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Jun. 7th, 2007 12:56 pm
The NHS audiology department where my mother works is desperately understaffed. It has suddenly been told it needs to make an extra 2.5% of savings by the end of this month.
That puts part-time jobs in the department at risk—which would make it even more understaffed.
And it means the department will not be able to hire the two audiologists it urgently needs.
It needs them in order to meet the government-imposed target of bringing down the waiting list time from 21 months to seven months by next April.
If that waiting time is not brought down, the department will be officially classified as “failing” and will most likely be closed.
If the department is closed, all its services will have to be contracted out to private firms, with all the extra cost and obfuscation of accountability that usually result from this.
When the government are challenged about what is going on in the NHS they always deny any connection with it, saying it is a matter for the individual care trusts. Yet they continue to impose targets that cannot possibly be met without damaging cuts, outright fraud or huge amounts of money being wasted on incentives for the private sector.
This is government by cunting about. It would be nice if it stopped, but everyone nominally in charge seems perfectly happy with it.
I just passed Lembit Öpik with both Cheeky Girls. As they were walking through the courtyard, two postmen leant out of the postroom window, cheerfully shouted “Cheeky cheeky!” and started singing “#We are the cheeky girls...” The girls smiled and waved. This must happen all the time. It must be odd when every passer-by thinks they have a licence to shout things at your girlfriend when the two of you are out, however well-intentioned, even more so when it’s unlikely that anyone’s going to shout anything at you. How often do you think he hears “Oi! Asteroids”? Rarely, I suspect. Instead, the heckles he gets in and out of Parliament are also all about the Cheeky Girls, and probably always will be.
Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate: The list is endless, and the problem is that it is getting longer all the time.