Slab
Occasional Tour Caddy
@Lord Tyrion surely this deserves a infraction
Stirrer!
Anyway a mushroom isn't even a food, might as well have chicken and tree bark pie, just no!
Random Irritations
- Thread starter Blue in Munich
- Start date
Stirrer!
Anyway a mushroom isn't even a food, might as well have chicken and tree bark pie, just no!
Pin-seeker
Well-known member
Pin-seeker
Well-known member
Karen Carney AGAIN 
srixon 1
Journeyman Pro
Had a lovely bowl of mushroom soup for lunch the other day. Chucked in a dried chilli that I grew a couple of years ago to give the soup a bit of a kick. Luvly jubly.
HomerJSimpson
Hall of Famer
Love a mushroom stir fry, mushroom on toast, steak and mushroom pie. Even with my fry up. Big fan of them
Slime
Tour Winner
Had a lovely bowl of mushroom soup for lunch the other day. Chucked in a dried chilli that I grew a couple of years ago to give the soup a bit of a kick. Luvly jubly.
Chucked in a dried chilli that I grew a couple of years ago to take the taste of the mushrooms away.
That's more like it, you're welcome.
1 tin of Campbell’s concentrated mushroom soup. 1 tin of tuna. Mix them together - don’t dilute the soup. Breadcrumbs on top then into the oven to heat up.
Stunning!
RichA
Well-known member
Love mushrooms.
Love fish.
Mixing mushrooms and fish is an abomination. I can't explain why, but it is.
ADB
Journeyman Pro
trying to book a driving test….absolutely nothing available in 5 test centres for the next 20 weeks - what the hell is going on!!
chellie
Tour Winner
There was a six month wait for one in 1980 when I took mine.
Imurg
The Grinder Of Pars (Semi Crocked)
Simple answer is that DVSA haven't got over the 5 month covid lockdown mess after more than 4 years...
No tests for 5 months meant a 5 month + the normal 6-8 weeks wait when we started back.
Because of the scarcity of tests the kids were taking anything they could get even though they weren't ready, failing and adding to the numbers needing tests.
They've tried to recruit examiners but ..
A. They're not paying enough
B. It would only be a shortish term job as once waiting times were back to normal they wouldn't be necessary
Honestly, I would take 5-6 months as the normal from now on......
And don't get me started on the pondlife buying up tests and selling them on at a profit.....
Robster59
Tour Rookie
NHS procurement system. They basically replace on a like-for-like basis. You want to buy the old, inefficient kit that costs more to run and provides more risk for patient samples? Fine. You want to get the more efficient kit that is a quarter of the cost to run and provides up to 10 times more protection for patient samples? Oh No, you have to justify that. So what do people do? They push against the open door and order the old stuff.
It's incredibly frustrating and depressing.
It's incredibly frustrating and depressing.
AmandaJR
Money List Winner
Sadly not surprising...
D
Deleted member 29109
Guest
And this is why the NHS will never have enough money and will always be ‘in crisis’!
HomerJSimpson
Hall of Famer
Our technicians fight a losing battle every day to get consumerables onto the unit. They are invariably out of stock on all NHS suppliers and sourcing elsewhere is expensive
Absolutely spot on… and that’s because NHS Supply Chain is a misnomer, a con. It’s privately owned and has been for around 20 years. When originally privatised it was owned by DHL but a bit like the rail companies it could be taken back under the state umbrella. It was taken back ‘in-house’ around 2019 only to be sold off again almost immediately to a mate/donor - what? Cronyism? Who would believe it?
The concept of bulk buying into central hubs worked at driving prices down from the supplier but that saving wasn’t passed on to the NHS. DHL charged the supplier to be on the approved supplier list AND insisted on discounts for bulk purchasing. It then charged the NHS Trusts 11% on top of the purchase price. That was NHS Supply Chain under DHL. I’m not sure of the mechanics under LCCS but there’ll be little difference as the lemon has already had the juice squeezed out of it.
But don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s run by the NHS.
Edit: so how have the suppliers maintained their profitability? By just selling the basic product to the NHS Supply Chain. Once upon a time a deal would be sweetened by including accessories either FOC or at a discount. Occasionally, it might be buy 10 and get 2 free. All those local deals disappeared years ago. The NHS pays a barely discounted price, and relies on the hub operating an efficient ‘just-in-time’ stockholding.
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Whereditgo
Journeyman Pro
430 mile round trip yesterday M1, M42 and M5 and back again - fortunately I was also towing a trailer so the miles and miles of 50 mph roadwork =s didn't affect me as much as it normally would have.
Robster59
Tour Rookie
The thing that annoys me, and this really sounds trite, is that I genuinely try to sell the customer what is best for them. Of course I want them to buy our equipment, but if I think they are asking for something that is not the optimum for their needs, I'll have a discussion with them and explain why a different model is better in every (and I mean every) way. If, in the end, they go with the other option then I will sell them the other option. It's interesting in what you say, in that I have seen the number of NHS tenders drop markedly over the last couple of years. They seem to have adopted this model of replace like for like rather than looking at alternatives. It promotes lethargy and in the end increases their long-term running costs and reduces safety margin for patient samples. The people I speak to in the hospitals are now resigned to this situation and have enough to do without trying to fight or change the system.
I have encountered this at three different NHS institutions in the last week. I know that the procurement has been farmed out to third parties now. I deal with them and their response time is awful and the order comes out wrong, so we have to go back and get it corrected.
All that money wasted that can be used for faster and better treatment for patients. I despair.
Robster59
Tour Rookie
I saw this while visiting the hospital yesterday. I think the pictures say it all. There are two large on-site multi-storey car parks a two minute walk away.
HomerJSimpson
Hall of Famer
If I had a pound for everyone that moans about parking to visit relatives in ICU or to attend an appointment I could have retired years ago
