i think with all the long hours and such a thankless job at times, i think they deserve a free cuppa 
it's already a tough job....
- Thread starter Jai
- Start date
Currently reading:
it's already a tough job....
It's not the cost of one cup of tea, it's possibly 100 million pounds per year or more. When you're about the 3rd largest employer in the world you need to watch the pennies because multiplied by your workforce it's silly money.
Once you get the cost units and cost areas sorted out you can start looking at areas you can improve, until then you can't make progress.
As I say, Asda wouldn't let you do it if you worked there, nor would any private company, everything needs to be accounted for. Only then will our nationalised services become cost effective.
i think with all the long hours and such a thankless job at times, i think they deserve a free cuppa
Of course, as they probably all do, but you can't take it from the wrong place otherwise all the costs get accumulated incorrectly.
OP
OP
Ever thought the paperwork recording all these cups of tea may cost more to process than the actual cups of tea? As its already been said - these cups would be destined for the drains - they're not wasting money.
Not everything needs to be recorded.
Not everything needs to be recorded.
You mean in one specific instance a while ago it was otherwise wasted...
Even if the paper work costs more than 100 million £+ per year it is a worthwhile initial cost to try to see why the NHS is a blackhole.
Even if the paper work costs more than 100 million £+ per year it is a worthwhile initial cost to try to see why the NHS is a blackhole.
Drug companies are some of the best performing companies in the FTSE 100.. I'd start there if you want to save money. Not wasting millions recording who's drinking tea, and who prefers coffee.
They're private businesses hence I assure you they know where pretty much every penny is going, the only way you can make a company cost effective. They make money through doing things like not letting their employees take pharma before it gets to the customer although making such items available at discount if the workforce demands so, same goes with oil; you don't drain some off before it gets to the customer but you can get an allowance etc.
They have massive, massive profits. One of their main customers is the NHS. QED.
Of course they have massive profits because they are run properly, unlike the NHS which suffers from diseconomies of scale. All private companies trace their expenditure, as should the NHS.
This is ridiculous. I wouldn't mind the nurses and doctors having the odd free cuppa, considering all the hard work they do. As for left-over food, why should it go to waste - that's wasted money if ever I saw it And considering the management probably get free lunch, dinner, alcohol never mind tea and coffee . With the NHS, a lot of money could be saved if a lot of non-jobs and middle-management went and it went back to the business of making people better. With the amount of time wasted in my own job on rubbish, I often think of the cost of my time both in terms of what gets done and how much it costs and make sure it's direvcted to the most useful and profitable tasks. And belive me - that's not making tea! I get someone who isn't able to take on the tasks and responsibility I am and earns 1/4 what I do to make my tea so I'm freed up to do 'more important' things. You know it makes sense.
And considering the management probably get free lunch, dinner, alcohol never mind tea and coffee . With the NHS, a lot of money could be saved if a lot of non-jobs and middle-management went and it went back to the business of making people better. With the amount of time wasted in my own job on rubbish, I often think of the cost of my time both in terms of what gets done and how much it costs and make sure it's direvcted to the most useful and profitable tasks. And belive me - that's not making tea! I get someone who isn't able to take on the tasks and responsibility I am and earns 1/4 what I do to make my tea so I'm freed up to do 'more important' things. You know it makes sense.
Helz, not one point anybody would disagree with, nor I expect would any of the NHS managers, read the BBC article again and strip away the journalism, the specific item here is the nurses doing the tea round taking some of their tea and food, NOT that the nurses get tea...
if the trolly lady has already made big ern of hot water for the ward round, surley it be cheaper to give a nurse a cup of that rather pay for the boiling of a 3kw kettle for 1 cup?
Dave, when more than a few people will be wanting hot water in an hour you use a constant still which cost very little to run thanks to insulation etc.
In an ideal world what you say is of course true, however, the NHS needs to be able to more accurately follow their costs because they simply 'lose' so much money. They need to separate patient costs from employee costs, if nothing else but for auditors...
Traditional blasé attitudes like "well it's just a cup of tea" are what makes the NHS so poorly run, if you want to manage a company (which the NHS is at the end of the day) you need to understand your cost centres. If you have a blackhole of millions of pounds in terms of patient's having more tea than possible you need to work out how to understand that.
Back to the private company comparison, you wouldn't expect asda employees to be eating Asda's fruit before selling it, you expect them to either be provided with it separately or offered a discount on it, that's all.
In an ideal world what you say is of course true, however, the NHS needs to be able to more accurately follow their costs because they simply 'lose' so much money. They need to separate patient costs from employee costs, if nothing else but for auditors...
Traditional blasé attitudes like "well it's just a cup of tea" are what makes the NHS so poorly run, if you want to manage a company (which the NHS is at the end of the day) you need to understand your cost centres. If you have a blackhole of millions of pounds in terms of patient's having more tea than possible you need to work out how to understand that.
Back to the private company comparison, you wouldn't expect asda employees to be eating Asda's fruit before selling it, you expect them to either be provided with it separately or offered a discount on it, that's all.
I work for a mutual company with hundreds of branches and thousands of staff and we get free tea, coffee, milk and sugar (and are provided with water and a kettle to make it with). Always have done, even when it was a privately owned company. As above, I even get mine made for me
If I do a long consultation we provide refreshments to the patients also and it's made from the same supplies in the same kettle Let's face it, as someone said above, it makes sense to buy and make in bulk.
If I do a long consultation we provide refreshments to the patients also and it's made from the same supplies in the same kettle
Let's face it, as someone said above, it makes sense to buy and make in bulk.
I don't know what you want me to reply?
You say they should get free tea? - They do, just not from patient's supplies. If they don't then they don't, just like they don't get a company car or free holidays abroad, it's just a benefit not provided within their job.
You offer the odd cup of tea to the odd patient, here, at worst, you could be adding what, a few cups of tea per shop per day? With the NHS this number could be millions of cups per day if done incorrecty. Again, it's important that as a cost centre it is well identified...
All this thread due to BBC's inaccuracy of reporting.
You say they should get free tea? - They do, just not from patient's supplies. If they don't then they don't, just like they don't get a company car or free holidays abroad, it's just a benefit not provided within their job.
You offer the odd cup of tea to the odd patient, here, at worst, you could be adding what, a few cups of tea per shop per day? With the NHS this number could be millions of cups per day if done incorrecty. Again, it's important that as a cost centre it is well identified...
All this thread due to BBC's inaccuracy of reporting.
Your approach to this seems to have turned 180o, which is no bad thing And I don't think medical staff are going to be taking tea inappropriately and pouring it into the neartest plant pot (though sometimes I am tempted!).
And I don't think medical staff are going to be taking tea inappropriately and pouring it into the neartest plant pot (though sometimes I am tempted!).
nurses dont get them. often there not a few of them on a ward, some times you only get 2, not like on tv where you see loads of them
Your approach to this seems to have turned 180o, which is no bad thing
Not at all, as far as I am aware I have said the same thing throughout? Don't begrudge anybody a cup of tea if their employer deems it a benefit they want to offer, my point has always been that it needs to be done properly otherwise it just gets lost as another blackhole cost.
I have unfortunately visited plenty of wards and it of course depends on the type of ward as to whether you have 2-3 there or 20-30. For the former a kettle running 3 times a day won't kill the national grid and for 20-30 a still may well be a better choice.
In an ideal world without the need to identify cost units and cost centres it would never be a problem. In a lot of schools all the teachers pay a few pounds every so often and teabags, coffee, milk and sugar are purchased by one person, taking it in turns. A teacher of course deserves a cup of tea but this would simply mean loss of budget to spend on other areas, it's all a balancing act.
