I worked exclusively for the National Health Service (NHS) for 30 years before combining my NHS post as a consultant old age psychiatrist with a part-time medical directorship in the private sector. Six months ago I joined Red & Yellow Care (R&YC), a private healthcare provider specialising in dementia and other long-term conditions prevalent in old age. Although R&YC and most NHS services provide first class clinical care, there are organisational differences, and none greater than the difference in operational efficiency.
Bureaucracy and excessive recording of data fetters the NHS. When I looked into this in my own NHS practice I found that for each hour a team member spent with a patient, they would spend two in front of a computer. This problem is widespread in the NHS. At R&YC this ratio is reversed, while quality is nothing short of excellent.
Contrary to popular belief, private practice is Continue reading “You can’t fatten a pig by weighing it” →