World of Random? More like world of cock
Warning: This is very tenuously linked into this QOTW and has extreme lack of funnies but I heard this story tonight from someone I work with and think it deserves it's place....

A good few years ago (circa 1980's), my work mates mum died of cancer, which the local NHS Hospital didn't have the facilities to diagnose in time before it could be operated on.

Not one to fuck about, my mate ran the London Marathon and (along with several other fund raisers) was able to buy this hospital a million pound scanner so that others could be diagnosed quicker.

"Oh" says Mr Hospital Chief cnut bureaucrat, "thanks for buying this million pound scanner, but it will sit in the corner gathering dust, as we can't afford to pay for the 3 nurses to operate it".

So my mate (and plenty others) bust their guts (another marathon etc) to provide the money for the nurses to operate it.

A couple of years later, the decision is made to close this hospital. What happens to the scanner? Is it transferred to another hospital? is it put to good use?

No. It is scrapped. Scrapped. For junk.

Sorry for lack of funnies but just hearing this story tonight made my blood boil, and at the moment I can't think of anything in the world more random than the NHS scrapping kit more expensive than it could afford to buy, especially when people have slogged their guts out to buy it for them in the first place.
(LargeDoner, Fri 22 Apr 2011, 0:10, 5 replies)

was
walking by my local hospital yesterday which is in the long process of being closed to find a skip full of stuff for the elderly and infirm (some still unwrapped). No fucking wonder we're all in a recession.
( dazbrilliantwhites has been meaning to change this..., Fri 22 Apr 2011, 2:57, closed)

This sort...
Of conspicuous waste; promulgated by overwieldy procurement rules; is absolutely endemic in the public sector.

From defence spending, through police bureaucracy, local authorities, QUANGOs and to the idiotically overpriced drugs purchased by the NHS.

It would be marvellous to think this is the waste that could be cut rather than front-line services; but we all know Uncle Dave and his Tory cronies would rather costs were cut by selling off our public sector as much as they think they can get away with.

It makes my piss boil.
(Chickenwire social lubricator extraordinaire, Fri 22 Apr 2011, 7:16, closed)

That fucking sucks

(Gru being trolled since 1998, Fri 22 Apr 2011, 8:31, closed)

Yeah, but they're thinking long term.
If they cut waste first, it'd be so much harder to sell the line that they need to close hospitals, cut funding to libraries, schools and universities, and dismantle every remnant of the welfare state. If they do all the fundamental, ideological, changes first, then they can still cut the waste later, because cutting waste is something you can always sell politically.
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Sun 24 Apr 2011, 15:42, closed)

Yeah, but...
The point about the scanner not being used is quite an important one. If you give the hospital money to buy a scanner, then that's what they have to do with it, irrespective of whether or not that's the best use of their money. And if they don't have the funds to staff it without diverting resources from other things, then it won't get used: it'll just take up space. For that reason, it would have been much better to raise money for cancer services at the hospital: that way, they could be used in the most efficient way possible. Admittedly, it might be harder to raise cash for a less well-defined project; but it'd be more useful.

(On a similar topic, I've heard of someone who paid to have an eye ward built in his will; which was all very nice, except that without the resources to staff it, there was no point. The money therefore had to sit there doing nothing until the legal means could be found to overturn the terms of the will and have it released.)

As for it's not being moved elsewhere: well, again, if other places don't need a scanner then there's no reason to keep it. You're assuming that there was a good use to which it could be put, but that's not a given. (Imagine that every hospital has a scanner; there would simply be nowhere to put it without providing more staff and building a new room for it. That could well be more trouble than it's worth. Even if not everywhere has a scanner, the point stands: it's not at all obvious that it's the best use of resources to cart it around.) Moreover, you talk in terms of it being "a couple of years" - that could mean any number of things, up to and including its functional life having expired.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 22 Apr 2011, 12:06, closed)