The NHS in Crisis: 4 Reasons Biscuits Won't Fix It
Knowing Self-Aware Leadership
Hello KSKOers
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A LinkedIn post caught my eye. It was extolling the brilliance of an idea implemented by a department within a prestigious UK National Health Service (NHS) organisation.
The new initiative is designed to welcome new employees and make them feel comfortable and valued in the organisation. This is really important. A strong welcome and good onboarding starts a new employee’s journey with an organisation off on the right foot and shows that they are valued and cared for.
But, the prized element in question? Was it access to coaching? Was it a voucher for professional development? Was it even free yoga classes every Wednesday morning?
No.
It was biscuits.
Oh yes.
Biscuits.
No just any old supermarket biscuits though. Oh no. These are designer biscuits. One biscuit is adorned with the organisation’s logo and the other with a welcome message, all neatly presented in a little gift box.
Where do I start to share with you my incredulity and rage…..?
1. Cost
The NHS in the UK is financially drained. With increasing energy costs, rocketing food costs, high inflation, Brexit impacting the cost of imported drugs and consumables and salary rises, the NHS is having to spend more money than it receives. The NHS also has far greater clinical ability today than ever before, and doing more stuff means spending more money.
Organisations are having to make savings across the board, and as with so many employers, the greatest spend is on salaries. When you’ve trimmed around the edges, you’ve made all the efficiencies you can, your last resort is staff salaries. That usually means not filling vacancies and the people in the remaining roles that you CAN afford, have to take on the burden of the functions of the empty ones.
You see, the NHS in the UK has limited funding streams. In the main its income sources are ….
The Government via our taxes
Charitable donations
Research grants
Private patients
Selling off assets
Someone, somewhere decided that it would be a good use one of these precious funding streams to spend it on biscuits. The LinkedIn post suggests that this isn’t a one-off initiative, it’s now the new way to welcome people. Not only has money been spent, it will continue to be spent on these very special biscuits.
Of course, and I hear you, these biscuits could very well be donated. Yes, I’m sure there are altruistic millionaires out there who like to buy people biscuits. If these were a corporate contribution from a company with money to bake, it would have been sensible to say so. The NHS organisation would have been well advised to separate themselves from doing something as ridiculous and frivolous as buying posh biscuits instead of paying for outpatient appointments.
2. Turnover
The post rightly says that staff retention begins with recruitment and doesn’t end until people wave farewell. But to get so very excited about pretty biscuits and proud at creating this edible merch’ made me gasp with incredulity. I’m sure a cuppa and a biscuit makes people feel warm and fuzzy on day one, but have they learnt nothing about meaningless gimmicks? Covid brought home the superficiality of breakfast bars and free smoothies. Yet here we are. With our gift box of biscuits.
The challenge of NHS staff turnover has gone well past the point of luring people in with tasty treats. Nurses are leaving the profession in droves. Doctors are heading off to other countries. GP suicide rates are alarming.
3. Burnout
Health professionals have felt so strongly about the conditions of the NHS, they have been taking to the Pickett lines. The NHSs financial situation, the intensity of work and the lack of capacity has caused professionals to raise concerns about patient safety as well as the future of their jobs. The introduction of welcome biscuits is simply offensive and an affront to all those hard working people.
We know that preventing burnout is not one thing. It is a series of small changes that together amount to a big change. I’m pretty sure if you asked anyone, NHS professional or otherwise, whether a welcome biscuit would help to prevent burnout, they would say an emphatic no. It’s about workload, working hours, organisational culture, camaraderie, peer support, pay, leadership – I could go on. And even if one or two of these things are facilitated with a nice cup of tea and a biscuit, I’m sure an NHS professional would have been just as happy with the occasional shop’s-own digestive, that was half the price.
4. Awareness
This was someone’s idea. They shared it with someone else. And someone signed it off. Not only was one person tone deaf to the NHS’s crisis, but multiple people were. Where was the sense check? Where was the financial scrutiny? Where was the Public Relations Team??
Why was this not given the Daily Mail test? If you haven’t imagined your new initiative on the front of the Daily Mail as a way of checking its palatability, have you even worked in the public sector??
When you’re spending other people’s money, you have to be accountable for every penny. You have to be answerable to people who see your decisions in a different way to you, and your decisions have to be justifiable. Think about….
If this group of patients knew, what would they say?
If that group of political lobbyists knew, what would they say?
If the patient who waited 6 months for tests knew, what would they say?
If staff had to make a choice about our initiative A or initiative B, which would they choose?
Which stakeholder group was asked and came back and said ‘welcome biscuits are a great idea and a good way to spend money’?
The Last Word
Not everyone sees the world like me. I often see a ticking bomb where others see a biscuit. And maybe this is just a biscuit rather an affront to unwell people or dedicated professionals. Maybe I’m over thinking it. Food is a primary brain reward, after all. But I can’t help but feel an anger in the pit of my stomach at the ignorance of the bigger picture and the thoughtlessness of what a little decision says about the whole.
My final word? When a organisation is in crisis, don’t spend its money on biscuits.
While this piece is on the NHS, it applies universally. How many times have we watched company after company inflict misery only to soothe it with silly measures? Wonderful job, Nia.
For the record, though, I would take your broken NHS over the nightmarishly expensive and unnavigable hodgepodge we on this side of the pond call a healthcare system. (Although Canada has it going on!)
This is brilliant and spot on! Thanks