I've never understood the queuing which seemed / seems to be such a feature of our public services. Eg. I've just had a 13 week wait to see an ordinary hospital doctor.
They go on and on working that way year in and year out ad nauseam .
Why the hell don't they work overtime and weekends for a few weeks / months and get the queues down, from then on it's plain sailing.
Any private business would do that to get their orders out.(*) They even did that in the mills where I worked as a student.
(*) Slight difference the NHS gets it's money whether you get seen or not, treated or not, and in fact whether you come out of hospital dead or alive. A private business has to ship finished goods out the door to get paid.
It wasn't just Leatherhead either. Each region had it's own R&D group too, there must have been a lot of money spent on duplicated resources and effort but there were benefits to be gained too. I remember back in the
70's when a large scary crack was discovered in a 500MW turbine shaft. The various R&D groups from the CEGB and the manufacturer fired off their own projects to determine the cause and find a design solution. All the groups involved openly co-operated in exchanging their findings. It would be a very different matter nowadays, the manufacturer would no doubt claim no liability for any alleged fault while trying to quietly determine the cause and the cheapest way of fixing it while both parties would enlist huge teams of lawyers to argue over blame.
The government discouraged industry from using gas because gas was regarded as a premium quality fuel better suited to burning in millions of domestic boilers rather than power stations, steelworks etc.
This was OK but when we joined the common market led to British Industry being uncompetitive with respect to industries on the continent (the Netherlands in particular), and we were forced to abandon the idea.
As demand rose they would bring the stations on line in a sequence deisgned so that the least efficient stationswere used last. presumably that cannot happen now if they are owned by different companies.
Because people leave the queue duing the wait. Some either die or get they better before they get seen. So by having long queues you actually reduce the number of cases the doctor needs to see.
No, the electricity companies would be well happy with that scenario. They would be happy to take all their power stations off line if they thought they could make more money re-selling their fuel.
As it is they have a statutory/contractual obligation to feed into the grid to meet demand whether they are doing so efficiently/profitably or not. Poor them.
The CEGB's Stalinist policy, of building huge power stations typically having four of the above 500 MW units, or even 4 x 660MW by the end, put the nation's electricity supply in jeopardy. For a start it concentrated generation capacity in too few units, if the Soviets started bombing we would have been in deep s**t, thanks to Government and industrial policy of ever increasing dependence on mains electricity, many of these stations couldn't even restart if the Grid went down. Also the distance between generators and load, the power stations being built close to fuel sources in the name of 'efficiency', meant a high risk of system instability and lengthy large-scale failures.
Before nationalisation, stations of typically 6 x 50 MW were built near to load centres, often next to a river or canal for coal delivery and cooling water, they were interconnected via the National Grid, giving the best of both worlds, this method got us through WW2, despite the attentions of the Luftwaffe. They also often supplied local district heating schemes, making for more efficient use of fuel. Battersea Power Station in London was a fine example, it supplied heating to housing in Pimlico via a tunnel under the Thames, this was planned to last indefinitely, but the CEGB closed it down in the
1980's.
A further wasteful policy of the CEGB was closing down perfectly good stations that had been built to last, deeming them to be "life expired".
My mother had cataracts removed from both eyes. One of them, probably the second, was done on something like a Saturday morning. (Can't remember for sure - might even have been a Sunday.) On the NHS. By the same consultant and her team, expressly to cut down the waiting.
As I said the dept I attended aimed to offer patients an appointment by the 13th week.. I asked a direct question to the consultant's secretary to find this out.
The NHS stipulates a maximum waiting time of 18 weeks *OR ELSE* all kinds of sanctions kick in (patients get the right to take their cases elsewhere to get dealt with etc.etc.) so I draw the conclusion that Depts are resting on their laurels by simply not treating patients until they to all intents and purposes have to to avoid a fiscal penalty. When the absolute limit is 18 weeks 13 weeks is sailing too close to the wind.IMHO..
FYI, I had been formally instructed by a consultant based 210 miles away not to drive until this doctor gave me the OK, because my condition had caused me to collapse without warning.
Because of the 13 weeks delay by the time I got seen there was no trace of my condition left on which to make a diagnosis, so the good doctor just looked at me across his desk and said, "Well, you seem fine to me" - Go man Go
The 13 weeks without the use of my car cost my business about £15k.
My father in law and a friend both had cataract ops in the last few years. Both at Nuffield hospitals, and both on the NHS. Contracted out, the consultant will still get the full private rates.
Any consultant employed by the NHS should only be allowed to have an /exclusive/ contract.
Most Nuffield hospitals are down the road from NHS hospitals so that they can ship out the complications.
A joiner currently working in my house charges that much per half day.
Would you be happy to sleep on a park bench and bring your own sandwiches for that much whilst I stay in a business hotel ?
Could I trust you to meet suppliers at airports and take them on to customers whilst demonstrating the same insight into the business I do after 26 years?
I do not operate as an individual. In the event I had to buy in the services of professional engineers who work the same way I do to do the work.
On Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:37:51 +0000, Derek Geldard wibbled:
I can't speak for the PP, but lets say a wage of 100/day + expenses of
100/day = 200 day. Premier Inns are quite decent and in the SE, are 60/ night. That leaves 40 for expenses. That should cover petrol and a pub supper and sandwiches. 2k gross/month isn't too bad a salary for, say someone between jobs (few of those about) who wants a quick bit of cash.
The beauty is there are quite a lot of people who *can* just do this (ie anyone with a driving license). The only downside is the fact that they ought to be telling their insurance company re business use of the car. Soluble problem.
You'd be there surely? He'd just be your chauffeur? I know someone who does exactly this as a job - drives people round all day, usually in their (very nice) car. The only hard bit AFAICS is finding someone reliable - that's where asking around comes in.
=A3200/day would enable overnights in a Premier Inn, reasonable meals and still leave =A3100 profit/day 5 days/week, 4 weeks/month, =A32,000/month *assuming* you are away 5 nights/week. =A32k/month before=
tax is about the average UK wage.
But you would be there, all you have is a driver to take you where ever you want to go. It would be better for you as you would be able to concentrate on your clients rather than split your attention between them and driving.
Seems a bit cack handed when all you needed was a driver. I can't see enginneers being cheap, at least not when compared to a driver.
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