UK National Health Service Reviews

Pros

Largest organization in UK.
Steady work with clear progressive advance path.

Cons

Difficult to advance to other areas.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more consistent throughout the divisions.

Pros

- Comparitively good salary for a public sector company.
- Good staff benefits package.
- Creative freedom to do what we feel is best.
- Friendly co-workers.

Cons

- Hands tied by bureacracy.
- Severely outdated computer software/hardware, with seemingly no intention to upgrade.
- Management are too focused on "quick wins", which reduces quality of work output.
- Non-technical management staff for technical teams makes interaction difficult at times.
- Little adherence to established practices and standards.
- Engrained anti-progress culture when it requires adaptation.

Advice to Senior Management

Working in ICT would be so much easier if staff weren't tied down in bureaucracy and funding issues. Teams are strangled from improving the quality of their output because managers are unwilling to part with funding in the short term for long term gains.

Pros

In some cases a feeling of satisfaction when doing the job well.
variety of work if in a large pathology epartment.

Cons

The hours,
Pay structure for out of core hour work is not good compared to private sector.
Being taken for granted by senior management.
Decisions made at higher levels by management who have no real idea of what goes on at lower levels.
Despite what anybody says, the service is driven by budget not patient needs.

Advice to Senior Management

fight for a fair budget to enable top quality patient care. The health service seems to be increasingly budget driven resulting in a poorer quality service.

Pros

Working with clinicians to make a real difference for patients.
The most wonderful feeling in a job in the NHS is when you capture that clinical passion for quality with your drive to succeed, and know that together you've genuinely changed something for the better. It's also fascinating learning about all the different clinical specialities.
Tip: use the evidence base and ask practitioners for their views before you start. If you just go in with a set of slides full of management jargon and lots of targets with no explanation, saying "this is what you should do" unsurprisingly, you can actually see people's heels digging into the carpet.
Respect people's knowledge, experience and values, and it's amazing what you can do despite political meddling.

Cons

It's getting harder and harder to do this (see above comment).
Clinicians are getting more and more tired, not just with the avalanche of new 'must dos', but fewer people having to do more work over longer hours often for less money.
Seeing endless reorganisations and wheel reinventions.
Culture of bullying.

Advice to Senior Management

If you died tomorrow, what would you like your staff to say about your line management?

Pros

Guaranteed pay and employment means no worry.
Theoretically a guaranteed pension payable by the british government

Cons

Poor pay and no bonus system so there is little point excelling. Excelling at your job does not make promotion likely, more if you are a bureaucrat. Lack of useful training for career advancement. Most training is Politically correct crap that covers the governments ass with health and safety etc!

Advice to Senior Management

Don't just do what the government asks to gain promotion, do things to benefit the patients and your staff. The NHS has staff that are motivated to patients, but couldn't care for the majority of management. My last manager was certainly one who did a great job, but many before had been useless puppets.

Pros

If your values are aligned with those of your organisation, you're in the right place. Bear in mind that values and cultures may differ from organisation to organisation.

Cons

Politics, both with a big 'p' and a little 'p'. NHS organisations differ but politics exist in all of them.

Advice to Senior Management

Workforce development deserves more attention. Personal and professional development deserve more attention.

Pros

Not for profit organisation who has the clinical edge in dealing with complex patient care issues and health or disease processes. The NHS has a wealth of teaching expertise available at its fingertips. Good support generally provided for further education in terms of providing time and financial support. This is the main reason that the national health service is an excellent place to start you career.

Cons

Poor management skills of senior managers. No clear progression in career path for nurses who work in the NHS. Morale can be low at times depending on expectations of staff and what can realistically be achieved. i.e. high stress levels caused by lack of staffing and resources.

Advice to Senior Management

Staff at coalface can feel very disconnected from senior management, goals, plans etc.

Pros

You get to offer a service to others and have the opportunity to meet different people every day. The working enironment is challenging. Definitely a career for those that enjoy hard work (physically and academically). Some would say the chance to travel around the country on different posts is also a "perk of the job".

Cons

Medical practice is sadly thankless. The majority of patients don't appreciate your work and management is so poor, you are left picking up other people's pieces. Being posted to different places every year can be unsettling and difficult if you have family. The promotions system is more about hoop jumping than ability.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop hiring external consultants. Hire people for the long term who are compensated comparably to the private sector. Encourage them to link in properly with doctors so they actually understand how the system works.

Pros

There are a hugh variaty of jobs in the NHS and it is possible to move location and role quite easily. There is a big emphasis on work-life balance so below managment level you can forget about work outside your 37.5 hours a week. Although the pay is lower than simular jobs in the private sector, the pension is good, as is the holiday allowance.

Cons

The pay structure is very rigid - those who perform their job well find their pay raises at the same rate as those who are incompitant.

Advice to Senior Management

Internal communication is essentual if you want staff who will give a possitive image of the service.

Pros

The final year pension scheme, which, I think, no longer exists for new employees. And there probably won't be anything left in the pot by the time you retire anyway after Labor's finished raiding it.

Cons

Everything you do is geared towards chasing paper targets and nonsensical initiatives drafted by some monkey at the Department of Health, what we want to do is help people.

Advice to Senior Management

Private organisations see the NHS as a cash cow they can tap for funds, heads should be rolling for the gross financial negligence exhibited by policymakers.