Can I Bank On You (bbc Tv Last Night)

August 25, 2009

Sorry for not putting this in the Television section - however there does not seem to be much activity there - so i put it in here instead - hope that does not upset anyone greatly

So last night i was watching this Can I Bank on You programme (i might have got the name slighty wrong) on BBC - they had two people who used to be in the finanicial sector up to last year to go to two businesses and see the impact the crunch was having on businesses - one chap went to a dairy company that supplies organic dairy products - and that as far as i can recall is owned (or part owned) by 4 dairy farmers who all supply their organic dairy produce to this firm. Quite hilarious as someone from a farming background myself - to see a guy who was obviously used to the high life milking cows at 5 in the morning. And then there was the lady who went to the hotel in Blackpool - obviously a shock to the system to actually have to clean hotel rooms - its not such a bad idea actually - if some of the big bucks had to do this every once in a while - they might actually stop acting like :censor: clowns with other folks money. I thought it rather interesting to hear your lady being asked by the cleaning supervisor - what she thought the minimum wage was - she didn't know and the cleaning supervisor told her and told her it worked out at £100 - the ladys answer was "£100 a day" No 100 pound a week said the supervisor - the high up lady then said - "no one could live on that" Cleaning supervisor says something along the lines of - but people do - or have to. Obviously a shock to the system - however to give the two of them credit - they did seem to crack on with the job and seemed to work very hard - and they bought some good ideas to the table - for example the lady in Blackpool bought forward an idea to use some of the hotels facitities as a budget conference centre - and the lad who went to the dairy company is helping them secure some new invesment. This seems like an excellent idea - and it could be used elsewhere - it would do no harm at all for senior managers in say the health service to spent time on the front line for a week with an itinery like this.

Monday - spend day with ambulance crew dealing with 999 calls and the like

Tuesday spend time in A & E to see the impact silly rules :censor: made in silly :angry: offices is having in the real world.

Wednesday Spend time in a vastly understaffed hospital ward - same objective as Tuesday

Thursday With consent from patients etc - get scrubbed up and watch a typical days operations in an operating theatre - see how operations are being cancelled due to lack of funding - understand why so many resources.

Friday Frank and honest discussion with all the personal that big boy spent time with all week - must be prepared to have ambulance crews, doctors and nurses etc - ask seriously hard questions about what management do - be prepared to listen to postive constructive criticism even if said criticism is not exactly complintary about admin and management type stuff.

Red diesel

August 25, 2009

I didn't see the program as I don't watch TV, as such. I sit & read with a Classical music station on as background sound- O music :D

Your observations on the Health Service are spot on & very much to the point. Far too many people in Ivory Towers running it , with no idea of the excellent &, kind & efficient work that the people on the front line are doing under very difficult circumstances. It would be an eyeopener for them. They seem oblivious to Articles & letters in the papers about the problems.

There are complaints about trolleys & people being on them for ages, waiting for a bed. 5 years ago, I had to go to A&E with a suspected minor stroke { It was} & got a trolley almost immediately. I drove down myself :o There was nothing wrong with the trolley, no different from a bed, but I felt truly sorry for people trying to sleep all night on hard wooden chairs :( It would do the BigWigs good to see or experience that :angry:

August 27, 2009

The issue for me is that the job someone performs is in no way related to the remuneration they receive.

You can be the best nurse in the World (in the NHS) and you will only ever be paid the amount the pay banding allows.

You can be the worst bank executive in the World and you will be paid a large salary and larger bonuses.

If pay was related to performance (i.e. what you actually achieve) then there might be more financial equality.

Just because a football match generates a large amount of revenue the money is given to football players. Just because you can make huge profits in financial institutions they give the money to all of their staff. What if these huge amounts of money were redistributed, in 1990 the record footballer transfer fee was £8 million in 2009 it is £80 million (source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_football_transfer_record ). The most a top grade nurse (H grade) can earn is £31,960 (source http://www.nursefindersuk.com/pay.cfm ). Is the value of one footballer equal to 250 top grade nurses for ten years?

If you totally change the way things work and move more of the money to where it would make a difference to the majority (rather than the minority) then things might change.

August 27, 2009

Very good points Hertsnminds - excellent, ive always found it a bit odd myself how highly paid footballers are - ridiculous. As you say it does not matter how good a nurse you are - you are limited to how much some well overpaid useless manager - that has none of your skills - never dealt with a life threatning situation in their lives - decides how much they want to pay you - as little as they think they can get away - having first awarded themselves a fine bonus and parked their :censor: backside into a company Jag - courtesy of the taxpayer - very nice work if you can get it - how does one get a job like that.

Definitely - pay based on what you actually have to do in your job is a good idea - the idea that some equality manager that does whatever an equality manager does (creating rules - bringing out new forms to fill in - making sure targets are met - i presume) could earn more then an ambulance paramedic who actually has to use their skills to save lives its ridiculous - yep thats right the ambulance person actually has other peoples lives depending on them performing at their very best - and every day loads and loads of lives are saved by the fantastic skills and abilities of ambulance people all over the world - correct me if im wrong - but if someone is having to make life or death situations at 3 am at a crash scene in the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain - while Mr Manager is turning over for his second sleep in a nice warm bed - this should surely be reflected in the pay check - if the manager makes a mistake - its no massive big deal they continue on as usual - no matter what the consequences. If an ambulance crew makes a mistake - then someone could die - ie if they administer too high a dosage of a particular drug for example or not enough or whatever - and they will presumably hauled in and disciplined in whatever manner is deemed appropriate by useless well overpaid manager thats never sat in an ambulance in their life

Hertsnminds do you know if that 31 grand includes the various pay rises you get after completing various periods of service - if so 31 grand is shocking - is that really the very highest wage a nurse can earn - im not disputing the figure - i just reckon its absolutely shockingly low - i presume it excludes the London allowance and to be honest its a joke - would i be right in assuming that a grade H nurse would be a specialist nurse - ie theatre nurse, A & E nurse, ICU Nurse etc or nurse practitioner with specialist Nurse. Anyone with knowledge in this area please feel free to comment - even if its to say you reckon red diesel is talking through his :censor: backside.

Red diesel

August 27, 2009

Hertsnminds do you know if that 31 grand includes the various pay rises you get after completing various periods of service

I don't know all the details only the information on the source I have linked to. They quote the figures as a national pay scale with those in private hospitals able to earn more.

The problem starts with how much money the Government allocates to the NHS this then has to be divided amongst all of the requirements they have. So at the end of the day someone requiring a hip replacement is valued against someone getting a cancer drug to prolong life against a newborn baby being in a high dependancy unit.

Imagine if 50% of all footballer transfer fees went straight to the NHS, everyone would want them to get £80 million a time!