My favourite bit:

Thank you for that headline, made me laugh out loud!

thought this was a euphemism... it's not, is it?

Oh dear, not a little man with a yellow head and big feet then? I am a grown-up scientist, honest.

A labour govt would never do that, right?

Please stop. Please become a left-wing party again. Please look after vulnerable people. Please be nice to immigrants, without whom the NHS wouldn't function.

Oh... Please don't prove the conspiracy theorists right.

It's like taking over a car manufacturer and deciding they can manage with less steel.

*of course, those with money do have somewhere else to go, sort of. I have colleagues who were convinced that the conservatives were deliberately running down the NHS to force a move to private healthcare.

But you can't do that because your customers will die without it, and have nowhere else to go*. Are you starting to see why it's not a business?

So you've taken over this business, and your best idea is "let's just reduce the budgets". Give them fewer resources, that will increase productivity!

The "product" is diagnosis, treatment and care of patients. We're failing to reach targets and our "customers" are suffering. Staffing levels are too low, and staff are burnt out. If the aim was to make a profit you'd probably just decide to close the business, or cut out the worst areas.

You seem to think the NHS overspends on purpose, that you can force it to "live within its means". What do you think it spends its money on, Wes?? Who do you think will suffer if it spends less?

Let's pretend it is a business for a moment. Imagine you've taken over as CEO.

“Some of the best businesses ... reward their top talent ... There’s no reason why we shouldn’t do the same in our NHS,” said Streeting.

@rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social there are many, many reasons why we shouldn't do the same in our NHS. Let's start with: the NHS is not a business.

It would be much cheaper and more effective to INCREASE the support from people who are qualified in funance, procurement, IT, recruitment etc so the rest of us can focus on the jobs we trained for.

I was so hopeful when Labour won the election...

I'm highly qualified in radiation protection and medical physics. I spend a LOT of my time on finances, procurement, IT issues. This is the case for all clinical and scientific managers.

I manage a (mostly) behind-the-scenes department: radiation protection. Without us, the hospitals can't take x-rays, CT scans, PET...or treat people with radiotherapy. We're desparately short of new staff because not enough have been trained.

Everyone in the NHS jokes about how bad IT support and recruitment processes are - it's not a joke but that's how we cope. IT depts don't have enough resources to keep up with demand. It can take six months to get a new person in post.

Following just to spite George. Did he write your bio btw?

Thank you @mattnaber.bsky.social for my snall daily dose of light relief.

Who what me what why?

Guess you were right. I thought I'd have a quick look at what our token Trumper had to say about the Zelenskyy farce but @bluecryhard doesn't exist anymore and all his posts are gone. Ah well, I tried