400 Health jobs ‘in cash crisis threat’
Monday 8th March 2010, 3:00PM GMT.
Nick Corbel, from the Unite union.
UP to 400 jobs could go at Health under secret plans to slash ten per cent from every States department, according to a union leader.
Unite official Nick Corbel says that the cuts would leave Jersey with a ‘third world health service’.
The JEP has learned that Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf has told his Council of Ministers colleagues to investigate the effects of 2% budget cuts next year, followed by 3% cuts in 2012 and 5% in 2013.
They have been told to complete the work by July as part of the work to fill the £50m structural deficit. But there is some split within the council. At least one minister has objected to the timeframe and several have agreed to do the exercise but have pointedly refused to commit to the cuts.
If all the cuts were implemented, States spending would drop £60m from this year’s total of £619m by 2013. The Health budget would go from £167m this year to £150.8m in 2013 – a drop of £16m.
Mr Corbel said: ‘By 2013 Health and Social Services will have to make up to 10% service cuts, which I have been told will effectively result in up to 400 job cuts.
See Monday’s JEP for full story.
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I can’t believe Corbel suggests we should borrow to pay for services. Nothing like moving the problem onto tomorrow and the next generation.
We must live within our means. If we want to spend more on Health we have to pay for it so higher GST. If you put up income tax as I am sure Corbel will suggest next people will leave and we end up with less tax.
I think 10% cut over 3 years is a good way to go any company, department, service spending £167 million must have some areas to cut and 3-4% a year is possible.
Please don’t start looking to borrow to spend or we will end up in a real mess look at Greece or Japan where they now spend 20% of tax revenue to pay interest on the 120% debt to GDP they have!!
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This is a crazy exercise.
If there have to be cuts then they have to be made in departments apart from Health.
The CoM can plan this exercise but any Minister has the option of asking the States as a whole not to implement the cuts for his or her department and plenty will.
Election year is coming up and plenty of States members will have their eyes on the one cut they do not want to see.
Their job!
More muddle, failure and overspends
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Glad I had cataract op last week after waiting nearly a year.
Hope I don,t have to wait so long for the other one to be done.
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Nick Corbel has no teeth so I would take any of his moans and graons with a pinch of salt. Its probably about time people were means tested for free health care anyhow if they need to get a balance.
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There is a difference between service and budget cuts. Just look at the wording – job cuts, ward closures, mothballing, reduction of services – Another example of shroud waving, getting in the way of proper and fit debate. 10% savings can easily be achieved without serious impact to ‘front line services’. The Jersey taxpayer and future generations frankly deserve better.
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I agree with Pip Clement # 2. If there are to be cuts it should not be in health. I also believe the States need to look at the unnecessary number of senior officers that many departments have nowadays. I can’t imagine that the prvate sector has the same ratio of supervisors / managers to workers that States Departments have. What’s needed is more practitioners and less paper shufflers – that’s where the cuts need to be.
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So currently 25% of States budget goes to health. How are we wasting the other 75%?
I reckon they should draw up a list of each department’s spend and allow the people of jersey to submit how they would trim (or not) each to achieve the overall reduction. True democracy in action! Perhaps someone can design this on Facebook
Secondly, and this is something I want to air generally, if the recession means people stop spending and folks lose their jobs, can’t pay the mortgages etc, won’t cutting States budgets etc make that situtation worse? (Particularly for the 400 or so folks who may loose their jobs)
Is this proposal a way of counter balancing the stimulus fund where we gave a few million to TTS to rip up the avenue for months and months and months and months.
The situation is complex and precarious, but stories like this will undermine the confidence in local housing and small business. Most of us are already feeling the pinch of higher energy costs, GST and large mortgages. My concern (as someone trying to get on the property ladder) is that Banks say, ‘well we can only lend you 4 times your salary as opposed to the 8 times we used to lend a couple of years back.’
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Great article until you read the line:
“….according to union officials”
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Bluntly the island cannot borrow in a long term sense without the agreement of the UK Treasury which would probably not be given.
We are being softened up for the inevitable tax rises when cuts are found to be unpalatable!
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Having worked in the health service for over 35 years, I feel I can offer some advice to the ministers on this subject.
Firstly there are far too many civil servants employed in HSS. Their job appears to be to write protocols which produce more paper work for front line staff. There is actually a protocol for writing protocols. There are never ending trips to the UK to ‘ view examples of best practice ‘, guess what, yes another protocol and more paper work for front line staff. Meanwhile essential staff continue to leave the island or retire early.
What is required is some common sense, HSS front line staff do not offer services that are not required, these services are required by someone, which one to cut. None. Cut the over paid, unrequired, back room staff which cause unneccessary work.
Break up Health from Social Services and get rid of all, yes all, Chief Executives and have directors of services report direct to the Minister.
If the council of ministers are serious about saving let them start in the big house and get rid of the connetables, why are 12 individuals, voted into the states by a few hundred, extented family members sit in a chamber spending our taxes and why is Terry still there when he as treasurer minister overseen the incinerator disaster and as an accountant why did he not see the need to hedge the fund. Of course money could be saved, but not from front line sevices. It must start at the top.
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If our States ministers really want to save money big time may I sugest that ALL states workers only work 9 to 5 as the ” norm”. ALL states departments will not function at all other than these times, thus cutting the states workforce by 60pc. What a saving!! No early or late flights or arrivals/departures at the the ports. No emergency call outs of any kind unless you are lucky to call week days/ office hours of course! Now that’s a saving!!
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Most of the net growth in jobs in the UK over the past 13 years has apparently come from the public sector. Its inevitable that with such a big budget deficit that some of those jobs will be shed. Can anyone enlighten us as to the growth in public sector jobs in Jersey over the last 10 years? Tom H, I think debt to GDP is more in the region of 200% for Japan but I take your point. Isn’t this the decade where people in the industrialised western world have to get used to a more modest standard of living?
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Public Servives need cut backs not health, instead of 4 men round the hole watching the fifth digging the hole, we could have 2 men watcthing 1 man digging a hole, Mr Corbel need to move into the 21 centry.
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“The JEP has learned that Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf has told his Council of Ministers colleagues to investigate the effects of 2% budget cuts next year, followed by 3% cuts in 2012 and 5% in 2013.”
I prefer to put a pin in a piece of paper myself. Please remember this person will be the next chief minister from what I can gather…..
Indeed if 400 jobs in health were to go, especially if they were to be on the shop floor, I may even go further and say the third world might actual be better for health care.
The most effective thing I can think of is for the voters to deselect the CoM out over the next two elections. If not it will be a case of “I spy no ships, only hardships” IMHO.
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Structural deficit.
Were did I first hear this ?
2009………..and Sen Ozouf magically found 16 Million.
2010……….. The wizard Ozouf finds another 14 Million, but forgot to tell the states during a very important debate.
How much did he and Terry loose on the incinerator and their lack of ministeral management.
How much have they lost of the tax papers money due to suspensions.
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9.Anon.knowing a few doctors myself I would say you are spot on,there is room to strip out a layer of paper shufflers and let our frontline staff get on with the buisness of hospitaling…the wait for scans and other clinical requirements must come first…we ar awash with civil servants,a a self multiplying entity that is a bad drain on our resources.
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Anon # 9 said,…” there are far too many civil servants employed in HSS. Their job appears to be to write protocols which produce more paper work for front line staff. There is actually a protocol for writing protocols. There are never ending trips to the UK to ‘ view examples of best practice ‘, guess what, yes another protocol and more paper work for front line staff.”
I worked in law enforcement for over 30 years and agree with everything you said. It was the same in the police and I am sure the same can be said about other areas of the public sector. As I said earlier, there are far too many paper shufflers and pen pushers in senior positions, earning large salaries. To reiterate, this is where the cuts should be made.
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Anon and Blue Knight I agree. However it appears that the frontline is often likely to be sacrificed first for some reason.
I myself would cull the pen pushers and management to enable the money to go where I think it is really needed, on the shop floor. The added benefit of this is one top job could well equate to 5-10 shop floor jobs, so a lot less jobs would go to make maximum savings.
Surely this has got to be good all around, except obviously for those getting big wages and big pensions?
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One way of saving a fortune would be to re-introduce nominal prescription charges. The main efect of this would be a huge reduction in the amount of drugs that people thrown away, and therefore a huge saving in Health’s drugs bill.
They should also look at why they pay private pharmacies approx double the UK rate for dispensing prescriptions.
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This on the back of the news that perotineal dialysis is to be withdrawn for patients suffering kidney failure, leaving only hospital based heamodialysis as an option due to the departure of the nurse who oversees the treatment leaving and not being replaced. Having spent the last 7 years attending the hospital as a renal patient prior to my recent transplant I can tell you they have been chronically understaffed for years. Staff who have left have routinely not been replaced by short sighted bean counters securing their own positions.
Blue Knight & Anon are absoulutely right, the health department is top heavy with pen pushers and paper shufflers who engage in a self perpetuating cycle of work creation to justify their positions, meantime the front line staff work their ar*es off. I recently made an application for state funded assistance with travel to the UK for my transplant as I earn well below the average wage. Having completed the form I noticed that at no place on the form or accompanying notes did it say where to return it to? that should keep costs down, how many bean counters did that pass through before being signed off?
Review the structure and follow modern business models, department heads, team leaders, junior staff. Each ( and this word will be new to them ) responsible for those below with personal accountability for mistakes and quality of work. I honestly beleive we could lose half of the managers currently working in health and lose none of the service.
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what will the new unemployed , do?
these, cuts are needed , and other departments , should look to the same , maybe some could move to genuine , under staffed departments, they are about.
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It has to be assumed that Mr Corbel finds the complexities of business efficiency challenging! Alarmingly so!
How does a 10% budget cut to Health equate to a cut of 400 jobs? Does Mr Corbel believe that we employ over 4,000 people in Health? Mr Corbel appears to have lost the plot!
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In defence of Mr Corbel the Business Editor of the JEP would appear to have an even worse grasp of maths. RE: Business headline ‘Six Channel Islands firms in top five of legal table’.
Six into five does not go!
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On the subject of borrowing, nobody would lend Jersey money other than at a punitive rate. Lenders only lend if they can be confident they’ll get their money back. The only business in Jersey that is profitable is finance. And the future for finance is looking less certain than it has for a while.
It is ironic beyong belief that the people who are opposed to us reducing public spending – the Adrians and Corbels of this world – are also the ones who do nothing to assist the finance industry. So in their world view, we need to – as a society – earn less and spend more, even though we already spend more than we earn.
Well, no prizes for guessing where that leads.
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Seriously a third world health service?
Has he been to a third world country? No bedding, no food, no drugs (not even painkillers), toilets with no loo seats, no toilet paper – need I go on.
He should do some research before making such drastic statements.
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Most countries charge hospital patients for their meals at cost price. Why not introduce this and make some savings in doing so. We have to pay for food while at home so why not in hospital.
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Adrian, if you make me laugh any more I shall give myself a hernia. Get rid of management and put the money where it is most needed you valiantly suggest. I have a ten pound note in my hand and I am asking it where it is most needed. Won’t answer. How stupid,it can’t talk. I’ll go to the Receptionist at the Hospital and ask her. Doh!
Good management does make a huge, huge difference of course. Now, I’m not saying that management at Health or elsewhere around the States’ Departments are necessarily good,and perhaps they too are over-manned, but similarly I’m not Doing an Adrian (it has become a saying in our house) and blithely asserting, with no evidence fair or foul, that reducing “pen pushers” (how disparaging) will necessarily protect front line services.
Come clean Adrian, you believe the Corbel 400 number do you? And you firmly believe that there is not an ounce of flab in our Health service on the “shop floor” that we could not identify and cut out?
I’m still chuckling.
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Blue Knight, Anon and Keith, spot on!
Frontline staff are increasingly getting pulled into fairly useless meetings by pen pushers also.
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Pip Clement #2
“If there have to be cuts then they have to be made in departments apart from Health.”
Seems like sound thinking to begin with but looking into the issue in more detail you’ll find that not cutting the health service will require much deeper cuts in other departments to compensate. These cuts would be personified by the fact that 10% of health’s budget is greater than 10% than any other department in absolute terms.
Personally I think the health department should be charging for more services that result from self inflicted actions, like charging for drunks that need A&E treatment etc.
Anon #15
“Structural deficit.
Were did I first hear this ?
2009………..and Sen Ozouf magically found 16 Million.
2010……….. The wizard Ozouf finds another 14 Million, but forgot to tell the states during a very important debate.”
The structural deficit you refer to is not going to take effect until 2011 onwards. Therefore those millions you mention relate to years when structural deficit was not forecast or a problem. The cuts needed are in relation to 2011 onwards and not 2009 or 2010.
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26 Teresa – Most countries charge hospital patients for their meals at cost price. Why not introduce this and make some savings in doing so. We have to pay for food while at home so why not in hospital.
We do pay for both treatment and food, it’s called social security payments, 6.5% of my gross income. Having spent some time in hospital recently I can honestly say ( and I’m not being facetious ) that you couldn’t charge for the food, I genuinely couldn’t eat it. OK I’m a vegetarian but there is a vegetarian choice on the menu, breakfast cold toast & cereal, Lunch a sandwich which is tasteless and my favourite, dinner vegetable pie, a misnomer methinks as pie should contain pastry and this was cold mashed potatoe with cheese on it.
I don’t expect gourmet food in hospital but it should be edible and we certainly should not have to pay twice for it.
My wife brough meals in for me as I’d had enough after 3 days. By my reckoning I’ve paid the eqivalent of £45,000 in social during my working life and this is my first time in hospital so an expensive meal by any standard.
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M #25
what’s third world about no “toilet paper”. surely the western practice of wrapping our faeces’ in tissue paper before flushing has to be one of the most unhygienic things we do. First there is the cost of the paper, add to that the cost of unblocking the pipe when copious amounts of paper get stuck in the bend. It must be better to use the Arab method of a small water spout in the toilet aimed at ones anus, a quick blast and a rub (no different than putting ones finger through the paper)hey presto, a sparkling derriere. One would not dream of rubbing poo off the carpet with a dry cloth, which appears to be the method of choice for anus cleaning in jersey looking at all the paper sold for that purpose.
Teresa #26
lateral thinking ! I like your idea.
Or how about a reduced sickness benefit if one is hospitalised.
Mike #27
Good points !
but best bit was “Doing an Adrian” I will have to remember that one. made me giggle.
joker #29
I agree ! why the hell should we pay to fix up victims of road traffic collisions when the guilty party has paid an insurance company to put right their mistakes anyway. Must be a massive pot of cash for health to tap into here.
Mustapha Slash #30
If you want to be a fussy eater don’t expect all of us to up our SS contributions so you can be fed 5 star.
I have been in hospital too. I was ill, I was not there for a gastronomic treat. The food was healthy nourishing and adequate and served with a smile. Too many sandwiches though (that one was just for you born warrior).
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Dear Joker
The structural deficit was forecast in 2008, hence GST. Meanwhile there has been a structural surplus, but as usual it was needless spent . With the surplus 30 million plus the 10 million or thereabouts lost on the failure to hedge the incinerator, we would not be far away from a cyclical surplus.
If my personal budget was going to be down £1K in 2 years time I would do something about it now, wouldn’t you? Did Terry or the master of spin Sen. Ozouf.? No they did nothing. The answer is simple, we have so many posts in the civil service, esp. in the higher echelons and this is were the axe need to fall, those on £100k +.
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Anon #32
“The structural deficit was forecast in 2008, hence GST. Meanwhile there has been a structural surplus, but as usual it was needless spent . With the surplus 30 million plus the 10 million or thereabouts lost on the failure to hedge the incinerator, we would not be far away from a cyclical surplus.”
Yes, their forecast in 2008 was for structural deficits beginning from 2011 so obviously they would have had surpluses for the years running up to 2011 so I don’t understand the point you are trying to make? I believe the majority of the surpluses since 2008 were invested in the rainy day fund (which is wise) but those surpluses are irrelevant to a structural deficit. A structural deficit means your year on year expenditure is exceeding income year on year no matter how large your savings are. In other words, your savings are irrelevant and should be used as an absolute last resort to bailing out structural deficits. Instead they should be focusing on either raising income or cutting expenditure or a combination, clearly they propose to cut expenditure.
“If my personal budget was going to be down £1K in 2 years time I would do something about it now, wouldn’t you? Did Terry or the master of spin Sen. Ozouf.? No they did nothing.”
They did do something, they brought GST in early at 3% and brought in 20 means 20 so we would be well prepared. Unfortunately States structural spending has rocketed since the original 2010 – 2012 forecasts back in 2006 so now these forecasts have to be adjusted again. The new forecasts obviously point to a £50m deficit at current levels of spending/taxation and therefore need to be dealt with.
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donald by all means cut public spending but be sensible and do the cuts where there will be the least effect. What would you do, cut 100 front line staff or axe 20 civil service grades? No doubt you would say get rid of a hundred and leave the twenty who manage.
Maybe Mike is of the same opinion too? “Good management makes a huge difference”. Sounds good in theory but what about in practice? Have you actually seen any?
Ask your £10 if a nurse or a doctor is of more use to you when you are in hospital than a manager collating stats. What do you think its answer would be? Now be honest about it.
A surplus manager costs much more than a surplus worker as in case you are unaware they cost much more per unit.
I have always believed in cutting jobs at the top first to release funds elsewhere like the front line. Others appear to believe that one should get rid of most of the indians and leave all the Chiefs.
It appears that those of a right wing mentality in Jersey abore unions and see them as the enemy, well you have the wrong ones in your sites as far as I am concerned. Unions are the ones that have lifted the working man out of poverty and without them most would still be in it.
Well said anon.
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‘Seems like sound thinking to begin with but looking into the issue in more detail you’ll find that not cutting the health service will require much deeper cuts in other departments to compensate. These cuts would be personified by the fact that 10% of health’s budget is greater than 10% than any other department in absolute terms.’
I would tend to agree with you but health is probably the hardest department to cut.
Phillip Ozouf has a battle royale on his his hands if he tries to force through these cuts.
Ministers can and will go to States to resist them and there will be spin and propaganda aplenty on both sides.
Personally I think it will result in the root and branch reform of the States as it will show the Chief Minister to be no such thing but rather the prisoner of the CoM and that the reforms so far have been just a hollow sham.
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Mustapha Slash # 30. I think you are taking the wee wee. I wonder how much they pay to feed the inmates at H.M.P. La Moye in comparison to the amount they pay to feed patients in the hospital.
PJG #31. Having lived in Oman for a year, I can confirm your account of how the Arabs clean their bottoms. Of course their Muslim faith stipulates they must only use their left hand, so that the right hand can be used to eat food. You will also be aware that thieves may have their right hand cut off, to force those convicted to use their left hand to feed themselves.
Mike # 27 said, “Good management does make a huge, huge difference…….” I have to agree with you, some managers do an excrement job. As for the term ‘pen pusher’ being disparaging – if the cap fits certain folk, then they should wear it. Keith # 20. is spot on when he said an organisation may be,… “top heavy with pen pushers and paper shufflers who engage in a self perpetuating cycle of work creation to justify their positions, meantime the front line staff work their ar*es off.”
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31 PJG – If you want to be a fussy eater don’t expect all of us to up our SS contributions so you can be fed 5 star.
I have been in hospital too. I was ill, I was not there for a gastronomic treat. The food was healthy nourishing and adequate and served with a smile.
First you need to view my post in the context it was written, in response to the suggestion that we pay for hospital food. Next as for expecting a gastronomic treat I clearly said “I don’t expect gourmet food in hospital but it should be edible” sorry I thought that was self explanatory. I also said I was a vegetarian, I assume that you are not so difficult for you to comment. The one choice available to me was inedible ( cold toast, cold potatoe masquerading as a pie )
In spite of this I didn’t complain in hospital, what’s the point I just took action to obtain food myself. I expect to compromise as it’s my choice to be a vegetarian, I’m used to having only one choice of meal, I’m just not used to it being inedible.
For what it’s worth I beleive that it is possible to serve decent vegetarian food no matter how tight the budget, it just requires a good chef and a bit of imagination.
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@PJG
Were my sphincter rimmed with dry carpet then I would probably hesitate before wiping it with tissue paper. It is not, however, and thus I will insist on using tissue paper in order to prevent the faecal matter from achieving contact with the paper.
A tip; fold the tissue over and wipe carefully to avoid ripping. It may take some practice but it is perfectly possible to perfect the technique. Moderate usage of tissue paper will also prevent your toilet from becoming blocked.
If necessary one can always wet the tissue to ensure a more thorough clean, especially if one’s discharge is sticky and/or spread over a wide area of your bottom.
Hope this helps.
Mark
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#31 “putting ones finger through the paper” Thank you so much for the laugh.
I thought the food was good (I’m also vegetarian), far better than I ever expected of a hospital.
#30 It’s insurance, how much house insurance, life insurance etc have you paid? How much have you used? Same principle.
When dealing with a Council back home I became aware of a women who was literally creating a ‘pen-pushing’ job for herself. She was in a position to actually ‘create’ a problem that she could then have her contract extended to allow her to solve said problem (and have her VISA extended). Colleagues knew this and encouraged her to reap their own rewards. When working within the NHS I realised that council employment was not the only place where such unnecessary job-creating occured. I can’t say for sure that it happens in Jersey but it is certainly worth some consideration.
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Now chaps, whether someone is doing a good job, working their proverbials off, making a difference etc etc is little to do with whether they be pen pushers or mop pushers. There are good managers and not so good managers. There are good nurses and not so good nurses. Of course there are – common sense. Let’s not make sweeping assertions based on one too many pints of beer about one group or t’other. What we do know is that we can no longer afford the same gold plated level of services that Jersey has become accustomed to because of the runaway success of the Finance Industry (cue Adrian, bring on your hatred). We have to cut our cloth accordingly, and the scissors will need to be aimed across the board, not just on the well mopped shop floor, but not just in the swank offices either. Now put the beer glass down, and ask the barman for a packet of common sense cookies.
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“Unions are the ones that have lifted the working man out of poverty and without them most would still be in it.”
Funnily enough, I have worked for the States and in the private sector.
When I worked on the bins as a student I got paid £260 a week (this is in 1991) for unskileld work, sitting in the back of a lorry with four others: 1 driver, 1 team leader and 3 workers. The team leader decided which of the 3 workers sat near to the door. That was his sole job for the day.
The driver drove between the bins. That was his job.
The man sitting near the door emptied the bins. The other 2 in the back read a stack of adult literature provided from Belozanne.
If the private sector had been involved one person could have done this job just as well, but taken home £500 a week and saved the States £800. And the four jobs that would have been lost: four less people living on the poverty line in Jersey.
But it was the unions keeping them poor, because as long as they are poor they will allow lackys like Corbel and Southern to exploit them.
I want a smaller population of better paid people: you do not appear to know what you want.
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There seems to be a constant line throughout all of these posts – cut back on these managers and office staff, stop cutting back on the essential staff needed to run the wards and departments alike. No nurses – no wards, no treatment, no-one to look after estates, parks and gardens that we all want to see and use, a jungle we will live in, no street cleaners – well the list goes on, but rest assured we will have plenty of managers and secretary’s to advise and write letters that the island is in a mess.
May be no more surveys costing £100,000′s to tell us whatever we already know??!!!
#30 – get a life, the food at Jersey General is 5***** compared to UK hospitals and that is from first hand experience with extensive stays. If I wanted gastro food, I would go to a restaurant!
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@ Adrian #34
“…What would you do, cut 100 front line staff or axe 20 civil service grades?…”
Another stupid question you expect people to answer, while you avoid answering those asked of you Adrian? Okay; I’d cut the most appropriate after considering what the outcome to both service and budget would be: ‘No doubt’ you’d cut the management, because you’re a communist and hate without reason any form of non-working class job role.
“…Sounds good in theory but what about in practice? Have you actually seen any?…”
Adrian, can’t you see how ironic you saying this is? You go on and on about your global utopian vision of profitless, tradeless, classless society of queenless drones; A theory which you think is nice (I don’t agree as I like people with their own character) but just not practical. Good management is everywhere to be seen, unfortunately often people (like you) only see the bad management, and moan about it. Fact is managers are people, and despite what you believe, no person will ever be perfect; excepting mistakes happen is something that you have to be able to do to live in a civilsed society.
“…Ask your £10 if a nurse or a doctor is of more use to you when you are in hospital than a manager collating stats…”
The consensus is that a medical professional is of more use when I’m in hospital… but who recruited them? Who arranged there wages were paid on time? What use is the Doctor without necessary supplies?
Without administration and management what use would a hospital be?
“…Now be honest about it…”
“…Unions are the ones that have lifted the working man out of poverty and without them most would still be in it…”
Killing Germans lifted large parts of Europe out of occupation, but we stopped when it was no longer necessary.
I have a friend in a union, she recently chose not to strike when her union did, she now suffers from all the hurtful comments and exclusion from her unionized colleagues at work; unions are just bullys nowadays.
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not forgetting the secretaries have secretaries.
The jobsworths could easy go.
We got on without them before also the nannies,
Whathisname the one who bends spoons sister.
As for hospital food it used to be excellent before cook and chill came in.Real food and plenty of it
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My kid was in the hospital not long ago. They served white sliced bread, something I didn’t know still existed. Absolutely shocking that Dr Gellar lectures so muc about the obese and the hospital dishes out industrially produced junk.
Do as I say, not as I do springs to mind.
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My guess is that there will be no cuts at all.
After the spending review there will be one on raising taxation.
Jersey is still a very lightly taxed jurisdiction and I would say that a 6% increase in GST will fill the hole quite nicely.
It will have a bad effect on small item retail like CD’s etc but who cares if that collapses?
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bella#44
“Whathisname the one who bends spoons sister”
Had to think about that one, then burst out laughing, ta very much
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Did society not bring top-heavy public services on themselves? We went from having internal investigations to internal AND public investigations to now having investigations of how investigations were run, and most of these things came about due to public outcries (although I don’t doubt they failed to realise it would lead to the idiocy it has) and due to an increasingly litigious society.
All our public services are now having to spend far too much time covering their proverbials because we will find any way possible to have a go at them. I know people who have sued the NHS who had genuine cause to do so and who needed the money to enable them to live with the mistakes the doctors had made. I know others who have sued over the most pathetic issues and have had no qualms about taking the money. None of it helps in the long run.
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When Mr Pollard left how much money did they give him? We are still waiting for a reply. This question has been asked a few times in the states. I am sure a saving could have been made there specially in vue of the Verita report!!! In the private sector if you do not do a job well you are sacked. So as it is all tax payers money can mr Le Sueur aswer this question?
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47 I thought that one out instead of name calling-which might have been rejected,but lo and behold the name is next comment from mine.
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#44 nice one Bella
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“When Mr Pollard left how much money did they give him?”
Given the abuse that he suffered at the hands of Stuart Syvret, whatever he got he deserved. He was a jobbing civil servant, no more and no less. Nobody signs up for personal abuse when they join the civil service.
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52 Read the Verita report. An incompetent management at H&SS caused the deaf of a patient at the hospital. Heads should roll and fat pensions be lost. But instead they get to keep their job, fat pension and on leaving , a lump sum. Savings are to be made so start by sorting out incompetentp management.
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#51 Lear
One must write in code now and then,mustn’t one.
I leave little words of wisdom on here for a certain he/she/them who keep questioning every-one and when I comment it,s rejected.
He/She/Them must know It,s exclusively my answer back.
Better than getting splinters on your bum I guess.
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donald read the verita report. To blame Stuart Syvret for bullying is pathetic as far as I am concerned. These people are paid a very good salary for what they do. If they fail they should have been sacked and left with no pension IMHO. Why should the tax payer tolerate any failings?
mike “If the private sector had been involved one person could have done this job just as well, but taken home £500 a week and saved the States £800.”
If the states paid £260/week there is no way a private company would pay double is there? More like £150/week and use migrant labour to increase profits. This is the way running a
company works maximising profits.
J.Lamborrari I believe in a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. Not twiddling one’s thumbs for a big wage like some workers and
managers can do and not being exploited by an unscrupulous boss for minimum wage. How can a level playing field for tax be classified as communism?
I have seen the best in companies where management functions are incorporated
as much as possible into the jobs of these actually doing the work not others who don’t have a clue about the coal face and who are only interested in statistics. This system causes inherent breakdowns due the them and us mentality as workers try to do their jobs inspite of management. With an us and them mentality the job comes off second best.
I have seen some abissmal managers in my time who couldn’t manage their way out of a paper bag but they were left in post as the higher management wouldn’t sack a manager. They also retired on a big fat pension. Maybe you think this is fine and dandy in your non union world but I don’t.
“I have a friend in a union, she recently chose not to strike when her union did, she now suffers from all the hurtful comments and exclusion from her unionized colleagues at work; unions are just bullys nowadays.”
Why be in a union if you don’t follow their instructions? They aren’t doing it to stitch their workers up you know. People who break picket lines etc are undermining the union and all it stands for IMHO. This is seen by some as a stab in the back. Would you trust someone who said they supported you but then went against you and by default enabled the
management to out manouver the union? I see this as akin to scoring a deliberate own goal, not exactly a way to endear yourself to your team is it?
Unions are only around because of issues with employers. I believe if there were no issues with the employers and they could be trusted there would be no need for unions. So I would put the blame where it really lies. You need to realise who the opposition is you have been mislead by smoke and mirrors IMHO.
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According to the Verita report, the hospital surgeons regularly squander Jersey taxpayers’ money on ‘wasted’ work-hours.
These well-paid team leaders more often than not start work ‘late’ (some with delays of up to 30 minutes and over) and, according to the report, this is accepted procedure.
What these highly-paid professionals fail to understand is that while they are still strolling to their work place, the day has already begun for their teams and the rest of the hospital staff. Their lateness means that auxilliary staff, theatre staff and assistants are forced ‘to wait’ for hundreds of hours every year. So, before arriving late for work next time, the surgeons should consider that at least 10 members of staff, by no fault of their own, are being paid (at the fully-loaded rate) for doing nothing until they appear…and the Jersey taxpayer is picking up the bill.
Cuts may be necessary, but before getting rid of staff, someone should make sure that Jersey’s costly surgeons get to work on time…because the ‘hospital-cost-clock’ doesn’t stop ticking for them.
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Pip Clement #35
“Phillip Ozouf has a battle royale on his his hands if he tries to force through these cuts.
Ministers can and will go to States to resist them and there will be spin and propaganda aplenty on both sides.”
Agreed. Which is why spending has spiralled like it has! But it isn’t just the COM who are to blame for all this. Look at all the expensive follies proposed by pesky back benchers who like to spend days talking about cycle helmet laws instead of sorting the deficit.
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Does anyone know.
A. How much the manual workers cost us per year.
B. How much the civil service cost us per year..?
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I think that 10% salaries cut is much better than potential unemployment at 10%… otherwise the States would face social unrest wich according to the economic science occurs at around such a level.
Think twice (if you really bother)… This is a choice between bad and worse.
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Born Warrior #56
Welcome back.
Perhaps the hospital surgeons are late because they have to make their own sandwiches. Now theres a good place to use the wasted ones nursey gives to the park people ?
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PJG 60.
Hi PJG, thanks for the “Welcome back”!
About the lateness though…after reading post 30. and 45. regarding the poor quality of hospital food, I doubt very much if the surgeons would take kindly to munching through those unwholesome-leftover sandwiches!
By the way, I thought bidets were common features in bathrooms nowadays, obviously not! I suggest that those who do not have the luxury of an ‘inner-buttock-cleaning-basin’ should try using baby wipes…one should never simply wipe what should be washed!
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Born Warrior#61
“bidets” ? Oh you mean those footbath things !
Very 60s they were, even the French seem to have forsaken them now, must be the shrinking size of the average bathroom.
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Truthseeker # 58. Don’t tell me; the Freedom of Information Act 2000, doesn’t apply to Jersey.
In the U.K. it’s great, you can submit a request for information on the costs of various services and the authorites have to reply with in a reasonable time.
What the States need to do is work out what services are essential and which ones are not. I have seen Councils in the U.K. appointing people to such posts as, Netball Development Officer, or Performance and Review Manager (Can’t ordinary managers review the policy an performance of their staff?
Also have you noted how Personnel officers, or Human Resources officers have grown in numbers? Years ago the police had a Sergeant who looked after recruitment of officers. Nowadays there is no doubt a Director of Human Resources, Manager of Human Resources, Principal Human Resources Officer, Human Resources Officer, Welfare Officer, administrative support etc., etc. The list of ‘Non Jobs’ is endless. What is needed is a root and branch review of all these posts, to save money.
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63.I was nodding as I read your comments,for how can one of the richest little places in the world suddenly be in schtuck, it must mean that while surplus ackers were rolling in it was not perceived as worrying…but the deteriorating spending had been seriously underminig the economy..and a Tipping point reached…suddenly all hands to the pumps,however the baleing is to little avail as the threatening waters are not from without but within…as Blade points out so succinctly,,so we shall see if these figures materialize…I am not an accountant, but my simple view of life suspects it is just a plain case of Too many chiefs and Not enough indians…we await…
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63 BK
In the private sector (well in the financial institutions I have worked for anyway) they tend to reduce the level of HR staff and instead expect more from their managerial staff.
Perhaps this may be why some of them can get decent bonuses…..all the extra “non-finance” stuff they have to deal with everyday. And especially with increasing employment legislation and cost cutting this can be a huge burden…….
Perhaps the public sector should learn from the private sector if we are to economise properly.
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BSD I would hive off as many management posts as possible and pay the higher grade workers a bit more to cover these areas. It would save a lot of money. A few cuts at the top means a lot less out of work for the same savings. A win-win for everyone except the few who are sacrificed for the sake of the majority.
I would say this has to be the way to go, we can’t afford lots of people out of work and a burden on the tax payer. Fewer out of work means less welfare is needed.
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Truthseeker # 64 and B.S.Deluxe # 65. You have both hit the nail on the head, there are too many chiefs and not enough indians and the public sector could learn a lot from the private sector when it comes to budgeting.
Whilst I can understand the need to create employment for people, there is a need to make sure that jobs – especially with public sector posts – are of benefit to the public.
When it comes to specialists, I was once told these people know more and more about less and less. What we need is more managers who are
omnicompetent, who have little need of advisors and consultants to tell them what they should alrady know.
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