Put lead in your pencil

In his recent musing about the state of the NHS, ‘Please, Sir, Can we have some more?’ Cicero happened to make mention of pens and the space race.

And since mentioning this he has been inundated with requests to clarify and amplify and to show relevance to the NHS.

So here goes.

In the 1960s when Uncle Sam’s boys and the Russkies we racing hard to put a man on the moon, they both realised that in zero gravity normal pens wouldn’t work. Something to do with ink flow.

It is something that Cicero as a non-scientist would not and does not understand.

The Yankees with their industrial, economic and innovation might invested millions of greenbacks and after countless failures and much experimentation devised a pen that works in space conditions.

And Cicero believes that this technology is still in use today on flights to the International Space Station and will no doubt be used when astronauts head off to Mars.

Of course such a pen devised to operate in the unique conditions of space has very limited relevance here on earth.

The Commies on the other hand lacked the resources of Uncle Sam.

So they took a pencil. 

And it worked just as well. They thought outside the box and were just as innovative as Uncle Sam. 

At nowhere near the cost.

Sometimes innovation is not about coming up with shiny new stuff.

As Steve Jobs said ‘creativity is just about connecting things’.

And as someone whose identity is lost to the mists of time also said ‘necessity is the mother of invention’.

This is the lesson the NHS needs to learn and to learn fast before we are all waiting in queues on trolleys in A&E.

And before all those working hard to earn the taxes to pay for the NHS fall ill through their inability to see a GP.

The problem as Cicero sees it for the NHS is not a money problem. That just disguises the issue. But a creativity one.

In other words the NHS needs to find and to sharpen its pencils. It will never have enough money. 

Accept that fact and we can move on and get creative.

Cicero thinks it absurd for example that A&E departments around the country are busting and gut and failing to treat everyone within 4 hours.

‘Give us more money’, the scream to their political paymasters.

‘No don’t’, says Cicero.

Think differently about the problem.

Why not triage differently?

If your life or limbs are not in grave and imminent danger, you have no place in A&E.

Say they can wait but they might have to wait for 8 hours, say.

Everyone else treat within 4 hours as required, prioritised by clinical need.

Cuts and scrapes and sprains are not Emergencies. They should not be there. Nor you should be there just because you have to wait to see a GP.

If your life or limbs are not in grave and imminent danger, go home. Look up symptoms on internet. Go to Boots. Or wait to see a GP.

Simples.

Not all creative, innovative or imaginative ideas require money.

The Russkies made do without.

They may have lost the space race.

But it was not because they didn’t have a pen.

Have a great week

Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.