Big jump again today to 562 deaths

Well some of them could have. No idea where my mate caught it but he's dead too and he didn't catch it in hospital.

 

Councils work exactly same, make sure they have spent every penny by end of year

 

All businesses do tbf. This isn’t just a public sector thing.

‘Use it or we’ll lose it’ is generally the way with all department or business budgets.

 

The way accountants work is that if you didnt spend the budget in that area then the following year the budget would be reduced thereby generating a cost saving and justifying their job. Transferring that saved money to staffing levels is then a whole different argument which you're likely to lose. That's how it works in private industry anyway.

 

Central government should be directly funding and monitoring stocks for events like this. It shouldn't be left to trusts to make decisions on spending for high risk/low occurance when they can't properly fund everyday treatment and staffing.

Indeed central government cut ppe funding and stocks.

 

No, absolutely not. After the swine flu and bird flu scares a national pandemic stockpile was put in place and the issue is that at national level the distribution of this by the firms appointed by the Government has been frankly p!ss poor. Oh, and the Government didn't think to include gowns in the stockpile.

Senior management in my Trust and most Trusts I have worked in would love to have the freedom to operate and indeed we are now proving far more successful at procuring gowns than the central bureaucracy.

Another example - we had the foresight to procure ventilators in January but these were stopped at the UK border and sequestrated for the Government numbers because they had been too late to react.

Please don't lay blame at Trust managements' door - most are from clinical professions themselves or other professionals who are absolutely committed to the NHS and frustrated to **** by the use of it as a political football and the ludicrous and massively expensive tiers of regulatory bureaucracy which have been put in place by the Milburn 'choice' agenda and then the stupefying 'Lansley reforms'.

The thing about the whiteboards which somebody else raised - this is the difference between what are our capital and revenue budgets. The former go through such a convoluted process at national level where Treasury and DHSC spend months arguing about them and then they finally get confirmed for Trusts for the year ending March 2020 in November 2019 - at more than had previously been signalled - then the Government calls an election in December and issues some more to buy it some votes. So some time in January the frontline is awash with money it has to spend by the end of March but can only spend on big IT, equipment and buildings (national not local rules) all with significant lead times. Another example of the paucity of the process in which local management has to work.

One final example as to how the tiers get in the way and leave local leadership bewildered with their hands tied behind their backs:-

- Coronavirus crisis hits, Government finally wakes up and says "NHS will have what money it needs, when it needs it" (good, us on the front line think, we can just get on with it)
- Next level down - NHS chief civil servants - you can have what money you need but only if you spend it on what we think you should spend it on.
- Next level down - NHS national regulator - you can have what money you need but only if you spend it on what we think you should spend it on and subject to a ridiculously low delegated limit
- Next level down - NHS regional regulator - you can have what money you need but only if you spend it on what we think you should spend it on and subject to a ridiculously low delegated limit and a bureaucratic process where you have to send us a form first (oh and by the way we recognise that you are all working seven days a week and need to bring staff and equipment in as the impact of the virus increases but we're taking four days off over Easter).

As I've said before, local NHS organisations are 'Lions led by Donkeys' and it is testament to the underlying strength of our NHS that is still delivers locally every day, despite the ******** it has to put up with from above.

 

Look how many are aged 70+ too. The age group told to stay home for three months to help the NHS and yet the government let people in that age group come out of retirement and they have now died.

 

Really great insight, thank you

 

Heading refers to 'UK Deaths' but blue graph line refers to 'England Deaths' - if the Deaths in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were included in the blue line they would probably exceed the Italian deaths.

 

Yes
All part of the ‘let’s pretend there’s competition, because competition drives productivity’. The reality is that it just costs loads more money to prove they’re being prudent.

never worked for the NHS but I worked in local govt and for the civil service at times they went through ‘market testing’ or it’s variants.

the first thing that happens is you need to set up loads of layers of contract management, creating loads of jobs that only need to exist because we’re now ‘contracting’.

the NHS is the worst case IIRC going from less than 10% non core costs to about 40%

 

Thanks, sounds like Yes Minister with gowns and masks....or maybe no gowns and masks.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write that.
So the solution is to get rid of many of the levels of governance?

 

Mental Health ward. Don't know the ins and outs - probably should really.

 

It's true though...some of them could have. They have the same opportunity to catch it in the community as the rest of us.

 

Yes I suppose it is. They work 8 to 10 hour shifts nursing people with the virus whilst not having protective equipment and then catch it off a jogger who runs past at a distance of 5 foot 6
Very possible but not very probable. Unless you’re Matt Hancock of course.

 

The directive on mental health wards is that staff do not have to wear ppe unless working on a ward where an inpatient is symptomatic or diagnosed. There are no visits allowed and patients are not being allowed off the ward apart from one period of exercise with one member of staff (if they have leave to do so). The irony here is that the most likely point of infection would be from a staff member who is going to supermarkets etc then going to and from work.

 

I can honestly say that i felt more concerned, much more yesterday when i went to asda to do my weekly shop than i do on the wards.

 

The amount of tests keeps going up, but nowhere near quick enough. 3448 less infections than yesterday.

 

Sadly Global death toll has now reached over 100,000.