Keogh Review : Page 49

Back to the Keoch Review.

It is a change for the better? Page 49 is the beginning of an attempt to include the cost of the review within the document itself. This is not new – a doctor in The Witch Doctor’s hospital attempted to do this many years ago.

Is Page 49 accurate or not?

After all, it gives a link to “GOV.UK”

However, if you had been paying attention you might have noticed that The Witch Doctor’s spelling is not up to scratch.

She made a common error : It is not “Keoch” but “Keogh.”

This is important because, unlike Google, not all searches incorporate sound checks.

It looks as if “GOV UK” does not incorporate sound-checks in its search engine. So if you can’t spell, are not familiar with the vagaries of the English language, are careless, are in a hurry, or are not used to paying attention to detail, then you might reach a dead end when you search for information on “GOV UK.” And it will be entirely your own fault if you can’t find what you are looking for. “GOV UK” will not help you with your deficiencies.

Anyway, when you click from page 49 of the Keogh Review, you have to click again.

Your click arrives at “Service Contracts Finder”

You have to click “Start now”…..

This takes you to a page “Welcome to the Contracts Finder”

You then have to do a search. You have two choices. You can enter a keyword to “FIND OPPORTUNITIES.” Or you can enter a keyword to “SEE WHAT IS BEING BOUGHT BY GOVERNMENT”

The Witch Doctor typed in “Keoch Report” using the search “SEE WHAT IS BEING BOUGHT BY GOVERNMENT”

She was told “We found 0 results for your search. Try again”

Thinking she might have used the wrong term, she tried again.

This time she searched for “Keoch Review”

She was told “We found 0 results for your search. Try again”

Then she checked her spelling of “Keogh”

She found it!

There it is:

“Support to the Review into the Quality of Care and Treatment

asked Professor Sir Bruce Keogh to review the quality of care and treatment provided by those NHS Trusts”

LOCATION : England

DATE: 15 November 13

VALUE : £2,773,614”

If you can be bothered, you can click again to obtain further details of the contract.

If you eventually get round to clicking “Awarded Suppliers” you find this:

“PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
7 More London, Riverside, London, SE1 2RT
Awarded value: 2773614.00
Is the supplier likely to sub-contract? No
Supplier is a Small or Medium Enterprise: No
Is the awarded organisation a voluntary, community or social enterprise organisation? No”

Just count the number of clicks it takes until you find something approaching the real cost of the Keogh Review to the taxpayer.

It is something in the region of £2,773,614 + £169,000 + £28,000 + £30,000

Presumably, in addition, there will be extra costs relating to the time spent by hospital staff preparing and participating in the visits by the 190 panelists.

To most of us, this is quite a lot of money – our money that is going towards healthcare.

And most people will be quite unaware of the real figure – even the few who cared to read page 49 of the Keogh Review.

Why?

Because The Witch Doctor can confidently tell you that most people nowadays just scan documents such as this. Even those who read carefully don’t bother to click. If they do click they will not click repeatedly to delve deeply into a document, and most will definitely not persevere if their spelling is not up to scratch.

So, most people have no idea how much The Keogh Review has cost them as taxpayers.

Since it is the money YOU pay to the government to fund the NHS then it seems entirely appropriate to The Witch Doctor that the Keogh Review should have made it clear on Page 49, without having to click, that PricewaterhouseCoopers was awarded £2,773,614 for the contract for this review. 

Then they could have consulted The Abacus which would have told them that:

£2,773,614 + £169,000 + £28,000 + £30,000 = £3,000,614

They should also have made it clear that there were other “hidden costs” more difficult to evaluate as members of NHS staff participated in the exercise rather than performing their usual work.

That, is what we witches mean by “transparency.”

But I suppose “Page 49” is a start to clearing the opacities around healthcare spending even if this document has quite a long way to go before making the taxpayers’ expenditure crystal clear.

Eh, My Black Cat?