“The floggings will continue until morale improves.” That’s clearly the way management is viewed in today’s crisis-ridden NHS. It seems set to drive away yet more vital staff from front line posts as they see no sign of support from senior management.
Life for NHS management was stressful enough before NHS England’s new boss Amanda Pritchard opted to throw in her lot with the scurrilous Daily Mail, welcoming their vicious campaign to vilify “lazy” “overpaid” GPs as offering ‘a strong voice for patients’ and “highlighting the devastating decline in the number of patients able to see their doctor in person.”
The supine willingness of NHS England’s chief executive to slavishly endorse Sajid Javid’s so-called package of ‘support’ for GPs that amounts to just £30,000 per practice, but also includes counter-productive and ill-informed plans to ‘name and shame’ surgeries failing to deliver enough face-to-face appointments and the threat to send in ‘hit squads’ and impose cash penalties on surgeries that “refuse” to see more patients in person makes it clear as day that she would just as happily throw trust bosses under the bus next, if the going gets tough.
Full story in The Lowdown, 20 October 2021