Shelagh Hangs Up On Caller Who's Fed Up With "Pen Pushing Monkeys" In The NHS
22 January 2018, 16:11
A caller who wouldn't listen to facts left Shelagh so exasperated that she felt compelled to hang up on him.
With a winter crisis and a shortage of beds in the NHS dominating the headlines Shelagh's discussion about how to solve the crisis in the NHS was never going to be a calm affair. But, when Simon rang in to complain about "pen-pushing monkeys" who are ruining the NHS, Shelagh didn't expect that he would be unable to accept cold hard facts.
Simon complained that the NHS was "top heavy with pen pushers" who were sucking up resources that could be better used elsewhere. He stated that 50% of NHS employees aren't medically trained and they aren't capable of running anything.
When Shelagh told Simon that what he had said wasn't true he pushed back. Shelagh told him that according to The Kings Trust the NHS employed far more doctors and nurses then managers. When Simon questioned these statistics Shelagh laughed asking "what happened to all the doctors in the NHS, did we slaughter them?"
Simon suggested that we needed to abolish NHS trusts and replace them with a team of bookkeepers. He said that all medical decisions should be made by "people who are medically trained."
Shelagh doubled down quoting the Kings Trust and stated that "the management force of the NHS is 1/3 of a typical FTSE 100 company." Simon said that he couldn't understand why Shelagh was "sitting there resisting it, and quoting figures that aren't even correct."
At LBC we pride ourselves on allowing everyone to voice their opinions, but Shelagh took action when Simon wouldn't listen to facts and promptly hung up on him. She told Simon that he "was talking nonsense."
