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Health warning: put nurses at the top of the agenda
IN a side street, a few hundred yards from the resplendent glass tower of University College London Hospital in Euston Road, lies a hostel for nurses that health executives should be ashamed of.
We report that nurses have had to endure more than 100 days without hot water, corridors full of rubbish and a power cut.
Uniforms have had to be washed in cold water.
A poster should be pasted onto the hostel’s front door declaring: “Unfit for human habitation”.
We can only wonder why the omnipresent Health and Safety inspectorate appear to be unaware of this hazard.
How did all this come about?
How is it possible that in the many years that went into the planning of the new hospital, planning that involved senior members of the medical profession, local health authority officials, politicians, architects and high government civil servants, such little attention was given to the accommodation set aside for the nursing staff?
A hospital, or any enterprise for that matter, will not function at its best if it has a disgruntled staff. This is the ABC of good management.
At some point in the planning stages of the hospital a decision was taken to lease the buildings set aside for the nurses to a housing association, Pathmeads.
In the old days, hostels were run quite successfully by hospitals.
But this began to change under Mrs Thatcher with the introduction of the “internal market” – along came managers, teams of accountants, and, far too often, a sale of “redundant” sites.
On many of these sites stood nurses’ hostels. A large hostel in Belsize Park was disposed of in the 1990s. Now, it is a hostel for the homeless. Nurses were forced to find whatever accommodation they could – often paying half of their low salary on rent.
It is in this atmosphere that, unsurprisingly, UCLH executives, several years ago, would have decided to let an outside body, Pathmeads, cater for their nurses.
But Pathmeads did not appear to be prepared this week to accept full responsibility for what is a disgraceful set of conditions at the Foley Street hostel. The hospital, they say, is responsible for heating and hot water.
We believe that, ultimately, the UCLH are responsible for the wellbeing of their nurses.
They are the heartbeat of that fine building in Euston Road. They are entitled to good, low-rented accommodation. The UCLH cannot escape their responsibility.
Advice to the Trust Board: Put the hostel to the top of your next agenda.
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