One of the few organisations that excel is our military.
We have one of the most dysfunctional governments in living memory so need to think laterally about getting back onto the front foot. We cannot continue to indulge this accident-prone, hapless government.
A To-Do List
1. Force out Johnson and his disruptable cronies, Shapps, Williamson, Jenrick and Patel and fast forward the only man with any brains, Rishi Sunak.
2. Utilise immediately the Defence Medical Services
"The DMS is made up of the Navy Medical Service, Army Medical Service, the Royal Air Force Medical Service and the Joint Medical Group (JMG). The primary role of the DMS is to promote, protect and restore the health of the UK armed forces to ensure that they are ready and medically fit to go where they are required in the UK and throughout the world.
The DMS is staffed by around 12,100 service personnel (8,100 regular and 4000 reserve) and 2,500 civilian personnel and provides healthcare to 135,360 UK Armed Forces personnel (as at 1 Oct 2020: The UK armed forces quarterly service personnel statistics)."
If this Government had been fit for purpose it would, at the outset, have bought in the resources and logistical skills of our world-renowned military. Another opportunity missed....
15000 personnel, with medical know how, in a performance based culture! This is impressive. It could make a big difference and augment what the NHS is currently trying to do.
ReplyDeleteThe Director General of the Defence Medical Services needs a tap on the shoulder......
We need 130 million vaccinations carried out in six months. This is 20 million per month. The current run rate is 1 million per month. It will take more than 10 years.
Its 1500, most are reservists and most work f/t in the NHS.
DeleteIts not extra or different staff.
You rather miss the point. The NHS management is crap: the clinicians and nurses are terrified of the incompetent, overpaid Little Hitlers who run the NHS so ineptly. The military bring organisation and efficiency.
DeleteThat's untrue Nitram. Are you a plant? The following is an Army update -
Delete'The DMS is staffed by around 12,100 service personnel (8,100 regular and 4000 reserve) and 2,500 civilian personnel and provides healthcare to 135,360 UK Armed Forces personnel (as at 1 Oct 2020: The UK armed forces quarterly service personnel statistics).'
Johnson and Co have so far failed dismally to manage this pandemic. They seem to treat it as a personal TV appearance opportunity to deliver endless and meaningless soundbites.
ReplyDeleteIts time to get serious.
January 7th, 2021, 10:50 am
ReplyDeleteI had the jab this morning at a local set-up in the trading estate using a building that hires out offices. It has good space for car parking, but when I arrived 20 minutes before my appointment, which was one of the earliest at 8.10am, the signs directing traffic and the location were only just being put up. It was the first day of operation and was using the Pfizer vaccine. The access road had a large artic parked about 50 yards down the road blocking traffic (it was still there when I left at 08.45). There was a queue that went outside down a ramp (which was signed for a one way system, but I later found was the only wheelchair route, so disruptive for those leaving. Temperature was close to zero, so people were huddling, but were being told to stand 2 metres apart...
When one got inside we were directed to tables where they had a list of people due, which they checked. They then sent you to another position which handed you a ballpoint pen to keep, an information leaflet about the vaccine and a form to fill in, together with a numbered ticket. Bearing in mind that the people having the vaccination were elderly and some were wearing warm gloves, inevitably the number tickets tended not to be seen and were dropped. You were directed to seats where you filled out the form. No hard surface was available to support writing on it.
The form was A5 in quite small print. You had to insert details starting with your full name (in a rectangle about an inch by half an inch!), date of birth, email address, telephone number. You had then to sign and date permission to have the jab and their use of your data. You then waited until your number was called.
You then went to a person who was to give the jab, who had a computer on which they then recorded the data you had written on the form, but inevitably couldn't read it exactly so one had to give them help. Then you got the jab and after that went to another seating area to wait 15 minutes (I guess in case you failed to stop bleeding or had anaphylactic shock). One then left.
I suggested to the staff I had dealings with that I hoped that they had time at the end of the day to review how to make the process smoother. My time in the process was 35 minutes.
Another interesting issue was that after being telephoned by my surgery two days ago advising me of the availability of the vaccination, they said I would be emailed with confirmation of the location. I did get the post code at the time off the telephone call, fortunately because I had no confirmation by email - maybe they didn't look it up at the surgery and didn't transcribe it over the phone correctly. While sitting for the 15 minutes recovery period, I turned on my mobile phone (which is just a phone) to call Mermie and found that three messages from the surgery (I had checked the pnone twice for messages the day before) suddenly arrived. The first dated from the afternoon I was telephoned. Some weird effect possibly associated with not having my phone on all the time...
At least I have got the jab, but doubt that they can get millions through at a rate, if my experience is anything to go by, and being ticket number 16, of about 30 an hour!
Boris Johnson's projections of 2 million vaccines per week, which he promised on TV a couple of days ago, is based on a vaccination rate of one every three minutes in vaccination centres (Dept of Health computation)
ReplyDeletePie in the sky.
Again
Why not use the Town Halls and empty churches as vaccination centers?
ReplyDeleteThe same places that we use for Polling Stations. Lots of room, shelter for the old and infirm, and close to where we all live
DeleteGood point Fly. Yesterday I saw long lines of wheelchairs and helpers waiting on the pavement outside the Earls Court Health Center.
DeleteSnow today.....
Congratulations Dame. Our hopeless PM listened to you and brought in the army. Not before time.
ReplyDeleteWhy has the Government not brought in the Private Hospitals and Private GPs to do vaccinations. A huge infrastructure that is trained and ready to go. Could maybe double effective NHS capacity
ReplyDeleteRestrictive practice? Unions?
This is no time for nonsense. It is a national emergency. The sooner we can get back to work and get the economy going again, the less money will be taken from us by the Wealth Tax that is on its way to pay for all the debt that is building up
London mayor Sadiq Khan declared a major incident this afternoon as he said the spread of coronavirus was now 'out of control' in the capital.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Khan't do anything right might work with that other clown, the Met Commissioner and get knife and other crime under control
ReplyDelete