Overspend versus Underfund

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I get it. You're probably sick and tired of reading political rants at the moment. But I'm also sick and tired of reading media reports about the 'deficits' of NHS trusts in the media. What are these trusts up to - wasting their money saving peoples' lives and whatnot. The difference between underfunding and overspending rarely seems to be clarified in articles so I'm going to try one of these analogy things I've been seeing a lot of lately. Here goes:

Say I want to set a budget for food for me, Amy and the kids each week. But let's pretend I'm not allowed to set the budget myself, I've got to run it past my bank manager. Let's say he says I'm allowed £50 / week. Seems like it's not really enough right, but we'll get by. We'll be a bit creative and try and get by on a bit of goodwill from others too.

As the kids get older, they'll need more food, and as we have more kids, we'll definitely need more. So it'd make sense to budget a bit more. I'd like to budget another 20 quid or so to keep up with increasing need. But my bank manager says no. He'll give me another 50p, far less than the increasing demand. If I protest, he'll say "but I'm giving you more money than I ever had" - and he wouldn't technically be lying.

Now let's pretend he tells me I have to save £30 / week. That's not possible right? But let's say I grudgingly agree cos I don't have a choice really. I shouldn't have agreed but it's too late now. But I can't not buy food for my kids, that'd be madness. However, now my bank manager shouts at me constantly saying "You've gone over budget". Not only that, the bank manager calls social services on me cos he says he thinks my kids are in danger of becoming seriously undernourished. As chance would have it, he has friends running a nutritional supplement shop.

It's not perfect, the NHS, but I genuinely think it's the best we've got and we'll miss it when it's gone. I'm not resistant to change, but it's got to be based on evidence and lead to improvement.


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