More Controversy

Today I have decided to air some of my views on the NHS. If you are a regular visitor to this part of cyberspace it won't surprise you to know that I think that the government is making a bit of a hash of it.

Following my recent political post about the honesty (or lack thereof) of our current government I would like to reiterate that I am under no illusion that any government recently has been completely honest - yes Anthropax, I have heard of 'Tory Sleaze'.

However I maintain that our current government is particularly dishonest and the NHS is another area in which this shows itself. I will now attempt to convey why in my experience and in my opinion I think that all this talk of improvement is yet more lies and spin. Let the debate commence...

I happen to know several people who work in the NHS in various different roles, and all of them feel that morale is low and that the governmental targets and pressures are all about statistics and not the health of the patient. I'd be interested to find out if anyone out there has different experiences but rather than dwelling on what people say let's look at some specific examples.

For a large market town it might surprise you to learn that Newbury lacks a proper hospital. For years we had a small cottage hospital in the town centre, but for anything major it was normal to head to Oxford, Reading or Basingstoke.

Recently however a brand new hospital was opened. With much media attention you'd have thought that this was finally an improvement, and that Newbury would at last have proper facilities.

A year or two on however let's look at the reality behind the spin of 'investment and improvement'.

1) The hospital is situated out of town on the A4 towards Reading meaning that for many it is still no more convenient than Basingstoke or Oxford.

2) Despite all the shiny new buildings the hosptial still doesn't offer that much. The management of course have palatial offices but for most people the conditions are no better than at the old hospital. In what to me looks like a planning cock-up some departments are outside in "temporary" buildings.

3) To cover funding problems elsewhere, cuts are being made. The local paper is full of controversy surrounding the closure of some departments forcing yet more patients to go elsewhere. Administrators are no longer allowed cover for holiday or illness, which has increased pressure and workload. What tops it all however is the news that although Doctors are no longer able to perform certain operations in Newbury but have to have spurious appointments with the patients concerned anyway just to meet governmental targets. Ludicrous.

Whilst being contraversial I thought you'd like to know that further to the cinema malarky I reported on recently, the Newbury Weekly News have published my letter. Beautiful.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I agree, part of the problem is morale, as you say, but there is no pride in the job anymore. Nurses and cleaners wear pretty much the same uniforms, matrons, once employed to hire and fire nurses, porters and cleaners on their wards and generally be a reverred authority figure has been replaced with "modern matron", a pen pusher, with no more power to fire staff that the patients. If people take pride in what they look like and know someone will administer a sever ticking off for the slightest error, surely this will rub off on their work?

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