Yes, statistics are both helpful and unhelpful. I think the sample was 3,600 but I have deleted the page I was looking it. As you rightly say it is the quality of the sample not thee quantity but as impoortantly the question. Satisafaction surveys are ephemeralm beasts at the berst of times.

I don’t think slagging off the NHS is in the same league as complaining about the weather. I think it is/has been slagged off because it has perfomed inconsistently and often poorly. And I am not even sure we hold it dear. We have no choice.

The survey does indeed makes some encouraging noises but the sample was not large. I am sure if you asked 20 people at random you would have 20 different responses.

The hard facts of waiting times for appointments and operations, quality of care for in-patients and successful outcomes of clinical procedures are all the matter.

Every political party has mismanaged the NHS and every political party has baulked at serious reform.

Still there 8 hours later, Moggy!!

Of course not. Surely the general point is that the proportions of suited management to clinical staff and clinical managers has changed in recent years in favour of non-clinical staff.

The big question is how FEW non-clinical staff do we need to run each hospital? That is on top of the non-clinical staff employed in the general administration of the NHS. Each of us experiences only a microcosm of the service and will have varying reactions. Our local hospital appointments system is appallingly and unnecessarily over-managed. Returning to the hospital centred appointment system would save thousands of pounds at a stroke.

I recall the very interesting programme Gerry Robinson made a few years ago when he examined costs at a local health authority and discussed with staff at all levels how money could be saved. It was an eye-opener!!

I also think the fact that working men over 60 do not have to pay for prescriptions is ridiculous.Reinstating charges until pensionable age is reached would save a few hundred million on the drug bill.

CD – and don’t forget that the most sweeping reforms of the NHS proposed in recent times were by Alan Milburn during the Blair administration. But Blair shrunk from these just as he did from Frank Field’s social reforms.

And of course Milburn was highly critical of Cameron’s U-turn on Lansley’s reforms.

:D:D

In what way was I going with the flow, Linc?

Not sure if they’ll catch the slippery eels though, will they?