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The truths they don't want you to read....

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Euphemisms

Health Board employees will no longer be... sacked, given early retirement, not replaced, promoted to another Health Board, junked, pink slipped, made redundant, downsized, deselected, shot at dawn (largely obsolete), disemployed, given an early visit to Al Crae (slang), promoted to the Board, de-swipe-carded or unfriended by the HR section.

The new phrase is: jobs may be “discontinued.”

Beautiful isn't it.

I will return to the underlying financial issues at the Health Board in later posts, but there should be no illusion that to meet the Government's financial targets, there are going to be a lot of discontinues.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Angus Before everyone gets worked up over this, the Board is saying that all Fixed Term Contracts will be reviewed and a decision made as to whether the people should be kept on or not. People accept fixed term posts knowing that this is the situtaion.
In the past, the Board has been accused accused employing people on Fixed Term contracts and then rolling them over into permanent posts. If true this may have contributed to the financial woes of the past. What they are proposing to do is what should have been done all the time. I dont see this as move to sack, giv early retirement to, not replace, promote to another Health Board, junk, pink slip, make redundant, downsize, deselect, shoot at dawn (largely obsolete and very un PC), disemploy, give an early visit to Al Crae (slang), promote to the Board, de-swipe-card or unfriend by the HR Dept. The post may be discontinued because their fixed term is up. Nothing else.

Anonymous said...

A number of issues.

The health service is strained by the people who relocate here from elsewhere. They are disproportionately more likely to be elderly, mentally ill or have substance abuse problems.
It is understandable why they want to live here rather than say a grim inner city area and obviously the health board has no control over the free movement of people. Also the 'locals' who are still here, also tend to be more likely in one of those 3 categories, as the young fit Leodsachs go out into the world (in the time honoured tradition of emigrating).

Secondly, the health service is somewhat wasteful and is just a perpetual motion machine, trying to suck up funding and comfy jobs. How many times do we see press releases in the gazette about how their new machinery is the first in the country or whatever. Which will go on to be used by only a few people. I understand that it is necessary for higher funding in a rural area and a higher ratio of staff per patients, but even so, there are still many wasteful aspects.

Thirdly, the actual level of service, can be good, sometimes not. Some are so sure of themselves that they've got job for life and a pension that customer service is just an inconvenience. It is impossible to account for this on paper, but some people just don't seem to have any motivation or passion for their job. The nurses in the hospital wards for example are excellent, but it's people like clerical and administrative staff that are on the gravy train. I would say integrate them with NHS Highland. Especially considering how anything remotely complex means flying people to Inverness or Glasgow.

I, for one have been waiting for 3 years to receive an important aspect of healthcare, and all that time I have been economically inactive. If their was motivaion and sense of purpose within the ranks of the health board administration, maybe they would act rather than passing the buck to someone else. Lack of accountability and lack of a human face is the most annoying aspect.

Anonymous said...

Nice bit of anti-incomer racism, 2:52. What a sad, bitter and blinkered individual you are. So incomers are druggies, mental and/or old fogeys? Do you have facts to back that up? 'cos there's plenty about locals and their alcohol problems being a massive issue here - flick through some of the tables of section 4 of:

http://www.alcoholinformation.isdscotland.org/alcohol_misuse/1407.html

Plenty more out there. Having spent several years observing *LOCAL* long-term alcoholics using the ambulance service as a weekly taxi service (phone in, go to hospital, get stomach pumped, overnight at tax payers expense, return ambi trip next day, repeat next week), it comes as little surprise. News reports of alcohol-induced crime in hebridesnews.co.uk seem to nearly always have people with local names, and a lack of Smith's and Jones's.

The demographics, and just looking at the obituary columns in the gazette, indicate that the very large majority of the elderly you speak of are also local, and not incomers. Perhaps you'd like them relocated to the mainland with the incomers, hmmm?

And that's ignoring the salient point that without incomers and the tax base they bring with them, these islands would have literally died from falling populations decades ago.

Anonymous said...

4:06 PM

2.52 here.
From a completely objective angle, there are a higher % of people in these 3 situations than the rest of country. This also applies to locals though.

From my observation, most locals with any discernible talent leave the island, leaving behind the dross, alcoholics, drug addicts or people with dehabilitaitng mental illness. This is not a rant, rather it is an objective analysis of the facts. You yourself write about your experiences of it.

The obituary columns in the gazette show there is usually at least 5 deaths for every birth, sometimes 10. Which obviously shows we need more people coming here.

Anonymous said...

Euphemisms ... "posts will be discontinued" ... no chance then of another three Chief Execs on the payroll? Is M C ..k really leaving and not being continued?

Anonymous said...

2:52

Talking of Euphemisms- does "and all that time I have been economically inactive" mean another idle scroubing barsteward?

Anonymous said...

Does that mean that jobs for mates / former finance bosses with dubious pasts that left their previous well paid occupation before the investigation into their wrongdoings was completed will now be discontinued?

How about the persons who attempted to employ them?