Director of Business devlopment - NHS, WTF?

[R1Geezer]

In today's Telegraph, there is a job ad for the above, paying �90k, now i'm not against the right salary for the right person but why does the NHS need a director of business development? The NHS is supposed to be curing the sick FFS! Is this further evidence that huge sums of the NHS budget is pi55ed away on admin and empire building rather than actual medicine?

[paraffin]

Yes.

[Rosetta]

Yes, its what you get when the government adopts a business model for the NHS. Nice fat salary too.

[Ankou]

It�s probably about compliance with the Egan Agenda, not marketing. Does it refer to supply chain management and partnering procurement arrangements? NHS business development is meant to be about improving performance, innovation and sustainability of the people that supply them goods and services, in order (mainly) to adopt cost efficiencies through better purchasing arrangements.

That�s my take on it anyway. I could be wrong � haven�t seen the ad. We do a similar thing where I work. Supply chain management involves developing business links with people we pay for services etc., in order to obtain better prices through long term partnering and we keep tabs on them through performance indicators.

Having said that, �90k is comparable to a similar private sector role.

[flip_flop]

The only thing that surprises me about this is that the ad is in The Telegraph and not The Guardian.

....although, perhaps it was placed in The Telegraph on purpose so that it would attract people currently in the private sector, as opposed to the usual 'Terry Nappy Co-Ordinator Facilitators' or '5-a-Day Consumption Consultants on �50k a year which are usually advertised in The Grauniad.

[VHG]

Well from the internet a definition of business development says, quote:

Business development involves evaluating a business and then realizing its full potential, using such tools as:

* customer service
* information management / knowledge management
* marketing

A sound organization never stops business development, but engages in it as an ongoing process.

end of quote

A hospital is a multi million pound business employing thousands of people. It does not just run itself.

Somebody needs to find out if they are providing the right customer service (too many midwives, not enough midwives, more care for the elderly, more care for diabetes etc)

Somebody needs to find out if they are going the right way about hiring the right staff. Are they paying out millions of pounds for contract staff when full time staff would be better.

Somebody needs to find out if they are maximizing the use of doctors and nurses time, and making the most of all the expensive equipment they have.

Somebody needs to find out if they are paying too much for their drugs and other hospital materials.

Somebody needs to find out if they are paying too much for their expensive hospital equipment, and what equipment is needed.

Could the hospital make a better use of IT and computers for example.

There are thousands of things a business person could look at to try to make a hospital more efficient, run better, deal with more patients, have less queues, have less staff turnover, have less people sueing them and so on.

Medical care is not just about nurses and doctors standing by a patients bed.

[VHG]

And you mention the 90k salary.

This business person could save that the first week they are there by making one simple change to the way the hospital works.

Over a year this person could save hundreds of thousands of pounds, maybe over a million pounds.

Oh, and the way contract staff are paid for, some nurses are costing the NHS 90k a year, some more.

Here is some NHS trusts paying out 60 MILLLION a year for contract nurses, some at �44 AN HOUR.

If a busines person could reduce some of that they would have paid for themselves many times over.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2 009/05/05/questions-over-62m-cost-of-our-nhs-t emps-91466-23540843/

[madmaggot]

"Medical care is not just about nurses and doctors standing by a patients bed."

It would be a good start though!

[vulcan]

the sort of thing the Matrons used to do for a fraction of the money.

[jno]

Eh? Matrons do not do the sort of jobs carried out by directors of business development. The NHS is a huge operation, like it or not, and it has to be administered, just as VHG says. You don't get competent administrators by offering them the minimum wage plus LVs.

[brachiopod]

I'm totally with you, R1Geezer, for that money we could employ five nurses. And in between doing their obs on the wards, feeding back to doctors and generally "curing the sick", perhaps they could also be negotiating a few multi-million pound wound care contracts for their NHS Trust at the same time?

[sqad617]

RI Geezer...you have my vote, but you must remember that the NHS is a public sector institution, set up by the Labour Party and controlled by the Unions. Their pensions will be maintained believe me, as well as the number of people in service...redundancies?...forget it.