nhs sharing your details opting out

[MattF]

We now all know whats happened to carillion ......

Who are/were they, & what happened?

 

[Kayos]

Who are/were they, & what happened?

Construction company, went bankrupt owing millions to suppliers. Finished a few of them and some contractors off.

I got involved with a company, found out too late the boss was Peter Jones (not that one) who had been one of the top boss' at Carrilion, he didn't seem to be suffering too much

 

[willie.macleod]

I certainly don't miss the mail man dropping circulars in my mail box as nearly all my communications are by phone , other electronic means or inside a packet that's delivered by alternative carriers . I've not used a post office for any reason for a very long time but I have used post boxes to send letters if it is cheaper than a carrier.
It won't be long before we can buy postage fees on the internet & use our own printed sticky labels to put on the envelope similar to how the other carriers get paid for the packages they collect.

Royal Mail have had print your own postage at home service for years available on their website. We've got loads of post offices here open more hours than ever as they are often counters in filling stations and shops, very handy. The easiest way for me to get my hands on cash to pay a friend last Saturday was to go to my nearest post office (open till 6pm) where you can do basic banking. When I booked in a parcelforce collection for a large item (double mattress) it was the local postie that showed in up in his wee van to pick it up! I had made an effort to roll it up but even so it took up a good portion of the van. Long term posties are an asset in any community, they get to know everyone and perform many valuable social roles other than simply delivering some letters.

 

[Parm]

Royal Mail have had print your own postage at home service for years available on their website. We've got loads of post offices here open more hours than ever as they are often counters in filling stations and shops, very handy. The easiest way for me to get my hands on cash to pay a friend last Saturday was to go to my nearest post office (open till 6pm) where you can do basic banking. When I booked in a parcelforce collection for a large item (double mattress) it was the local postie that showed in up in his wee van to pick it up! I had made an effort to roll it up but even so it took up a good portion of the van. Long term posties are an asset in any community, they get to know everyone and perform many valuable social roles other than simply delivering some letters.

This is very true, I’m not as rural or as remote as you but remote enough (end of a track that turns into a bridal way)

the regular postie is excellent

 

[James1979]

Royal Mail have had print your own postage at home service for years available on their website. We've got loads of post offices here open more hours than ever as they are often counters in filling stations and shops, very handy. The easiest way for me to get my hands on cash to pay a friend last Saturday was to go to my nearest post office (open till 6pm) where you can do basic banking. When I booked in a parcelforce collection for a large item (double mattress) it was the local postie that showed in up in his wee van to pick it up! I had made an effort to roll it up but even so it took up a good portion of the van. Long term posties are an asset in any community, they get to know everyone and perform many valuable social roles other than simply delivering some letters.

Absolutely.

I use the 'click and collect' service for our stuff - its about 10-15 parcels a day. They are very good. Just turn up, collect the sack and leave a new one. The onus is on me to get it right but I have a way of doing that.

For a good while we were using drop and go which is a similar sort of thing, but you take it to the post office and they process it via a prepayment card thing, but you dont have to wait about. It worked well but there was the hassle of parking and during 'rona they have a 3 person policy so you'd often have to wait outside in the rain.

I still use the branch for drop and go if I need to do other things in the town. Or banking. paid some cash in this morning for example as the RBS is shut Thursdays.

Our delivery postie is very good. He stops for a chat and always leave things in a decent place if we are out or whatever. Nice bloke really.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

that turns into a bridal way)

Surely not - you're not fixated on brides I hope.....

 

[julianf]

They are welcome to it .. it's losing money hand over fist & has for many many years as people are not sending zillions of letters or small parcels via them .

I seem to recall that DHL and several other national carriers proposed to & possibly now swap a lot of collections & deliveries over the trucking routes at numerous hubs around the UK .
That means you are not heavily paying for the post office staff pensions & benefits for the rest of your taxpaying life .

Can we take a step back to concepts -

From the list of elements of our infrastructure that have been sold off, the majority are now running at a profit.

So, again, my question is -

Is government incapable of running these things, OR
Is there another reason why they are sold off.


If its the first, then, really, do you want such a government running anything at all?

 

[Parm]

Surely not - you're not fixated on brides I hope.....

That’s the last thing I need in my life

ive tried 3 of them in my time

 

[DAPPH]

Very true, and outsourcing stuff like laundry, supplies, transport, absolutely fine. What I am talking about is the actual front line service. When I was visiting my father in James Cook hospital Middlesbrough, they had several teams of nurses for different uses all outsourced to different companies, it was a shambles. My SiL is a nurse and had to tell them how to do things several times when she went to visit. They got meds wrong, missed out on feeding. Outsourced usually means minimum wage and sod all training in my experience. All hidden behind pointless SLAs, AKA high class sympathy, sod all action. And what about PPP? What a shambles, and huge burden on the state.

A few years ago, a company I worked for tried to outsource some programming to the usual set of outsourcing agencies. We gave the prospective consultants our graduate entrant programming exam. They all failed except one, and he was booked out for the foreseeable future. I think that was about 50 applicants. The reason is, that as soon as the programmer gets good, and wants a bit more cash, they just say "on yer bike", they charge a gold pig for consultancy and don't want to erode their huge margins. Hence why its 34 Billion for test and trace, it should be a tenth of that.

I take your point on some nationalised industries being third world, I'm ex BT too, started as an apprentice. However they are not all backward, just need to get the right management in place, and the right funding. BTs management were pretty bad, all dead mans shoes, it needed to be a meritocracy. The only way to get on was to leave, and come back later at a higher level. I left, but never went back.

Unfortunately that civil service job for life mentality persists in most nationalised industries, the whole sad ethos tends to run through out. Most of the managers were derived from within BT . I can only think of three or four managers to tier 3 level who came from industry .

However BT's changed massively its had to to have their market share ( after the trading embargo ended ) but there are still a few now managers left from the nationalisation days , happily & hopefully for them for them they managed the change in mind set.
The too many chiefs & not enough Indians syndrome persisted for a good 25 yrs after privatisation & like most nationalised industries Spanish practices protected by trade union people abounded galore.

Re outsourcing ..
My nephew was a much sort after computer programme designer ( thank him for doing a lot of work on ringtones & voice recognition ) , he was usually head hunted for his next project six or seven months in advance. Yes he could command £2 K or more per hour worked ( often doing 18 hr days in six month runs then a month off ) He wanted to retire at 50 as he & his wife earnt excellent money ( she's a programmer too ) .
Covid came along .. he saw the need for ambulance drivers so retired at 48 financially secure & retrained as an ambulance driver in the Reading / Wokingham area , so far says he's loving every minute of it.

Some industries will always need to be part nationalised but hopefully not with the revolving door entry & exit of poor quality managers staying within them . The honest proof of offences to be dismissed for needs to be a lot lower too , as some people were nigh on bullet & bomb proof no matter how much they broke the rules or couldn't manage the task in hand. It seems( if my experiences are anything to go by) that they just got promoted to move them on instead.

 

[DAPPH]

Can we take a step back to concepts -

From the list of elements of our infrastructure that have been sold off, the majority are now running at a profit.

So, again, my question is -

Is government incapable of running these things, OR
Is there another reason why they are sold off.


If its the first, then, really, do you want such a government running anything at all?

It's not black & white by any chalk it's far more complex

The managers put in place are the one's who can't run the businesses , that said there is a lot of media , trade union & political interference as well as funding problems that a private , limited or plc company wouldn't get , or if it did then they have the scope & means to ignore

 

[julianf]

It's not black & white by any chalk it's far more complex

The managers put in place are the one's who can't run the businesses , that said there is a lot of media , trade union & political interference as well as funding problems that a private , limited or plc company wouldn't get , or if it did then they have the scope & means to ignore

However, when nationally owned companies from other countries buy up our infrastructure, they are able to make it work for them.

What is it that's so British about this that our government cant run these things, but other countries government's can, not only run their own infrastructure, but also make a profit out of ours?


There are so very many examples. I mentioned DHL buying up Royal mail, so ill swap to another industry - EDF is one of the "big six" selling us electricity. 85% owned by the French government. Off the top of my head, i think the nationalised German rail operator is happily making a profit from our train service. These are not isolated incidents, but common place, and spread across the previously UK owned infrastructure.

I'm certain the answer is not simple, but, again, these are government owned entities turning a profit from our previously nationally owned essential industries. The only issue is, they're not UK government owned, but foreign government owned.

The idea that these things can not be government run is factually and demonstrably incorrect. They are being government run, at a profit, just not by our own government.

So, and i really dont want to press the point, but i feel that i need to -

In light of the above, why are they sold off? Is it really that our government can not do, in our own country, what foreign governments seem to be able to do, not only in their own countries, but also in ours, or is there another motive?

 

[DAPPH]

They are using proper managers & systems ?

 

[brewdexta]

Having worked in both Germany and France, it's not our unions that makes the difference, they are much stronger in both of those countries than ours. And it's much harder to move staff on, their workers rights are stronger too.

And in both countries you get Machiavellian politics in the workplace, much like here.

My only observation is that the relationship between managers and workers is closer, i.e. they work together to a common aim.

I would say carp management is our downfall.

 

[julianf]

They are using proper managers & systems ?

And we are not able to do that? Are we so weak that the only way to get our industries to work is to get in foreign managers?

If that is the case, well, so be it - our government should surely hire some foreign managers. If that's what needs to be done, shameful as it may be, just do it. At least then the UK tax payer would see the profits, rather than another countries tax payer.


From my initial two options of "is the government too incompetent to be able to run a rail service" vs "is there another motive" we seem to be coming down on the side of incompetence.

I would again raise the question - if they are incapable of running something like a water service, then what on earth are they doing pretending to be able to run the rest of the economy?

Surely the admission of failure to be able to run a water service should make any government, basically, unelectable for any more complex task whatsoever?

 

[DAPPH]

Prior to the massive privatisation the water board could be a s small as a 2,000 population town customer base .

IIRC almost all counties had their own water board all with separate systems & work practices . It had been like that since the inception of water boards . So was not really a government body but lots of local bodies that got nationalised to have overall planning control but never changed their practices
Here's a list of nationalisation s.. plough down to the UK ..... it's quite revealing

List of nationalizations by country - Wikipedia

 

[Carl Wilson]

And you'd want to opt out why exactly?

 

[Kayos]

And you'd want to opt out why exactly?

Because the Internet said its bad, obviously.

Have you not read the last 12 pages????

 

[brewdexta]

The BMA (doctors union and professional body) and others similar organisations have expressed concerns at the rushed approach of NHS Digital with little engagement to share our private data with effectively, all and sundry. If the company who wants the data can show a reasonable need and ticks a few process boxes, they are off with your data.

The NHS digital "myth buster" doc is flawed. It says there is no deadline for opting out, but omits to tell you that your data won't be retrieved if you opt out after a specific date.

This does not give me confidence in NHS digital, and it is highly unlikely that all the companies applying to use the data will be vetted, anybody can fill a form in. The data is not anonymised, this is clear from the opt out form title.

In my opinion, it won't be long before one of the organisations that have your data will be hacked and suddenly, your personal medical details are virtually public.

So I have the option to opt out, so I have for myself and my family. No conspiracy theory, just lack of trust. My data, my choice.

If you don't mind the chance your data will leak then do nothing.

 

[MattF]

So I have the option to opt out, so I have for myself and my family. No conspiracy theory, just lack of trust. My data, my choice.

Don't blame you. I don't trust any of them as far as I can throw them. There's as much chance of it leaking out of their own systems as anyone elses though.

 

[pedrobedro]

(end of a track that turns into a bridal way)

I think it's a bridle way Parm unless you get a lot of church traffic