It hardly seems possible that 2017 is now behind us and we are in a new year. As so often happens between Christmas and the New Year my mind turns to what I hope will be achieved in the coming year.
I do not expect our so called negotiators to make any headway in realising any meaningful change in our NHS remuneration. Once again last year they showed their inability to seek a mandate for any action from the profession were their travails with the DoH unsuccessful. Once again the mandarins at the DoH will be drawing lots to see who gets to shout ‘boo’ at our negotiators before they run out of the door. At least we do not need to hold our breath there.
But this brings me to the real point I wish to make. Every year we hear the pontifications of the great and good in our profession. Every magazine will have articles where these people annually trot out their view of the coming year for their organisations. The CEO of the AOP has already sent out an email to AOP members outlining the actions for the year ahead. The problem is that in all the years they have been doing this never has any one organisation set targets by which the success of their endeavours can be measured by anyone. Sure enough each year in the annual reports there is always effusive reporting of the actions during the past year but never are these actions gauged against targets that have been set. Never do we see reports outlining the success or failure of projects against measurable outcomes.
Many years ago when I attended my first AOP AGM (as it was called in those days) I had done my homework prior to the meeting. I had read the previous year’s minutes and in those minutes were a series of actions. Nowhere on the agenda was there any item scheduled for discussion on the outcome of those actions. As the meeting started I rose to my feet and under a point of order noted this omission and requested that these matters be discussed. There was an awkward silence as the then chairperson turned to the CEO and whispered ‘who is he?’ It was clear that at no point did the organisation expect to be held to account for its actions during the previous year.
So, fast forward over two decades and has anything changed in any of our organisations? Quite simply it has not. That is the progress we have made over 20 odd years. These organisations still do not set measurable targets for anything they do in order that the success or failure of these targets may be transparently measured by their members. My sincere wish for the coming year is that all our professional organisations do not just tell us what they are going to do in the coming year but announce transparent measurable targets by which the success or failure of their actions can be measured by their members. Only by doing this will their members and the profession as a whole be able to gauge the success or failure of these bodies.
For those in the organisations who should have been doing this for the past 20 years who may be confused, let me give one practical example. Our friends on the OFNC should be establishing a transparent strategy for negotiating new NHS fee settlements. Within that strategy I would expect to see the new levels of remuneration that they seek, the strategy for negotiation, the indicators for success or failure the strategies to be adopted if the negotiations do not succeed. I would expect to see how they will measure success or failure, how they will gauge the level of success or failure and how they will report this to the profession. I would also expect to see a strategy that is relevant for either success or failure. Such a strategy will allow all to measure the effectiveness of this organisation and whether it is a worthwhile body.
Every business I know has a system whereby it can measure its performance against set outcomes. It is this system that shareholders and financial backers will use to measure the effectivity and worth of that business. No commercial business would run without such a system. Talking to CEOs of various charities they are always keen to publish not just their aims for the year ahead but measures by which they can be judged to ensure they have achieved those aims. This makes them credible to those who donate to them. Why then have our professional bodies been so opaque over the years? As 2018 progresses let us see these organisations not only produce their normal hype and reports around annual report time. Let us see them publish targets by which they can be measured to truly measure their effectivity and worth. That way they may be held truly accountable by us all.
The first set of measures I look forward to seeing are from the OFNC and presumably they have already developed these. We shall see.
