“The society which has abolished every kind of adventure makes its own abolition the only possible adventure.” Paris, May 1968


Thursday 10 September 2009

'No Fun' is NHS prescription.

I don't suppose that the NHS can ever keep up. What I mean is that as medical science advances, making more and more procedures available, so the demand on time and resources must inevitably increase as well. This combined with an ageing population and increased expectations means that the NHS will be forever running just to stay in the same spot. Creeping privatization, targets, media sniping and new layers of bureaucracy, none of this helps but by and large the front line staff just get on with it and knuckle down to provide amazing levels of kindness and professionalism.  So why have management at Swindon's Great Western Hospital suspended seven doctors and nurses for playing the Facebook  "lying down game"?  It's not what you think. The game actually involves posting pictures of yourself lying down in unusual places; the floor of casualty and an air ambulance helipad in this case. There are few things more dispiriting than a "no fun" workplace and the more stressful the job and the more committed the workforce the more they will tend to lark about. It builds cohesion and morale. It's what makes the world go round and truly the world will only be free when the last capitalist is strangled with the guts of the last bureaucrat.

No comments: