IOM DHSC & MANX CARE

[Galen]

Merry Christmas and an especial 'thank you' to those who will give up some of the festive season to look after and care for those in hospital or in the community.

In health care, and especially in acute (hospital) care) around 75% of the budget is spent on salaries and wages, the remaining 25% being on everything else including food, medications, electricity, gas, water, maintenance etc. Consequently, when cuts are made, it is the '25%' bit of the budget that gets hit the hardest, which includes the infrastructure framework that holds everything together.

Add to the mix that modern hospital management structures breed an 'us and them' culture. Despite what some medics may think the ward cleaner is just as an important part of the clinical team as a fellow medic is. If the cleaner does not do their job properly then ward acquired infection become rife. Equally if the catering staff do not do their job properly patients can get the wrong nutrition (typically 50% of patient meals are specials e.g. low salt, high protein etc. If the HSDU staff do not do their job then the operating trays are not sterilised properly and patients get infected. If maintenance staff do not do their job properly then things do not work. etc. etc.

In other words healthcare is a team effort - and as the old adage goes "There is no 'I' in team". Regretfully, certain of our health care staff / managers (invariably the bullies)  either don't realise this or care to ignore it and see themselves superior to others and demonstrate their beliefs in the way they treat /ignore others involved in patient treatment. The result is poor, uncoordinated healthcare and incidents, which when investigated,  culminates in the time honoured declaration that 'lessons will be learnt' - but rarely are!

Hospitals used to be fun places at Christmas with, where appropriate, staff dressing up trying to make it a bit more joyful for those patients could not go home. Frail, elderly people with no family were often 'found to have small problem that needed looking into' so that they could be kept in for the few days of  Christmas instead of being discharged back to a cold home with little or no food. It was a community endeavour where people cared for, and about, each other. Arguably, times changed when general management was introduced into the health services and the focus became the bottom (financial) line and achieving targets that were linked to bonus /performance payments, more staff, bigger offices etc.

While old style of health services certainly had its problems, a hospital solely run by a senior medic and matron supported by an administrator, achieved a lot. With limited technology in comparison to what is available nowadays, the system worked because there was trust and people respected each other no matter what their role was. The raison d'etre for being in healthcare was to help patients - a reason that sadly seems to be often lost in the present systems and one that sits at the heart of much of the acrimony over issues such as pay.

Merry Christmas everyone.

 

[Jarndyce]

30 minutes ago, Galen said:

Hospitals used to be fun places at Christmas with, where appropriate, staff dressing up trying to make it a bit more joyful for those patients could not go home. Frail, elderly people with no family were often 'found to have small problem that needed looking into' so that they could be kept in for the few days of  Christmas instead of being discharged back to a cold home with little or no food. It was a community endeavour where people cared for, and about, each other.

I worked at Nobles in the early ‘90s and I recognise this picture - and the gradual erosion of this team spirit over the years.   In my view, Galen’s whole post is an accurate summation of where we were, where we are and how we got here: improvements, yes - but the baby thrown out with the bath water.

Merry Christmas, all.

[Boo Gay'n]

On 9/30/2021 at 8:19 PM, Roger Mexico said:

They must be expecting a real humdinger of a tribunal with Ranson as they've set aside a whole 14 days in January and February to hear it.

As they have for another case Mr Graeme Jones V Office of the Clerk of Tynwald, which will take place in December and January before then.  The Clerk of Tynwald has just retired of course (though I reckon he was of retirement age), though I can't find out is a replacement has yet been appointed.

... and so it begins
https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/doctor-tells-tribunal-she-was-unfairly-dismissed-after-whistleblowing/

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, Boo Gay'n said:

... and so it begins
https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/doctor-tells-tribunal-she-was-unfairly-dismissed-after-whistleblowing/

Still scheduled for 14 days of hearings till 11 February, followed by another six days for Kevin Kennington in March and April (more whistleblowing) and no less than 17 days for the deferred Graeme Jones v Clerk of Tynwald one, which I suspect may also have similar implications - else why so much time.

Not for the first time you can't help wondering exactly what is going on with Human Resources in the IOMG to allow things to get this stage.

[Banker]

I assume if the cases are being defended then the legal advice must be that IOM GOVERNMENT have a good case

[Sheldon]

2 minutes ago, Banker said:

I assume if the cases are being defended then the legal advice must be that IOM GOVERNMENT have a good case

Loosely paraphrasing the apparent defence, she was only ever intended to be a temporary employee and so cannot have been dismissed. However, in a classic bet-hedging ferret, if she is found to have been dismissed it's because she was shit, not because she's a whistle blower. 

I fear this is going to be a car crash.

[Two-lane]

Quote

 Ms Magson emailed Manx Care's chief executive and chairman to tell them Dr Ranson wasn't up to the job.

That's a bit rich, considering you would be lucky to find any gov. manager in the DoI (for example) who is up to the job.

Magson has a degree in music followed by 15 years working in a bank - then somehow became head of a health service somewhere. So was she up to the job when switching industries? OK, so the answer is that Ranson is a technical person and is capable of being incompetent. Magson is a manager and is therefore indisputably competent in banking, health, nuclear power plants and any other industry.

[Shake me up Judy]

All sorts of appointments have been made in the Public Sector because applicants C.V.s looked a bit flash. This is just one example of many. 

[KERED]

22 minutes ago, Two-lane said:

That's a bit rich, considering you would be lucky to find any gov. manager in the DoI (for example) who is up to the job.

Magson has a degree in music followed by 15 years working in a bank - then somehow became head of a health service somewhere. So was she up to the job when switching industries? OK, so the answer is that Ranson is a technical person and is capable of being incompetent. Magson is a manager and is therefore indisputably competent in banking, health, nuclear power plants and any other industry.

But do either of them "ride a Harley"?

[747-400]

52 minutes ago, Two-lane said:

That's a bit rich, considering you would be lucky to find any gov. manager in the DoI (for example) who is up to the job.

Magson has a degree in music followed by 15 years working in a bank - then somehow became head of a health service somewhere. So was she up to the job when switching industries? OK, so the answer is that Ranson is a technical person and is capable of being incompetent. Magson is a manager and is therefore indisputably competent in banking, health, nuclear power plants and any other industry.

To be fair, she has an MBA also.

And the first degree was from Oxford so she must be quite good 🍻

Edited January 24, 2022 by 747-400

[Gladys]

8 minutes ago, 747-400 said:

To be fair, she has an MBA also.

And the first degree was from Oxford so she must be quite good 🍻

Clever and good at the job are not quite the same. 

Edited January 24, 2022 by Gladys

[Boris Johnson]

I really hoped when I saw Amadeus post a link to an off island recruitment company for govt posts, that it would be a big improvement but I was sadly let down.

Not to say it was not well done and funny, it was, especially the bit about having no regard to others views in DOI but it is a big problem here on the island.

I deal with 5-6 Gov departments during a year and in the main most are really poor and make life harder than it should be, and/ or could not give a shit at the other extreme.

Don't get me wrong. there are really good individual guys and gals in these places and I try to work with them but the higher up CS seem to have got there because of length of service and dealing with simple communication via email can be embarrassing at times if you correct their umpteen misunderstandings of their own "rules" *

* If they even reply at all, because they seem to think they are "above" such minion type tasks.................

[Two-lane]

18 minutes ago, 747-400 said:

To be fair, she has an MBA also.

And the first degree was from Oxford so she must be quite good 🍻

Because someone has a first from Oxford does not mean that that are competent outside their sphere of knowledge.

Years ago when a degree was unusual and a first anywhere was stratospheric, I knew someone who was a double first at either Oxford or Cambridge. I do not recall which, nor the subjects. I knew him socially, and in day-to-day life he was useless. He also played french horn in an orchestra. Smart in certain subjects, but most of the time useless.

So she has an MBA. Robin Bromley Martin has an MBA - from Insead.

I can judge Bromley Martin's MBA competence from the documentation he has produced for Ramsey Marina.

I can also form an opinion about Magson's personality from the first paragraph of her self-description on LinkedIn. Jeez, how can anyone seriously write that stuff. Can you imagine anyone going into The Trafalgar and spouting that nonsense. "I know how to make bold decisions. I'm going to order a pint of mild".

[747-400]

30 minutes ago, Gladys said:

Clever and good at the job are not quite the same. 

Of course, but a good education must be a reasonable  platform. 

What makes a good Hospital CEO? 

- I thought experience would be one critical factor. And she had been doing a similar role previously? 

 

[747-400]

8 minutes ago, Two-lane said:

Because someone has a first from Oxford does not mean that that are competent outside their sphere of knowledge.

Years ago when a degree was unusual and a first anywhere was stratospheric, I knew someone who was a double first at either Oxford or Cambridge. I do not recall which, nor the subjects. I knew him socially, and in day-to-day life he was useless. He also played french horn in an orchestra. Smart in certain subjects, but most of the time useless.

So she has an MBA. Robin Bromley Martin has an MBA - from Insead.

I can judge Bromley Martin's MBA competence from the documentation he has produced for Ramsey Marina.

I can also form an opinion about Magson's personality from the first paragraph of her self-description on LinkedIn. Jeez, how can anyone seriously write that stuff. Can you imagine anyone going into The Trafalgar and spouting that nonsense. "I know how to make bold decisions. I'm going to order a pint of mild".

Jeez. This thread is depressing.

Sorry I ventured in. Over and out 🍻

Edited January 24, 2022 by 747-400