I’ve Found One, Bill!
Hey, Bill! Still looking for government departments to slash? Here’s one – the health select committee. Any committee in the health sector that is concerned about toilet paper and pen usage instead of the provision of health does not deserve to live. Kill it now, Bill. Or get Tony to do it.
You know you want to.
Any government department that sends time-wasting questionnaires to DHBs asking whether their toilet paper is eco-friendly is part of the problem, not the solution. There’s Tony Ryall standing with the sword of Damocles over the DHBs and threatening them with death and destruction if they don’t get their act together and a bunch of clowns in his department are behaving like the micromanaging, pinheaded bureaucrats that they are.
I think, Tony, that you need to put your own house in order before trying to fix the DHBs.
The Ministry of Health is currently riddled with petty-minded bureaucrats who have nothing better to do than send out endless questionnaires, memos and requests for data, gumming up all levels of the health services. Frankly, I would fire the lot of them and start again, but I guess you don’t have that luxury.
Anyway – serious wielding of the axe is needed here, Tony. You are not going to fix health with memos. Use those muscles. There’s enough deadwood in there to heat every state home in the country for twenty years.
Update:
Just in case you think I might be exaggerating a bit. Here are some more questions from the denizens of the Ministry of Health.
“-What is the best estimate of any reductions in greenhouse gas emissions the DHB will be able to achieve in the 2008/09 financial year (in tonnes CO2 equivalent) and how does this compare to last year’s emissions?
“-What percentage of the DHB’s total budget is spent dealing with adverse events?
“-What percentage of the DHB’s budget is being spent promoting healthy eating?
“-Please provide a breakdown of sustainable procurement (“Environmental Choice” tick or equivalent standard) as a percentage of total procurement spending on the following: office papers/printing papers, sanitary paper products, copying machines, fax machines, printers, cleaners, flooring, writing instruments …What is the DHB doing to promote and facilitate car pools, public transport, or sustainable staff transport options?”
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Apr 23 09 11:47 am
Sorry to pop your balloon MacDoc, but I do believe that the article in question referred to written Parliamentary questions from MP’s – highly likely to be Opposition MP’s who love to see the system grind to a halt in order to accomodate their nit-picking.
Whatever, point well made.
You illustrate exactly why Labour have such a burgeoning bureaucracy. Ideologically driven clap trap generated by control-freaks.
Inventory2’s last blog post..Boycotting Tumeke
Apr 23 09 8:15 pm
Tony needs to sack 90% of the ministry. He (quite sensibly) wants results on key performance indicators. The report from every DHB should deal with these and append the same accounts they show their ratepayers.
The ministry mandates forms that are never filled, and each DHB has sprouted a bureau to deal with their micromanagemnt. You either manage at the local level — and let the local board be accountable to their community — or you manage centrally.
Not both.
Besides, we would free up a few thousand nurses, that with training, might again be useful.
pukeko’s last blog post..It’s getting … colder
Apr 23 09 9:17 pm
Nothing will change much–because at the end of the day bureaucrats and politicians all belong to the same damn gang.
They have far more in common with one another than they have with the plebs who pay the bills.
kg’s last blog post..An interesting juxtaposition:
Apr 25 09 8:00 pm
Five members of the Health Select Committee are National MPs. Funny.