NHS procurement spending

Interesting File on 4 documentary about the NHS procurement and how money could be saved by collective purchasing by groups of hospitals. Of course cheapest does not always mean best quality, but the documentary was pointing out huge price variation for the same item or over complex stocking of medical items that could be simplified. But it is good such efficiencies are being bought to the forefront, getting more for what is spent will mean a frozen health budget would be able to go further. There is also the question of specialist equipment like operating tables, where the sales of such items are done by reps direct to surgeons who are performing the operations - an argument can be made that bulk purchasing may not be the best option. Maybe such items can still be bought this way, if the other basics are more cheaply sourced. The programme ended on the decision to make more hospitals foundation trusts and would this lose such group purchasing.

E-Book read: Phoenix Squadran by Rowland White

Having read the excellent Vulcan book by the same author, I thought this one sounded like it could only be a let down from that story. So I bought it on my Kindle, and was pleasantly surprised. The context is of the use of Ark Royal using her Bucaneer aircraft to face-down a potential invasion of Belize. The author does a good job of describing the ship, the logistics of the operation, and the wider historical context of the time - that of Britain becoming a diminishing power and the decision to scrap the future carriers. Even though the operation was nothing more than a show of force (fly a long range mission to spend a few minutes circling the city), it acted as a deterrent to an invasion. The technical details of the ship and operations are very detailed, and makes you realise how complex carrier operations must be. Also in the days before GPS, planes having to use inertial navigation to dead reakon their position and intented movement of the carrier. The last part of the book focuses on 1982, when there was just two Harrier based carrier to send to the South Atlantic and wondering if the invasion would have taken place if more air power could have been taken down there. Of course we are building two new carriers, a completely bizarre decision - more so than the original cancelling of future carriers. One will end service in ten years, one will be mothballed or sold on completion as it's cheaper to build than to cancel.

Ed Miliband conference speech

I saw the conference speech highlights and the Andrew Marr interview. Nothing really to commend him as a leader I'm afraid. The attempt to admit mistakes is at least laudable, although with Ed Balls as chancellor - you'd feel like it was Laurel and Hardy you were watching, and knowing there are more mishaps to come. Perhaps the best bit of the speech was "I'm not Tony Blair, I'm not Gordon Brown" And you're not David Milband either...

Film: Black Hawk Down Directed by Ridley Scott

A fast paced film depicting an operation in Somalia by US forces trying to capture a key figure. The operation is under resourced by the political leaders leaving a risk of failure. The operation fails, and two helicopters are downed which then leads to an attempt to rescue the crew. The theme is of "no man left behind", a concept which leads to a long drawn out fire fight with Somali rebels and a complete overwhelming of the force involved. Really good location shooting on this one, and excellent shots of the military hardware involved. Since the film was made Somalia has now detioriated even further - but you can understand why.

Film: Gattaca Directed by Andrew Niccol

A science fiction film which depicts a world where our destiny in life is determined by our genes and how society discriminates based on them. This causes most in society to self select their best offspring, so as not to disadvantage them. The central character is born in the traditional way, and has many defects (just as we do today, where perfection is rare!). He subsquently enters into the underclass who can only get low level jobs. He does however get to clean up at the academy where they send people into space - a boyhood dream for him. He meets with a shady character who can mask his poor genes by crossing with a failed athlete who is now disabled and resembles him. So the film is the playing out of this charade, and charts his progress through the academy and onto the space flight. A murder of the flight director then brings the police in to investigate - and the heat is on in terms of his discovery. He does make his flight and his dream is realised. A really interesting film with minimal sets and some good acting.

Lottery

Going back to Saturday 19th of November 1994. The first ever UK lottery draw, I was at University and this was a shared ticket. Only a few shops had got their lottery terminals working, so it was a struggle to get one. But here it is, we lost. Every few years I sort through some things and find the ticket again.

So this is my 400th post, and this seemed like a good thing to put up - from all of 17 years ago.

Banking Regulation

The government has announced the release of a report that decides what should be done to the banking sector to limit future risk. All good things like how much ready capital to keep in reserve, and ring fencing of investment and consumer banking. All to be implemented by, er, 2019. Is that soon enough, or will this just get forgotten as we are prepared to forgo safety for some economic growth.

Film: Apollo 13 directed by Ron Howard

A friend of mine picked this film up in Cash converters, now the premier place for DVDs it seems. This is a great film telling the story of the rescue mission of the stricken Apollo capsule after an oxygen tank had ruptured part way to the moon.

Really good detail of the space programme apart from that, and the 1960's age where anything was possible in America. Getting into orbit still remains a technical challenge, and this still represents the pinnacle.

Well worth watching.

Ron Howard directed, who I also saw as a fresh faced actor in John Waynes "The Shootist" a few days ago.

Brown "unfit" for office

Alistair Darling has written his memoir of his time as chancellor, and it does not apparently paint a good picture of Brown. As one journalist put it today, he was unfit for office if you piece together all the evidence and accounts of his behaviour.

So why was someone not braver in the Labour party in ousting him while he was in government? There were just a couple of attempts and no heavyweights broke ranks to help see it through.

The memoir is probably also quite damaging for current Labour shadow ministers, some of whom were around and closely associated with the flawed and out of depth Brown.

ITV

I watched ITV yesterday for the first time in a long time. The channel proudly presents itself as "Terrestrial channel of the year", which is slightly strange proud claim. I was also exposed to TV advertising, Jenson Button trying to sell me head and shoulders.

So not a bad experience but not one I will repeat for a while, they just do not have enough content worth watching. A possible concern for them is that TV manufacturers realising the world is changing are trying to muscle in on advertising revenue by providing their own advertising spots on over the top content (after all why should the broadcast stream be the only insertion point of adverts).

Raspberry Pi

This is a very interesting project to provide a basic computer at a target price to encourage people to hack with technology and become interested in what's behind the everyday gadgets they use.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/
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Driven by the assertion that modern PCs are just too difficult to play around with or generate the fascination to insprire people to do things (especially people just starting out).

The price point is very interesting $25-$35 dollars seems incredible. If you think that nettop/books cost around $200.

Tax refund

In a rather futile move the Tax Office wrote to me (twice), to provide me a refund for over paid tax.

The amount?

£12.43! The bureaucracy involved in getting it to me must have cost at least that. I would have been prepared to say "tell you what, use it to pay off the national debt that nanosecond more quickly".

Still the fact they know so accurately is impressive, maybe that computer system is working in the worlds most complex tax system.