The Government not our hospital staff should be in ‘special measures’
Once again, Government hospital inspectors criticise hard-working NHS staff for… the failures of Government.
Today CQC Hospital inspectors have again slated Cornwall’s main Hospital. But most of it comes down to underfunding and under staffing.
Culture of bullying
A quote from the husband of one of the hospital’s registered nurses on the Cornwall Live site (see: https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/royal-cornwall-hospital-criticised-inspectors-1422226) says it all:
“Treliske is under-funded, understaffed, and overwhelmed. My wife has been a nurse at the hospital for years, working in several different departments. Every area she’s worked in has been understaffed, sometimes not having more than half the required staff on a given shift. Try working in these conditions…try recruiting staff in these conditions. The word is out and no one wants to come to work at Treliske, and for every member of staff they manage to recruit, they lose at least one to burn out. It’s a sad and sickening situation. The NHS is a sinking ship and the government hands the staff buckets with holes in the bottom to bale. The next time you see someone working in the NHS…thank them. They need it.”
This is “Pablo”. No doubt using a pseudonym because his wife and the rest of the staff know that the bullying culture in the NHS, which starts at the top, would not permit them to speak out.
Safe staffing
When i was in Parliament the campaign for mandated safe staffing was making headway (see photo from campaign event in Parliament in 2013). But since the Tories have been governing on their own all the work has been shelved and they’ve gone back to dumbing down on standards and heaping pressure on staff. See the Safe Staffing Alliance site: http://www.safestaffing.org.uk
And if, like local Conservative MPs you believe that merely announcing more training places will result in candidates taking up that training, think again. There’s been a massive fall off in applications for nurse and midwifery training, and no wonder. Why would anyone want to pay through the nose for the training and qualifications just to work in an unsafe environment, be poorly paid and so undervalued by this Government?
Yes, we should all be concerned by the result of the CQC inspection at our hospital. But it’s the Government and this Health secretary who should answer for it.
Picture taken from Safe Staffing Alliance campaign event in Parliament 9th Oct 2013:
From left – Florence Nightingale Foundation chief executive Elizabeth Robb, Andrew George MP, Patients Association chief executive Katherine Murphy and National Nursing Research Unit deputy director Jane Ball.