m
It’s Ok, Boss -
I’ll Cooka Da books
So, why not sort out the NHS by privatising it? Some good old
free enterprise can do the job where the state has failed.
Really good idea. We can pay the staff minimum wage with no
sick pay or holidays and no irritating job security or pensions.
How does it work out in practise? Well in Cornwall it’s what
they did with the out of hours emergency G.P callout service – they come out
when you ring for a Doctor at 0200 am. The contract went to SERCO, that’s a
security company that normally transports prisoners to Courts in some parts of
the country. Very relevant.
According to the National Audit Office (NAO) this week, SERCO
has been fiddling its figures so that it met its targets when reporting to the
NHS, avoiding financial penalties or losing the contract. This is something
that the company denies. Hmmm.
Parliaments Public Accounts Committee (PAC) asked the NAO to
investigate and the result was a report that showed that SERCO often did not
have enough staff to meet requirements, and when that happened it often dealt
with the problem by fixing the figures.
Between January and June 2012 alone, SERCO fiddled the
figures 252 times (NAO)
According to the Right Honourable Margaret Hodge M.P., chair
of the PAC; “I find it disgraceful that SERCO fiddled the figures on an
astonishing 252 occasions. This tampering presented a false, much rosier
picture of its poor performance. In one instance, SERCO falsely claimed 100% of
emergency callers had a face-to-face appointment within 60minutes when, in
reality, it was only 75%, falling short of the performance standard”.
It was 252 fiddles in just 6 months – now we need to look at
the figures for the whole contract.
The Primary Care Trust which signed the contract was
criticised for failing to spot any of this, which only came to light as a result
of the actions of two courageous un-named whistleblowers, who took a stand
despite what the PAC described as a climate of fear at SERCO in Cornwall. Good
for them, and by the way this was a fraud against the taxpayer they were
exposing.
p
BOOK ‘EM
DANNO !
Even though this is potentially a multi-million pound fraud,
what’s the betting nothing happens?
k
Meanwhile, Dr Wirin Bhatiani, the Chair of Bolton’s new
Clinical Commissioning Group is entitled to take a bow; he has succeeded in
forcing Bolton NHS Foundation Trust to employ the ‘Dr Foster’ organisation to
investigate Royal Bolton Hospital.
Their interim report just out, shows that ‘Coding’ of more
than half of 150 cases checked, failed to reach National Standards – this is
where Bolton had a sudden rapid increase in ‘death from septicaemia’ (which
doesn’t count on the figures) instead of deaths from the categories of
illnesses which do count and make the Hospital look as though its failing (It’s
a miracle!). The Chief Executive has had to stand aside, now there will be a
‘full investigation’ of all the cases.
Three cheers for Dr Wirin Bhatiani.
Three cheers for the two SERCO workers in Cornwall.
If people are prepared to take this kind of stand then
managers weighing up whether to save lives or just fix the figures will be a
little more likely to make the right decision in future.
R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
By the way, I'm back!
Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you drop production)
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