Still dividing, still ruling

An operating list, nominally for one type of procedure but staffed nonetheless each week. No reason why a very similar procedure should not occasionally take place on this list as well to the benefit of patients. No reason at all. Is there?
And so it goes. The divisions that set primary care against secondary care both in terms of vying for intellectual supremacy and for funding is mirrored in microcosm in the tensions within and between individual teams. Scant resources are jealously guarded - not for the benefit of the hapless patient but to boost the egos of the self-appointed movers and shakers within the management structure.
Whilst charity might begin at home it certainly does not make it across the threshold of the hospital. Internal politics dictate that the alpha males must cry loudest when their own pet projects are threatened. Facts are twisted and statistics hastily invented to justify unsanctioned changes in policy.
All of which sounds like a normal day at the office - until one remembers that this is the state sector. No real money changes hands here. The figures are on an internal spreadsheet. There is no profit. There are no private sector bonuses or forfeits. The ideal stated that these petty differences should not operate here. But Man is a weak creature and seeks power all too often. Never mind the patient.