Cannydc wrote:MungoBrush wrote:Fletch wrote:Controversy over government's ‘revolving door’ is reignited as it's revealed new Health Minister worked for firm trying to win NHS contracts
What is your problem with trying to win an NHS contract?
Don't you think that it's OK for the NHS to have contracts for:
Electricity supply
Car Park parking enforcement
Pens and pencils and notepads
Emergency vehicles and maintenance
Supply of bandages
Canteen services
Laundry of sheets and towels
etc etc
Don't be a public pratt.
Interesting that you missed Cleaning off your list. In fact, the basic business model is that a company puts in what it hopes is the lowest priced bid, and with a nodding acceptance that there has to be some form of quality control.
The result of this process was a major decline in the "public sector ethos. A direct link between infection rates and outsourcing may be hard to establish, but the pressure to reduce costs created a fractured workplace; one where well-paid professionals rub shoulders with an increasingly casualised part-time and precarious work force.
Cleaning became very low paid. Contracting out pushes wages down, creates a high turnover of staff and problems with general recruitment. Other processes that result from outsourcing - particularly the pressure on time and the focus on specific tasks - also lead to a very fragmented way of delivering the cleaning service.
Before cleaning services were outsourced, the cleaners would have taken more time, talked to nurses, chatted to patients, and there would have been a much greater degree of teamwork in the ward and hospital."
In Scotland and Wales, this kind of advice was heeded. After a number of bad experiences, the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Island all abandoned outsourcing their cleaning services. But, in England, the process has continued with gusto.
The same applies to catering, where we now see half a sandwich supposedly comprising a full meal.
One thing I would recommend is centralised contract buying for use-once stores (your pens, pencils, bandages etc) because prices can be driven way down with huge bulk buys. The same procedures are now being introduced by the MOD. This may also work for power supplies, laundry and vehicle maintenance.
FYI, tendering for government contracts is a very tightly controlled process
From working on bids for government contracts in world-wide operations, I can confirm that almost the same process applies in the UK, China, Australasia and probably every where else.
You would recommend centralised buying?
Congratulations - discovery of the century
You should advise the Home Office and make sure they amend the government procurement processes.
