General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

Mentioned just on Newsnight.

I have complained about this for decades, and no one seemed to want to hear.

When I worked in NHS, both myself and my boss, (in totally separate cases) had the most senior manager attempt to pressure us into committing perjury.

The never ending sequence of scandals, repeatedly reveals the mismanagement that is commonplace.

Fraud and corruption: well, what can I say: I saw more of this in NHS than in any other context in which I have worked. NHS now has a specific agency to investigate these. It did not in my days there.

I can tell you of suicides and wholesale disappearance of clinical services to patients resulting from such maleficence. However, I think here is not the place to go into such details.

I would however like to point to one example.

NHS Counter Fraud Authority reported an estimate that fraud, bribery and corruption affecting the NHS cost the public purse £1.14 billion in the 2019-20. They draw attention to people occupying positions for which they are not qualified. I've seen this happen a handful of times.

A person who has the clout to be able to do so, gets his/her other half put on the payroll, and this person remains on the payroll when the relationship ends. The problem occurs when an incoming manager wishes to better use resources, and allocates this person to an actual task. Then, there you have it, someone performing a task that they are unable to satisfactorily carry out.

(Until recently, I could have given you a link to an Appeal Court ruling about just such a case, but it has disappeared behind a paywall)