Signs of the Times

Coming home recently, I noticed road works on my usual route were now clear.  The road had been closed for some time to bury a large pipe, part of the Leicester communal heating system.

I was intrigued to see a small area of yellow hatching on the road, covering the route of the new pipe.  I realised that this was replacement paint for the 'yellow box' road markings at a junction, indicating that cars should never stop in this area.  Most of the old paint had worn away, but the new paint stood out with beautiful irrelevance.

It struck me that this was a good example of 'jobs worth'.  A excellent job that would mean nothing without the complete whole.  It would have been better not to waste the effort at all, and wait for the whole thing to be repainted.

What an apposite metaphor for what I see going on to services I work in, I thought.

In particular:

• Services that need to work together to meet families' needs now seem to be working in opposition to each other, attempting to strengthen their position and security.

• The youth counselling service I support is having it's funding cut by the local authority.  The Health commissioners refuse to pick up the tab, despite having a massive underspend, because their needs analysis does not indicate that counselling is needed.  This is because it currently being provided.  When the evidence does materialise, the service will be gone, and of course, very costly to resurrect. 

My cynicism was illustrated by some wonderful questions I heard asked at my NHS Trust's AGM.  Our CEO gave a slick presentation, starting with how proud he was of the Trust's complaints record.  Very few people had complained it seems.  It struck me that as the majority of our clients have severe mental health problems, this meant nothing.  After all, Saddam Hussain was elected on 99% of the vote.  Complaints may in fact indicate our client group feeling more empowered.  They have a lot to complain about after all.

At the end of his talk the CEO opened the discussion to questions from the floor.  A number of service users were present.  One reported that she found it very difficult to see her doctor, and "what was the Trust going to do about this?"  I enjoyed seeing the sense of relief on our Chief's face as he told her that our Trust had no responsibility over GP's.  The questioner persisted  saying "ah but because she couldn't see her GP, she was forced to go to the area 'walk in' centre", which our Trust does run.

Our Chief had to come up with something about 'the NHS being seamless, and of course we needed GP's to be able to offer timely appointments, and how services are all interdependent.'  I don't think anybody believed him.