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I enjoyed the last of the 3 programmes from the series "Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS."

The last programme showed the Rotherham hospital CEO making a difference by doing something - like showing his face to his staff.

Having worked in the NHS over 20 years ago it looks to me like nothing has changed.

Like any organisation there are good and bad people. The NHS has created its own problems by allowing all staff to have their own "professional" standards that mean they can overrule change anytime they want.

The stupidity of having a theatre lying around doing nothing on Friday afternoons was mind-boggling. We've already paid for the consultants to work I assume? Maybe all staff have Friday afternoon off unpaid?

Equally I've read about a surgeon who can perform operations in 2 theatres in parallel so that he can get more people through his lists. Why isn't that done more routinely?

I know everyone is going to say cost. But why? If people are sorted out more quickly the administration to get them to hospital appointments would be less. That is they wouldn't forget and have to be sent a reminder, or called or another appointment made. Also they wouldn't need to keep seeing their GP to make sure their condition doesn't deteriorate.

Pooling for low level or technical procedures strikes me as the best way to do things. Look at how ultrasound scans work. You don't have the same person twice running.

In fact on my wife's pregnancy notes it said "you will be seen by the same midwife each time you attend".

Did we?

Of course not!

Did it matter? Not at all.

Anyway back to the programme...

The thing that struck me most about the last programme was the Minister for Health's smugness and the PCT's nice looking offices.

I don't know if this is true but it looks as though chunks of NHS money go to feed the PCTs before being allocated to the hospitals. Rather like how Regions and Districts used to do it in my day. It was staggering the amount of money spent on admin and finance.

So the programme showed Sir Gerry reducing waiting lists. The buzz on the Net suggests anyone could easily have done it and they're only short-term fixes.

My answer to that is if anyone could do it why didn't they. Plus what's wrong with a short term fix?

I didn't manage to watch the first programme that Sir Gerry Robinson did to review the current status of things at Rotheram General Hospital.

However, I did manage to watch and review "Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS?" second programme. It made compelling TV.

We had Gerry Robinson, business guru, up against NHS  consultants and hospital management. I wonder who'll win...

I noted some thoughts I had during Episode 2:

• Status quo seems to be preferred by almost everyone in the Hospital (which is one of the good NHS ones)
• They're clever people with good ideas who discuss them to death and can't implement them
• There are just too many fiefdoms, from consultants, nurses, theatre staff, porters and everyone else
• Consultants are not managed, at all - not even by their peers

Three points in particular made me laugh

1. When a group of consultants met up with Gerry one noted that the hospital management were dealing with doctors, some of whom, had several degrees. Like degrees can actually give you the ability to manage yourself out of a paper bag?
2. When the chief executive was asked if he could recruit two members of staff to get things going he said something along the lines of could we get a "little proposal" done? Why? You're the person the bucks stops with. Can you make a decision or not?
3. A consultant wanted to create their own mini-hospital within the hospital with their own waiting area, theatre, porters and nursing staff. If every consultant did that the hospital costs would sky rocket. At a company I worked at (which will remain nameless) a number of managers wanted their own IT staff, HR staff and other staff - and of course they didn't get it. Because it just doesn't make sense.

When I was in the NHS they'd just had the Griffith report (1983) which had recommended recruiting outside industry managers to run things. It didn't work because industry managers are used to staff doing what they're told or they can sack them. That just can't happen in the NHS - or can it?

In the end no one wins and the poor taxpayer picks up the tab yet again for more consultants to try and get the NHS working effectively.

Tonight we'll see whether Sir Gerry manages to get some of the things that were suggested up and running, or not.

PS BBC this series should have been on Broadband replay. So all NHS staff and Ministers can watch it.

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If you've got a little time to watch a car crash business programme then I suspect Sir Gerry's attempt to get the NHS to function will be the one to watch.

Sir Gerry took over the Troubleshooter mantle from Sir John Harvey-Jones (a bit more on this is on a previous The Apprentice post).

This time the BBC has given him the opportunity to help Rotheram General Hospital.

After I left BAe I went to the NHS for a year. I was staggered by the way the NHS was run. Naively I thought as I was fresh commercial blood I could help the hospitals I worked for...

Nope, not a chance. I left a sadder but much wiser man!

We'll have to see whether Gerry succeeds or not. You can catch him on BBC 2 on 3 consecutive nights starting on Monday 8th January 2007. 

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Wikipedia: Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS Review, Sir Gerry Robinson, Sir John Harvey-Jones, Business Review, Rotherham Hospital
UrbanDictionary: Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS Review, Sir Gerry Robinson, Sir John Harvey-Jones, Business Review, Rotherham Hospital
RottenTomatoes: Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS Review, Sir Gerry Robinson, Sir John Harvey-Jones, Business Review, Rotherham Hospital
MySpace: Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS Review, Sir Gerry Robinson, Sir John Harvey-Jones, Business Review, Rotherham Hospital
Google: Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS Review, Sir Gerry Robinson, Sir John Harvey-Jones, Business Review, Rotherham Hospital
Technorati: Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS Review, Sir Gerry Robinson, Sir John Harvey-Jones, Business Review, Rotherham Hospital
Del.icio.us: Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS Review, Sir Gerry Robinson, Sir John Harvey-Jones, Business Review, Rotherham Hospital