hospital incomptence at the N & N

A friend was delighted that the N & N had contacted him to say that they could do the operation he needed. get ready to come in at 7am and all will be done. The day before he get home to find a message to say that it has been cancelled because of an emergency.

He had organised things so that he could go in and now it was off, the day before. It shows, once again, that the N & N is badly managed, there simple are not enough beds to cope with the varying demand for the hospital. The problem is that the board is made up of lawyers and accountants, people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Even their modelling of needs takes no account of variations in demand, when I asked whether the modelling they use had a stochastic component the chair of the board had no idea what I was talking about. Mr Prior who one once a Tory politician, being paid over £50,000 a year for a part-time job, does not have any idea how the hospital should be planning its workload. It is not surprising that they cannot even keep appointments.

Benefit Simplification

For sometime now I have been worrying about why the benefit system is so complicated. For anyone trying to find their way through the complexities it is like a sophisticated puzzle. The more you learn about the various rules and variations the more puzzled any rational person becomes.

But now we get to todays budget and all becomes clear, well at least slightly less muddled. The chancellor anounced two things which will have some effect is that people over 60 will not have to work as many hours to get tax credit, a new wrinkle has to be added. Secondly there is to be more money in child tax credit for children under 2. Further there are proposals to limit the amount of housing benefit. All adds to the nightmare of complexity!