An invitation too good to miss
NHS England has sent me an invitation to comment on “the delegation of some specialised services to Integrated Care Boards (ICB)”, although I suspect this was a mistake, and I wasn’t meant to receive it.
ICBs are set to replace CCGs (I call them Cynical Commissioning Groups), which were a legacy of the turmoil created by ex-Minister La La Lansley – he who managed to create chaos across the NHS
We all know that the NHS is in turmoil, and it won’t surprise anyone to learn it seems to be digging itself deeper with “delegation of some direct commissioning functions to integrated care boards (ICBs)”.
Oblivious to the fact that the NHS is in dire straights, NHS England announces “a Roadmap setting out which specialised services may be both suitable and ready for greater local leadership from April 2023 so that patients can benefit from the focus of ICBs on managing their local population’s health and the opportunity of integrating the specialised elements of pathways alongside primary, community and secondary care”.
What does that all mean? Dunno, but I can tell you this patient doubts she will receive ANY benefits. Things are
getting worse, spreading to the Appointments Call Centre Admin system:
So far this month (August) I had
- An Iron infusion clinic follow-up canceled via a formal NHS letter – luckily I was in touch with the Clinic who knew nothing of any such cancellation, and the appointment went ahead
- ditto follow-up consultation after pain-killing procedures – had a good laugh with the Consultant (not a fan of NHS), who assured me he was still expecting to carry out his appointment
- District Nurse had to make a return visit as she had been given wrong instructions for taking specialised blood tests
I wait in dread to see what September brings.
So, do NHS England know what they are going to get, when they write to me to say “we asked for stakeholder’s comments on the plans……. If you have any further comments, please submit them to us at fcmp.england@nhs.net by 16 September 2022 so they can be considered in advance of final decisions being made later this financial year”.
They may have to wait for my comments as I am having issues with the email they provide. However, I can assure them I will get it to them; especially as they say ” Please email us if you require access details in order to view these documents”. And sign off with “Kind regards, Future Commissioning Models Programme, Specialised Commissioning, NHS England”
Can’t you just imagine how vast this NHS England office must be? !
Well, my email – when it finally gets to its destination, will recommend that instead of paying out good money to set up yet another over-staffed nest of over-paid bureaucrats, NHS England do something about sorting out its current mess. Bnd. It will not workut then politicians don’t like hard work – they would rather set up another commission/dept/office than sort out what’s already in place.
Hence – I would love to see the end of Health Ministers and their massive offices, and let the NHS staff run their Service.
