At 07:18 PM 3/21/98 GMT, you wrote:
>On 03/21/98 05:45:18, [log in to unmask] (Adrian Midgley) wrote:
>
>>>1. Better pay and conditions
>>How much? For what? What conditions do you require, and how are
>>they to be provided?
>
>15 mins consultation at £20
etc. etc. etc.
A little bit ago, in relation to staff budgets, Bill Beeby said, and I
think most agreed:
"BUT - the success of this all depends on an ADEQUATE BUDGET at the outset,
and a common sense approach from the HA to negotiations about staff
developments etc."
There are clearly philosophical differences between different members of
our profession about the value of PCGs.
However do the enthusiasts think that managing an inadequate budget is
really defensible?
Forgive the military analogy but:-
If a junior officer is instructed to take an objective (which may be agreed
as a worthwhile objective) with totally inadequate resources, he or she
might legitimately say "you are sending us on a suicide mission, I will not
lead this!" He might be forced to follow if the senior officer then takes
command, but morally and intellectually his stand, his refusal to accept
responsibility for achieving the impossible is more than justified - it is
required.
If the budgets remain inadequate would it not be far better that we,
without taking any industrial action, let the system break with others in
control, then offer to make it better when funding is sufficient? Would
this not save patients lives in the end, and quite possibly the lives of
doctors and their families too?
To those who say "take control or someone will take control of you" I ask,
patch up this system and who will provide more money for the sick? Aren't
the colleagues who want to run the NHS with its present budget just like
the pundits on the RCGP who want to set impossible standards for everyone
else to follow?
Julian Bradley
PCG steering group member - very much influenced by the content and quality
of postings so far.
(From a city where 2 colleagues have committed suicide during my time in
practice)
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