The Zohan

Nurse of the year quits NHS with parting shot at 'mistrust and fear' | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics
Even the Guardian have picked up on this.

Quote
"Justine Whitaker won the accolade in February after impressing a panel of nursing specialists with her commitment and inventiveness. But she has now told the Nursing Standard - organisers of the award - that she can no longer face going to work in an atmosphere of "mistrust and fear". Ms Whitaker said: "We have a government saying it has talked to thousands of nurses and doctors, but it is not hearing what we are saying."

After 14 years of clinical experience the pace of reform was beginning to take its toll on her.
"I am in favour of change in the NHS. But the impact of these reforms is grossly misunderstood by the government," she said. Staff were told to economise by using fewer needles and bandages while money was wasted on meetings of highly paid people, which never took decisions. "I leave behind a group of very unhappy nurses who have been put through the mill with constant reform," she told the journal.



What a lot of people have been saying for a long time, still at least the government are consistent - they never, ever listen to anyone!

No wonder flash did not want to go to the polls, knew he was gonna get his pants pulled down and a Cameroon butt-******* would ensue.

blockmonke@fsmail.net

Yup, just imagine the state of the country when we do finally get to vote

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Insightful political commentary there Paul


Classic comment from the nurse. If it wasn't for expensive management we could spend all the money we want on bandages and needles.

If it wasn't for management, no matter how incompetent some of them have been, the doctors and nurses would have forgotten to order the needles to start with.

Whatever is wrong with the NHS is much reported. It is also an extremely good service.

Our family has been extremely lucky in that all our dealings with the NHS has been excellent with responsive and appropriate care being provided. Indeed a comparative experience of having to visit hospital in Palm Springs, one of the richest areas in North America, indicated that private care was not better equipped, merely better beds and, more and friendly (many British) staff. The quality of the medical care was no better at all.

Matteeboy

Wife about four weeks off giving birth.
The NHS service we have received has been utterly brilliant as has every experience I have ever had with them (most emergency injuries to myself!!).

The Zohan

I think pretty much everybody excepts that a certain amount of management is needed. However, the NHS, like schools and the Police seem to have much more paperwork and require more management as a result of this and the target led systems they have put in place.

The Police teahcers and Medical people are all saying this and about time someone listened!!!

My mother worked in hosptials as a nurse in the 60/70's talking to her about it her take is that matrons ran the wards, they where kept spotlessly clean and tidy or there was hell to pay ands matron was 'God'. Whilst time waits for no man and move on maybe thay should look towards the past so some guidance.

You comment about Brisish nurses in the states speakes volumes, poor pay for the front line staff, poor conditions and problems as highlighted by Julie whittacker are the reasons why Uk nurses look to go abroard. Nursing is often a vocational occupation taken up by people who care and want to make a difference and help which is more that can be said for a lot of the management i am sure!

dpb

The implication is that everybody who doesnt manage is a workshy mendicant who hasnt the nouce to know whether hes coming or going ....

Or its Labour usual tactic of too much bureaucracy
mixed
with the 'league table' mentality which they hope will mislead the public into believeing teh have their finger on the pulse

Leslie

Over the last few years I have had three major operations with the NHS. I was very well treated by all the staff from the nurses to the top consultants who all did their very best for me.

I think you have misunderstood the point of the original post.

It is obvious to anyone as a patient that the staff at the "sharp end" are still treating their job as a vocation and they do everything in their power for the sake of the patients. It is also not hard to see that they are working in an atmosphere where they have to meet targets which are set by the top heavy administration who are very expensive since they ensure they personally get very well paid and by doing so are hindering what the staff are trying to do by strict control of how they work and how they may use the equipment. The example quoted above is a good illustration. Are they telling the staff to use the needles and bandages twice for goodness sake?

This sort of control by the Trust personnel is redolent of complete lack of trust in the ability of the hospital staff to do their own jobs in an efficient manner. There is nothing better designed to lower morale than that sort of attitude towards competent people from those who would not be able to do such a job anyway. Target driven organisation is a good way to make the job of the administration easier and considerably more difficult for the workforce.

I think it is a gross insult to infer that the doctors and nurses are unable to think for themselves in the way that you did. They used to manage very well before the invention of the enormous bureaucracy which is bleeding the NHS of money and behaving in an inefficient manner themselves.

The NHS does indeed do a very good job, but it is down to the hardworking and understaffed workforce who are trammelled by all the orders, targets, and incredible amount of paperwork which is required of them.

Small wonder that nurse said and did what she has done.

Les

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Let's be honest here, the point of the original post is to find another excuse for taking a pop at the government and to revel in the 'grass must be greener on the Cameroon (sic) side of the fence' mentality.

Well I only hope you are right.

dpb

Great post Leslie

r32

Most of the'I've had good care' statements are down to the staff, my wife has worked in the health service for 40 years and has witnessed a steady decline in standards. The appaling conditions in some hospitals is a scandal and no wonder we have all these bugs about, which strange enough dont seem to appear in private hopitals. Admin costs have rocketed and the none nursing staff now outnumber the medical people. The hospital 'er indoors works at are in debt but were advertising a 72,000 pound a year post for an art director...... bonkers.

The Zohan

Thank you for being so honest on my behalf, oh and BTW the point is someone who won an award for her dedication and commitment to her chosen profession quit because of the how the nhs is being run (or not as the case may be).

This is mostly down to NL so yes it is a pop, a justified pop (yet another open NL goal) as it is down to them. NL has meddled and made things worse over a sustained period.
They simply do not listen, tell me i am wrong.

As for Camoron being any better, well we shall have to wait another couple of years to find out, no other real up and coming opposition is there.

Unlikely Comoron is the answer to most people prayers but currently he is making the right noises, he sure has Flash Gordon running scared, again when put under pressure - Brown bottled it - again.

NL/Brown has pretty much decided not to put the EU referendum to the vote as he pretty much knows the outcome which is not what he wants.

I listened to an NL lackie on R5 trying to defend their stance on the EU referendum and stating that the new treaty was very different to the old one, when pressed to list the changes they could not - oh how i laughed!
How NL and how typical not to listen and learn what people want.

I do despise NL and Brown in the same way i did the conservatives towards the end of their last spell in power, they (some) abused it terribly, so have NL this tme around. The worse thing is NL should have leanred by the conseratives mistakes and yet they went in with their ears closed straight to the trough!


They (NL) have to go, they have to know that they are wrong (they certainly do not listen to the very people who voted them in). I do hope Cameron delivers and learns from NL's and the last conservatives governents' mistakes, if not we will all suffer and perhaps we should try military rule!

The Zohan

Of course you stupid man, all hospitals need an Art Director - who else would co-ordinate the paint and curtains, 72k is a snip
This just proves the point!

I do wonder how much bug killing products 72k would buy each year?

Mr Sympathy

what makes me smile about this post is that within the original article in the guardian it states;

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "The health secretary has acknowledged that too much change can affect morale and this has to change ... that's why Lord Darzi is leading an unprecedented process of talking and listening to staff and patients."

yeah...right...just like the big conversation where trusts are very selective about which staff are allowed to attend these events making sure no troublemakers get their point across. just like a carefully staged managed VIP visit NHS trusts (where senior staff who are sheep or dinosaur like only get to go) are very good at saying what they want to the people in the know, aware that the reality is a whole lot different. trouble is they are afraid to say it.

rav123

iTrader: (1)

i say the nurse is spot on. i work as a doctor in the west midlands and sick of all the reforms and targets set by non-medically qualified individuals in the government. they are very lucky that the majority enjoy their job (the proportion of which is continually decreasing, with more and more leaving for aust/NZ/canada). high time they leave the dealings of the nhs with doctors and nurses and other health care professionals

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Something is completely wrong about this..........no one gets a senior lectureship in a medical specialty without a PhD and a serious research portfolio.. !!

The only winner is Justine with salary / pension hike !!

Shaun

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Leslie,

I am pleased that you have also received excellent treatment, indeed everyone on this thread is quoting receiving excellent treatment, it must be a dreadful health service.

My experience of this, like many observations of the political commentary on this BBS is that it is a rather rose tinted view to suggest that these problems are new. My sister has been a nurse/sister for thirty years now and even when she was training they used to moan about the 'management' being a non-clinical overhead.

The real point that of my comment is that if nurses and doctors are paid to provide care and focused on providing care, where would they find time to do stock takes and the ordering of basic medical supplies. Indeed it would seem like a ridiculous waste of time utilising a £100k a year Consultant to manage a logistics exercise that could be done by a £30k a year manager/administrator.

This is not a new story, merely a very old story recycled.

I am sure it could be done better, it must be done better however the main problem is that the NHS will never compete for top management talent as industry pays this talent into six figures whereas the NHS will pay half of that and expect the highest quality.

Doctors and nurses should be rewarded for doing what they are good at. Knowing one end of a scalpel from the other in no means imparts management, planning or logistical expertise and why should it?


Back on the original topic - the current re-structure of the NHS into Trusts was, at least from my memory, in the mid-90s. Some time before Labour came to power. So perhaps a flawed legacy from the Tories?

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Well for all our sakes and seeing as you seem to think it is a foregone conclusion they will be in power next I hope it is Cameron and co. that have learned by his party's mistakes. Somehow I doubt it though.

As for all the different spellings of his name, brilliant, what a wit

The Zohan

I am of course taking my lead from Brown, he belives (no matter the spin & bullsh*t) that the conservatives are in with a chance as he bottled the chance for an election this year - for the voters to decide for themselves.

May i ask who you think should run the country then and why?

Trout

iTrader: (1)

The truth is out - Paul is an anarchist


I came across a brilliant comment the other day - The grass is greener where you water it.

The Zohan

i did not even know there was a party called the anarchs?!?

dpb

Realist surley

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

That's just it I truly don't know as I really don't think there is any major party that truly has the interests of the electorate and the country at heart. I lived through the 18 years of Tory rule from 79-97 and would have to say on balance that they were a bunch of short sighted self serving egotists who did little if anything for the long term good of this country.

Now after 10 years of Labour some things have been better, but a lot of things have been as bad or worse. As I stand here today I see nothing from any of the main parties to make me feel things can genuinely get better as they are all career politicians and due in part to the nature of our poltical system short termists.

If you truly believe the Tories would be better for the country then fair enough, but I don't see how you can when other than a vote grabbing inheritance tax policy they don't seem to be prepared to tell us what they ostensibly stand for (I say ostensibly as like all parties they only wnat to get elected and will create policies with solely that aim in mind rather than doing what they actually think is right of course).

You of course never know whether the grass will actually be greener on the other side of the fence, but usually those people already over there will tell you it is, in Cameron's case he is not even doing that.

As a slight aside and leaving alone all this 'bottling it' nonsense it is my belief that if a prime minister steps down then there should automatically be an election rather than a party appointed successor. I know we vote for a party not a person, but the leader of the party can have a huge influence on that party and its direction. We got that complete waste of space John Major in the same way as we have got Brown i.e by default, but anyway that's a whole other issue.

dpb

Can you imagine getting Camerooned with no clear policies whatsoever

The Zohan

I agree with a lot of what you say, ironically it was not the inheritance tax that grabbed my attention, i was a lot more interested in what Cameron had to say about policing, crime, education and the NHS. I quite enjoyed his speech at the Tory conference, i was stuck in traffic and listened to pretty much all of it on the radio. I can only hope he mkeans it and actually delivers if he gets in.

However, you look at Browns decision not to go to the polls - history will have him down as bottling it, he may say he wants more time to prove himself - surely that should be a decision by the voters and not just his because he says so. how esle could you perceive his actions (or inactions). He is doing the same over the EU and not allowing a referendum, NL agreed to a referentdum but hav back tracked as the claim that the changes do not warrant one, well bottled again as they are worried it will not be the answer from the voting public that they want - that is really bad policy and ultimately down the the bloke at the top - Brown!
He knows people do not like him or his party or his policies.

The only time he has impressed me of late is refusing to attend a meeting which would have included Robert Mugaube(sp). Shame he did not show the same sort of backbone re an election or referendum.

You are absolutely right about there being an election when the current PM steps down.

I do not see an other oppostition the Lib Dems (bless 'em) have their own internal problems along with vote winning ideas such as amnesties for 10+ year illegals who have avoided the authorities.

currently the tories are the best of a pretty bad bunch imho.

I cannot see any point in rubber stamping NL for another term and i am bored of hearing how they inhereted a mess from the tories and only had 10 years to sort it out!

Leslie

I think we are coming closer together as we seem to most of the time these days.

Yes as far as doing the general administration is concerned of course we need staff dedicated to that, but my point was that the trusts go much further than that and set all these targets which they are required to do and then need to hire more expensive staff to administer the targets which is a real "Parkinson's" set up in that the numbers of them increase and their salaries come out of the total money allocation to the NHS.

The trusts impose cuts and the easiest one is that of the cleaners of course who are only allowed by their firms to do the minimum that they think they can get away with. They are not allowed to work more that a certain height above ground for cheaper insurance and when they arrived at the ward they used to sweep under the beds with a wide mop arrangement and do very little else. Never saw any kind of disinfecting going on so I was careful not to touch anything that I was not forced to. We are seeing the results in the large number of deaths published now due to MRSA and Chlor. Difficile. This is just one example of the cuts.

Yes the trusts were established by the Conservatives as you say, I wonder if they would have allowed a similar top heavy style of administration though.

This whole country is governed by the same style of money wasting bureaucracy and the NL system of a target driven administration. I believe that is a bad way to run things since it leads to slavish adherence to those targets to cover peoples' backs at all costs and the subsequent serious reduction in the amount and quality of the actual work to be done.

Les