The NHS has been told to make £20bn of savings by 2015 - a saving of about 4% a year.
Hospitals in England must do much better at improving productivity if patient care is not going to suffer in the coming years, experts say. The NHS has been told to make £20bn of savings by 2015 - a saving of about 4% a year.
The report by the Nuffield Trust think tank highlighted a host of areas where productivity gains could be made.
These included cutting lengths of stay, doing more day case surgery and improving the way goods are bought. Savings could also be made in back-office functions, such as HR and finance, while staffing - which accounts for about 70% of costs - also needs to be looked at. ( sourced BBC)
The cost of Absenteeism in the NHS
Worker absenteeism within the NHS is rife, and cost the UK millions of pounds each year. Not only is there limited support for workers about to fall ill with work related stress, there seems to be a lack of wanting to keep good experienced workers happy.
Go to any ward in a UK hospital and there seems to be a undercurrent of just coping, and within some hospitals volunteers are readily (e.g reception work) needed due to the lack of funding to replace workers. This information was brought to public attention through the Boorman review in 2009 though NHS funding is still being cut and their worker force is dropping.
Non Pharmaceutical approach to good health and wellbeing
As Boorman outlined workers that want to lead clean healthy lives do not get supported in this decision. Neither are the workers that never have a day off and are the foundation to a fully operational hospital ( where is their support and rewards). There seems to be limited support which is mainly counselling or physiotherapy, which is only accessible once worker is absent from work due to stress.
Nursing on anti depressants
It seems that a large majority of nursing staff are taking anti depressant due to long hours witnessing traumatic situations and dealing with abuse from patients. Also there seems to be a limited amount of understanding by higher level employees/management which i believe place unrealistic targets on wards/ hospitals.
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Speaking to HR directors from north Manchester hospitals where some had 2000 workers off sick ( after six months their contracts will be terminated )though why is it taking so long for them to return to work, what other therapies should be used instead of prescription drugs.
