Forum Topic

West Middx Hospital

Sometimes reports of hospital care are all rather too negative.  So I wanted to post this about the experience I have had whilst a friend who lives in Isleworth has undergone major surgery and taken several months to recover.Everytime I visited the nursing staff couldn't be better.  They were lovely and they treated her (my friend) with nothing but the best attention.  My friend was having a tough time dealing with the aftermath of the surgery and the support staff were brilliant emotionally.  My friend is so much better now and is back home and all I can say is that she hasn't forgotten the care and attention she got and she talks about it every day.There really ought to be some way that good news stories about the NHS can be given a bit of a clear voice.  We have a good local hospital and we should be pleased and praise them when we can.

Conal Stewart ● 6978d8 Comments

You are probably right, its probably the size of the whole organisation that make it difficult.  A quick look at the size of the ODPM shows how big a problem managing change is.  I could talk for hours about how awful the Environment Agency is at some things but that would be rather dull.  The NRA should never have been merged with the HMIP etc.I'm just of the opinion that goverment ministerial positions shouldn't mean the constant chopping and changing of goverment agencies that run perfectly well.  Certain Agencies of goverment have transferred departments several times within two terms under Labour and this sort of change is wasteful and unecessary. Labour has played pass the parcel with too many of them and it's not right.

Conal Stewart ● 6969d

There is no easy answer to the difficulties faced by a large organisation such as the NHS.  From an outsiders point of view it appears the difficulties are not fully understood by the people running the whole 'company' in their 'managerial capacity'.  From what you are saying it also appears that it is being run as two teams - clinical and administrative.  A great deal of work in hospitals was done on a good will basis (like in teaching) - so did something happen to change that?I was in the old casualty unit one day with a broken foot.  A few feet away from where I was waiting there was an incontinence pad in the middle of the floor which had slipped from under a lady in another wheel chair - you know the ones with plastic on one side and paper on the other.  It was clean.  Ordinarily I would have gone over and picked it up as it was in the middle of a busy corridor and might have cause somebody to slip.Unable to get to it I sat as everyone either 1.  walked over it (big step) or 2.  walked around it (bit of a quick step) whilst others stopped dead in their tracks, glared at it and then did 1 or 2.  There were Drs, Tailors and Candlestick makers (administrative people; Doctors; orderlies and others) none of whom saw the pad as something to deal with – or that they should deal with.  It was still there several hours later, when I left.I was at the West Middx this week after a consultant allowed my son to go back into the treatment queue rather than having to do a completely new referral.  My son was very pleased in the way he treated him and we were very grateful his situation was considered and not red tape applied which would have delayed his visit by a couple of months.(We walked and did not attempt to use the car park, Ina!)

Sarah Felstead ● 6975d

A long time ago I worked briefly for the NHS. Even the there were complaints from clinical staff about too many managers, too much change, too many initiatives etc. Since then I've worked mainly for large organisations in the private sector and guess what - the complaints from front-line staff are always about too many managers, too much change, too many initiatives. It would seem that this is an issue typical of large organisations in general not just the NHS.A NHS manager is a good personal friend of mine. She chose it as a career because she believed in the concept of free medical care and that if she did her job well she would help save lives. Nevertheless she gets constant grief from clinical staff who resent any attempt she makes to operate any sort of budgetary control or standardised processes. Like any business the NHS needs sound admin and good financial control. The difference is that when a manager in the NHS says no to a request for funds the likelihood is that people will die or stay sick longer as a result but they need to say no because they know that the money should be spent in another department where it would be even more effective in helping patients. The idea that these sort of decision are made by faceless automatons who do not agonise over their decisions is a convenient one for critics of the NHS but is wrong. When the Government announced increased spending on the NHS the opposition said that you can't solve problems by throwing money at them. This, as anyone can tell you, is complete nonsense and it has proved to be so by the improvements that we have seen over the last few years. Now the opposition say that okay the money has been spent but it is being wasted on too much administration and too many initiatives. A lot of the change in the NHS has been a result of the money washing through it and has been related to improvements. A lot of the initiatives have been a result of the Government saying to staff you are getting paid more therefore we want you to do extra things for the money. Change is always unpopular in large organisation but if it is change resulting from more investment it is probably not a bad thing.

Dan Evans ● 6975d

I think you can gather I'm not much of a Daily Mail reader.  I can't get passed the hysteria that is usually the front page which has mostly been concerned with how many deaths there will be from bird flu when it happens.  Hopefully won't be too many years before it disappears.  It's pure unadulterated porn for Little Englanders really.You can't get passed the Unions discussing the fact that management is a constant problem and there appears to be a constant focus on re-organisation.  That isn't unique to the NHS of course, it's rife in Defra.  The issue as I understand it from those I know in the NHS is that nothing is ever allowed to settle or bed down without some grandiose idea to change it all again.

Conal Stewart ● 6976d

It is something of a Daily Mail myth that the NHS is overmanaged. In fact the percentage of staff working in adminstrative and managerial roles is tiny compared with private sector companies. The Government strategy of giving extra funding in return for meeting targets is a crude one and results in all sorts of illogical practices at a micro level but it seems reasonable to me that they should want to quantify in some way the return they are getting on the massive amount of tax payers money they are spending.The problem for us is that although 93% of Trusts are meeting their budget we live in an area which is run by one of the 7% that isn't. Hounslow PCT and (I think) West Mid Hospital Trust are running big deficits. I'm not entirely sure about the background but my understanding is that much of this deficit was inherited from the previous NHS organisational structure so the original overspend may not be in this area at all. The problem would be a serious one in isolation but with the massive amount of new home creation in the area it is difficult to see how we are going to avoid severe shortages of primary care in Brentford in the coming years.

Dan Evans ● 6977d

Yes well one thing your party (though not the local party) can say is that it has a better attitude to the NHS. My personal experience is that the NHS has improved under Labour somewhat. Now if only you'd stop messing with management and organisation and let the staff get on with their work.  Because the best asset the NHS has is good decent professional staff, and that is something to be proud of.

Conal Stewart ● 6978d

Hear!!Hear!!

Corinna Smart ● 6978d

You are so right about the West Mid and the NHS in general. It is an excellent hospital and has excellent staff. We are always hearing about an NHS in crisis but on the radio today there was an interview with Patricia Hewitt and she pointed out that 93% of NHS trusts and hospitals are operating within or below budgets.Not too long ago NHS staff were chronically underpaid but recent years have seen a very significant increase in pays for all grades. Although nursing staff in particular still deserve more the subsistence like existence that nurses used to have is a thing of the past. I think we have got value for money because staff in hospitals are much more motivated than they were before and therefore much more productive.This has come at a cost of course. The present Government has double spending on the NHS and will have trebled it by the time of the next election. There will always be problems in such a vast organisation but people should recognise the huge improvements seen in recent years and start giving the people who work in the NHS some credit for a change.

Mark Evans ● 6978d