As many of you know, we have been investigating the structural and funding complexities of England's National Health Service (NHS). We have looked at the funding streams declared to Parliament and identified the various national and local bodies that comprise the NHS. We initially hoped that reviewing these funding streams and the websites of individual entities would clarify how everything fits together. This shows how naive we were.
We soon began uncovering aspects hidden from view, such as inconsistencies in budget estimates and various quirks we've attempted to illustrate in our posts. We're discovering issues, such as these organisations' aims and priorities, are pretty complex. Deconstructing them has proven to be a significant task. We have reached the point where we need to provide a preliminary summary, warts and all.
Given the volume of comments we've received on this series, we thought it would be productive to first list the main bodies, their functions, and their performance. Next, we plan to propose a bottom-up structure that minimises disruption to existing functions. This proposal will be open for your comments, leading to a revised version for further feedback. Since taxpayers fund this service, they should have a say in how it operates.
So, again, bear with us as we understand all this and continue discussing ways to eliminate poorly performing overlapping organisations. We ask for your patience as we endeavour to understand these complexities- it’s taking us longer than we thought.
Our goal is to ensure that funds are directed to where they are most needed, specifically towards clinical services.
These are just our initial ideas, but after that, you, the readers, will be in the driving seat.
This post was written by two seasoned old geezers who’ve been around the block and back trying to clarify things for each other (we hope).
I look forward to this: "Next, we plan to propose a bottom-up structure that minimises disruption to existing functions. " - and to the comments. After all, we're not just taxpayers who ought to have a say - we all were, are and/or will be patients and thus 'consumers' of what the NHS 'produces'.
So important, thanks TTE! To further understand these poorly performing organisations, the list of government and NHS organisations that do not respond to coroners' reports (i.e. break the law) can be an additional data source: https://preventabledeathstracker.net/reg-29-addressee-tracker-database/ Unsurprisingly, DHSC, NHSE and the CQC are the top 3 offenders!