Sometimes, it is worth promoting someone else's blog because it is worth reading.
This morning, I will give a plug to Roy Lilley's blog on the NHS because it is always worth reading, even when I don't agree with Roy, and that happens.
This morning, I share his post on Wes Streeting's comments on the NHS over the weekend because they are really good, as is his conclusion. And, you do need to understand that Lilley was referred to Streeitng as 'Silly Boy' for some time to get what follows:
So, you've got a new job.
It's a big step-up for you. Your dream job.
It's your first day, meeting the new team.
What do you do?
If you know anything about management and leadership you'll understand people will be suspicious of you. You'll need to win them over.
There are five things.
1 Celebrate what they've achieved.
Even if there's not much to celebrate. Do your research. Find something to big-up and tell them they can be proud of what they've done and they can use that platform to do more.
2 Understand the organisation culture.
You may not agree with it. You may not like it but it's important to understand it. Get a feel for why things are like they are and find the go-buttons. What makes them come to work.
3 Get stuck-in.
Roll up your sleeves. Spend time doing the job, from the ground-floor up. Talk to people, find out how they do the job and what would help them do the job better, safer, or quicker.
4 Be present.
Don't send messages like; ‘my door is always open'. It takes a lot of courage for people to walk through that door. Open the door and walk through it yourself. Leaders are visible. There'll be backs that need patting. Find one, every day.
5 Tell people who you are and what you want.
People won't do the right thing if you don't show them what you think it is. Leaders are visible, have a vision and share it often.
Simple, eh?
What you don't do is to turn-up in a new job and slag-off everything. Tell everyone that their organisation is broken and that from now on, the policy is, they are working for a broken organisation.
The implication being it is broken because they have been complicit in breaking it or stood idle, watching it break.
Only a real fool would do that. Only a fool, or Wes Streeting who said;
'From today, the policy of this department is that the NHS is broken…'
People ask me why we've dubbed him ‘silly-boy'. There you have the answer. An example from his first ten-minutes in the job.
If he knew anything about leadership or management he'd have followed the five basic steps. He could have said;
I know the NHS has gone through a terrible time. Goodness knows how many secretaries of state, changes in direction and the pressure and grief of Covid.
This great organisation is on its back-foot. I am here to help you get back onto the front foot.
From today, my priority will be to reduce waiting lists. In the next three months I will be visiting as many hospitals and surgeries and community settings as I can because I want to hear from you, what your priorities are and how we can work together.
Together, we can get back to being the top rated health system that our NHS once was.
Silly-Boy can't do that. Why? Because he is well, silly and thinks it's all about how tough he is.
A broken NHS?
- The NHS sees 1.7m people every day, the equivalent of the populations of Birmingham and Leeds, more than at any time in its history.
Does that sound broken to you?
- It deals with more 999 and 111 calls than it has done since 1948. As of early 2024, ambulance services handled approximately 828,345 calls in January alone... a 22% increase compared to the same period in the previous year.
Does that sound broken to you?
- Provides care to a bigger population, of older, more vulnerable people. Poor people and socially disadvantaged people… with two thirds of the beds the NHS had 25 yrs ago.
Does that sound broken to you?
- GPs see 365m people a year, that's the equivalent to one in ten of us every week. 70% face-to-face, most of the rest on the phone or facetime. Nearly half, on the same day.
Does that sound broken to you?
- The very smart NHS App has more subscribers than Netflix.
Does that sound broken to you?
- NHSE has subsumed NHSImprovement, NHSX, NHSDigital and HEE into its organisation. The biggest reorganisation Whitehall has ever seen and reduced staff by nearly one third.
Does that sound broken to you?
- It has trialed and established 12,000 virtual wards to help fix discharge and admissions demand.
- Coped with rejigging 1.2m appointments lost through strikes… over which it has no control.
Does that sound broken to you?
- Since early 2024, the trajectory of patients on the waiting list is starting to move down. In January 2024, the waiting list fell to 7.58 million from 7.6 million. A decrease of about 192,659 patients. The numbers could be better if it wasn't for the strikes.
Does that sound broken to you?
The service has coped with cuts to its budgets, idiot, useless politicians that don't have the wit-nor-guts to sort out social care.
Damage to its workforce through Covid and Brexit… and along the way, established 160 new diagnostic centres and watched powerless, as bits of hospitals have fallen down, through the lack of capital investment.
The NHS is not broken. It's battered and struggling with;
- a lack of supply-side capacity,
- a dearth of investment in capital projects
- the collapse of social care.
You'll get all this but don't expect Silly-Boy to understand it.
Now talk about what you're going to do about the real issues, Wes, and stop maligning hardworking people.
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The NHS is on the ropes after 14 years of Tory fools so what does clever-clogs Streeting do but beat them up some more! Cracking start Wes! Another party of fools has been elected in Great Brainless!
I doubt Streeting sees his ministerial role as being the leader of the NHS. Rather he might say his role is to hold the organisation to account. Unfortunately for him, just a politician with little experience of actually doing or managing anything practical, that organisation is made up of thousands of people who might take a different view.
It’s interesting messaging, and kind of feeds into the view I had from a pensioner that because she couldn’t see a Dr they weren’t doing their job and were somehow skiving. In one sense I understand where he’s coming from, but if I was an exhausted A & E nurse I may not appreciate it and feel chastised rather than encouraged.
As a former NHS worker, most of it during the Thatcher years, I know how disheartening it is to work flat out and have to deal with people complaining all the time. Even pre-Covid our NHS staff were exhausted and now most are totally burnt out. If Wes doesn’t work with them and take them with him, he will achieve nothing. We have a limited pool of trained staff and whilst some will transfer to the private sector, most will either leave healthcare altogether or move overseas.
The big disappointment of Friday morning was finding out that Wes had kept his seat, by just a few hundred votes. How much better off the country would have been without the Silly Boy in parliament!
Hopefully he can be replaced by someone more sensible when it becomes obvious he’s not up to the job? There are plenty of talented MPs that have been left on the back benches.
Over 40 years ago I was told “nobody ever did anything better after you shouted at them”. Can someone tell Wes, please?
@clive
Reportedly, Sir Alex Ferguson did, but somehow I doubt that.
Streeting and Reeves are both incompetents. This shows, I think, that Starmer is not a very good judge of character, at the very least. It may well be that he is in the wrong job for someone with his particular skill set. G*d knows what skills Blair possesses.
Thank you and well said, Larry.
When I heard that Jacqui Smith and Alan Milburn are back, I remarked to my parents that Starmer has sown the seeds of his eventual demise.
Indeed…
Absolutely!
How did this “Silly Boy” Streeting person get the job in the first place?
There must be at least 10 people out and about in the rank and file of Labour who understand the NHS better than he does.
Good question….
He is thought to be a future leader of Labour. Heaven knows why.
Thank you, Richard.
It was disgusting to hear the despicable BBC parrot Streeting, “broken NHS”, at breakfast this morning. My retired doctor father was seething.
Might Mr. Streeting be afflicted by an, as yet, undiagnosed case of Binarismititis?
The symptoms of which include an uncontrolled urge to think, speak and even act only in polarised extremes which are based on a lack of deep thinking and reality, a compulsion to fit in with a currently fashionable styles of thinking, speaking and behaving and which might aid promotion prospects.
Binarismititis most commonly afflicts self-advancing politicians, headline writers and advertisers.
We’re being set up for more outsourcing as a prelude to privatisation by introduction of an insurance scheme.
The Blairite proposition of sales of NHS data as mutually beneficial ‘partnerships’ is simply the first step.
Sadly, there are still a lot of Blairites about who näively think this is a good thing.
We already know that Milburn has very strong links with the US private sector big med.
He is basically a Tory in all but name, and is “advising” Streeting.
When Blairites are “advising” ,the best interpretation is “lobbying” on behalf of their sectional corporate interests.
Col S has already outlined the capture of SKS by corporatism, very credibly, in my view.
This will become more and more obvious in the next few months.
I regard Streeting’s unsympathetic comments on the NHS, and Blair’s involvement as part of the same political strategy. Corporatism.
Plenty of good reasons to criticise Wes Streeting. Indeed, the quote below is not quite how I would but it… but it is a hint that he realises that a well functioning NHS is a prerequisite (not a corollary) to a strong economy. Of course, the next question is what action will he take?
“…and the health of the nation and the health of the economy are inextricably linked. And that means we’re going to be a government that firstly recognises that fact, and recognises that as we get people not just back to health, but back to work, that’s a big contribution to growth……
…..By cutting waiting lists, we can get Britain back to health and back to work, and by taking bold action on public health we can build the healthy society needed for a healthy economy.”
Was hoping Streeting would lose his seat – trying to understand the visceral dislike he evokes. Starmer often put him up as a smooth spokesperson – he sounds sort of immediate and up to a point, conversational.
But as Roy Lilley puts it so well – all his utterances about the NHS being ‘broken’ (policy?) and his priority to change the ‘cover-up’ culture and empower whistleblowers , and above all suggesting the private sector is the answer to getting waiting lists down – all pretty grotesque.
Will Streeting actually ‘Get stuck in’ and ‘be present ‘ ? At least he says he is going to talk to the Junior Doctors – in an attempt to pave the way for a settlement to their pay dispute. That is a clear first test – of him and Starmer.
He needs to get health workers on board – that could set the tone for an NHS revival – but dont see any signs they/he will do that.
Will he be seen going into hospitals chatting to the front line – talking to Julia of EveryDoctor – etc – dont expect so.
He has said today that the NHS could be a powerhouse for getting the economy growing – that could be good if it meant he was about to invest in it . But then he seems to be adopting Blair’s tropes about the rich data resources in the NHS – implying rich pickings for private sector?
.
I see Streeing has described the N.H.S as an “economic growth department”.
Might it be worse? Wes Streeting’s approach seems likely to alienate many in the NHS as well as large parts of the public. Could this lead to greater pushback against LINO’s plans for the NHS? I think I would be even more worried if Wes was a charismatic charmer with people skills.
A better choice for SoS would have been a qualified doctor with experience of strategic management and improvement / reform experience…