It struck me today in the staff room at work that baselines and setting the correct and appropriate levels is extremely important.
I was making myself a coffee at work, we have a Nespresso machine at work for staff and patients so everyone can help themselves to Nespresso coffee. Some do, some don’t, its never really been a thing, its been there ever since there was only ever four of us at the practice. I remember back to the previous practices I’ve worked at, NHS practices, loads of people (13 surgeries) between two practices. There were lots of staff but huge turnover, hugely successful business. There was the sh**ist coffee that could be got and any suggestion of anything better would have been blocked entirely in a result to a drain in the profit. So when I arrived at that practice that’s what you got and that’s what you had. When I arrived at this practice this is what we put in and that is what we get. The issue is now, if you remove the coffee entirely from the NHS practice or you get people to pay for it, it will leave (pardon the pun) a bad taste in your mouth.
If you were to turn to people in our practice and say we are going onto Nescafe it will be the same. The cost of the coffee is a staff cost, the luxury is the first thing to go when times get rough at the practice but that is to avoid giving everyone a pay cut, send the wrong message and demoralise.
Coffee was a baseline set at the start, so were uniforms, clinical standards, branding and attitudes. It’s ok to change your baselines, its ok to change your direction, its ok to change your fundamentals but in doing that you’ve just changed your business.
Blog Post Number - 1292
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