run to not state run - or maybe not) are taking over the running of the Hinchingbrooke NHS District General Hospital for 10 years. The staff and buildings will stay in the NHS.

This is the first time in the history of the NHS that a private company has taken over the running of a general hospital.

So this Circle Foundation, a private company, are they good guys? Of course, Dave and George would not have allowed anything other.

They are, that's Circle. not Dave and George, run by venture capitalists. Good eh?

So Circle must have a load of experience of running a district general hospital with accident and emergency services and all that?

Err, no. They have never done it before. No idea.

So why did they get the contract? Oh they wanted to have a go and learn loads so the company can do it in lots of other hospitals and make a killing for their venture capitalists.

Dave and George, bringing an NHS privatisation down your way. Well it worked brilliantly with the utilities and railways? Didn't it?

Cheers
D

[number 6]

Bevan would spin in his grave. So would Atlee. We fought the wars and created the NHS to end up with it being sold down the river by unelected privatisers hell bent on destroying it.

[Lizard]

"So why did they get the contract?" Maybe you should ask yourself why there was a contract to get!. Some NHS hospitals are fantastic, some are complete shite (Staffordshire for one) maybe it was though that someone else could do the job better, and not kill your family, friends, etc.....just sayin like.

[David Johnson]

First of all it is worth saying that this process kicked off under New Labour who by no means have clean hands over NHS privatisation.

"Maybe you should ask yourself why there was a contract to get!. "

I have already asked myself that question. And unlike your good self I have got an answer which is rather more accurate than your blathering on about killing your family.

My understanding is that the hospital had an historical debt of ?40 million though it was in surplus in 2008-2009 without reducing the historical debt. The basic problem, like a number of smaller hospitals, is that they did not have enough patients so that there were questions about the viability of the hospital.

The franchise approach was used to see if a supplier could manage the hospital and cut costs to get rid of the debt.

It is worth pointing out that Circle, the selected provider, have debts of over ?13 million themselves so they are hardly paragons of virtue.

"maybe it was thought that someone else could do the job better"

Like Circle that has zero experience of running accident and emergency and maternity services? Nothing like no experience of doing a job like running a general hospital, to enable you to do the job better. Eh?

So a question for you that you have unlikely to have asked yourself. Why is it that a company with zero experience of running an accident and emergency general hospital is prepared to run such a hospital to try and deal with a debt issue whilst not affecting services and staffing?

Answer, because they are using this as a loss leader to get a track record so that they can tender for many, many more hospitals as the NHS privatisation gains speed quickly.

THe only difference of course, will be their fees will be bigger next time, now that they have been able to put themselves through a free training scheme courtesy of the NHS, its customers and the taxpayer.

Of course, if they fuck things up as a result of their inexperience of running general hospitals, well, just collateral damage I guess.

Cheers
D

[Lizard]

"I have already asked myself that question. And unlike your good self I have got an answer which is rather more accurate than your blathering on about killing your family."

So let me see, family and friends, partners, your cghldren dying needlesly is according to you, just "Blathering"

I don't need to tell you who's watch this happened on. You should show some humility sometimes, take of the blinkers.

[David Johnson]

"So let me see, family and friends, partners, your cghldren dying needlesly is according to you, just "Blathering"

This strikes me as a silly remark on your part. I notice that you make absolutely no comment on the detail of my post which you reply to here. Facts seem irrelevant to you.

Obviously the reason that I described your comment as "blathering" is because it had nothing to do with the subject of this thread i.e. why Hinchingrbooke hospital had been put up to tender for the adminstration and management of the hospital. The reason as far as I am aware is related to the ?40 million debt and Circle are tasked with reducing that debt in 10 years.

I have not and will not deny that the treatment of patients in some NHS hospitals such as Staffordshire was totally unacceptable and criminal.

"You should show some humility sometimes"

Humility has got absolutely nothing to do with my views expressed in this thread.

"take of the blinkers."

As with your comments on the trial of Conrad Murray, maybe you should take off your blinkers and try to understand the detail of cases before holding forth.

Cheers
D

[rgb]

Just spent the morning in an NHS hospital waiting for my wife to have an urgent operation, unfortunately there was a power cut in the area due to EDF (I thought they were all in jail now!). Obviously that wasn't the hospital's fault, but the hospital emergency generators weren't working properly and kept cutting out - no surgical procedures could be started because the power wasn't reliable. It was like a scene from MASH with doctors going around with torches. People who had been on waiting lists for ages were just being sent home and told to wait for another date - one old boy was in tears!

The obvious conclusion is that not maintaining the generators was a money issue and this is an example of the consequences of bad management.

[Peter]

rgb wrote:


>
> The obvious conclusion is that not maintaining the generators
> was a money issue and this is an example of the consequences of
> bad management.


I'll wager the managements final salary pensions were spectacularly maintained, though.

[David Johnson]

Hi,
Not sure if your post is meant to be for or against the privatisation of hospital management or alternatively nothing to do with the subject.

However, cockups occur across the board, particularly in an envrionment in which as the ex-Tory Health Minister, Stephen Dorrell remarked, the Tory government is asking the NHS to make the sort of "efficiency savings" that no health service in the western world has ever had to make.

It seems to me that the fundamental question concerning Hitchingbrooke Hospital is,

Is it right to employ a private company, listed on the Stock Exchange, whose overriding objective is to maximise profits for its venture capitalist owners, to have a bash at running a district general hospital, something that they have never done before?

Is it not better and much cheaper to put in "hit squads" to sort out NHS hospitals as required in the same way that very experienced headmasters and key staff get shipped in to turn round failing schools?

Re. EDF staff, I think they have joined the somewhat depleted Phone Hacking, Computer Hacking, Conspiracy to Pervert the Course of Justice, Covert Surveillance division in News Corporation.

That probably explains the duration of the power cut.

Cheers
D

[Lizard]

"This strikes me as a silly remark on your part. I notice that you make absolutely no comment on the detail of my post which you reply to here. Facts seem irrelevant to you."

I'm crushed......Try reading the fucking BBC article, those are 'facts' I know you can be a bit slow sometimes, but Jeeez...

FACTS: Where does it say that a private company can't operate a hospital better than the NHS, how do you know this, what proof do you have?

The link I posted to the BBC article simply highlights the fact that the NHS can get it very badly wrong, your patronising replies on this thread just go to show how incapable you are at understanding someone else's point of view.


Me Me Me.....Get those donkey's fed.