Camden New Journal
Publications by New Journal Enterprises
spacer
  Home Archive Competition Jobs Tickets Accommodation Dating Contact us
spacer
spacer
spacer
spacer
spacer
spacer
spacer
SPECIAL REPORT
 

The Royal Free


Royal Free chief executive Andrew Way


MP Frank Dobson

'The right people for the job can save NHS'

Some staff at the Royal Free Hospital say they would rather quit the NHS altogether than reapply for their own jobs following swingeing cuts, write Richard Osley and Roisin Gadelrab

HOSPITAL bosses at the Royal Free in Hampstead are desperately trying to convince staff that there is no need to worry despite announcing that nearly 500 posts are to be axed.
While chief executive Andrew Way has insisted that there will be no compulsory redundancies, doctors and nurses at the hospital in Pond Street have told how they face the unenviable task of re-applying for their jobs as wards and departments are squeezed together to cut costs.
One nurse told the New Journal she would rather quit the National Health Service altogether than fight to be kept on at the Royal Free. The nurse said she had already been asked to re-apply for her job at the hospital last year and was not prepared to go through the tortuous process again.
Other nurses said they feared for the long-term future of their posts and the financial stability of the entire hospital with some even suggesting that it could ultimately go bankrupt without help from the government.
The panic, which showed no signs of dying down over the weekend, coincided with repeated warnings that cutting staff numbers would adversely affect patient care.
The Royal Free is among hospitals which claim they are trying to make patients’ experience easier by minimising the amount of time they spend in a hospital bed.
Health service professionals and patients remain sceptical that the explanation is not just an excuse to go ahead with the cuts.
In a blistering speech to more than 500 worried doctors, nurses, patients and health campaigners, former health secretary Frank Dobson said on Saturday that government investment had been wasted on a “paper-chase” system of hiring too many bureaucrats and not enough concentration on the treatment received by patients.
The Holborn and St Pancras MP was speaking at an event at the Friends Meeting House in Euston Road, Euston. organised by campaign groups the NHS Support Federation and Keep Our NHS Public, which argues against the use of market forces in the NHS and counts agony aunt Claire Rayner, Poet Laureate Andrew Motion and author Phillip Pullman as supporters.
Mr Dobson said: “The paper chase is now swallowing up 15 to 16 percent of NHS spending on administration and paperwork, compared to the four per cent under the old, non-market system.
“That means spending of upwards of £12 billion on paperwork. I can’t believe anyone think that’s good value for money. And this is not just a one off – it will happen every year.”
He said that government plans to farm out cheap operations to private providers whilst leaving complicated and expensive work to the public sector amounted to a “dismantling” of the NHS.
Asked for his opinion on the Royal Free crisis, Mr Dobson said he was not surprised by news of job cuts because he had already been aware of the hospital’s multi-million pound deficit.
He said: “It was obviously on its way. We could have predicted it.”
Campaigners said they did not support the government’s ‘payment-by-results’ plans for hospitals nor proposals to give patient’s choice over where they want to be treated. There were calls for a national demonstration and a lobby of the government. No local councillors attended.
Another speaker, Lib Dem MP Evan Harris said: “When a patient goes to see a doctor, they don’t want to be asked what hospital they want to be treated at. They want to be sent to where they will get the best treatment. They want there to be a NHS hospital that can provide the best possible treatment for them.”
Following news of job cuts at the Royal Free last week, staff have been sent an information sheet in which bosses admit that the suggested cutbacks are “daunting”.
The circular reveals where the first changes will be made. Four wards including the award-winning Berry stroke recovery unit and the George and Mary ward will be closed.
A staff source on the Berry ward said that nurses were being moved to the King Edward neurological award.
She said: “The last thing people want to hear after they have had a stroke is that they are going to have to move. Staff are worried because they may have to move to jobs within the hospital and to departments where posts are already taken.”
Chief Executive Andrew Way is convinced that the hospital can save £25 million over the next twelve months and dent an overall deficit which is currently hovering at around £30 million. In the long-term, senior managers are gearing towards the hospital’s bid to gain foundation status – a shake-up that would ultimately change the way it is managed and financed.
Mr Way told a board meeting on Thursday: “We’re able to confirm that there will be no redundancies and all staff will be offered redeployment. We define a vacancy as something that isn’t filled by permanent staff. We will lose all of these vacancies. We will not recruit any post until we’re sure that there’s no-one who can be redeployed into it.”
Mr Way added: “The issue of how many patients we see is essential – if we treat fewer patients then we lose income. What it does mean is we would do things differently.
“Where we have admitted patients in the past, they will now be treated as day patients.”
Mr Way is facing questions as to why, given the scale of cost-cutting measures, the hospital is advertising posts for four risk managers, each on a £41,000 a year salary.
In an article written for today’s New Journal, he said that the Royal Free had to get the right balance of jobs.
He said: “If we employ the right people to do the right jobs, we can save money.”
But Mr Way will not convince health campaigners who have lined up to criticise both hospital and government policy. In a letter to the New Journal, Dr Edward Haworth, who lives in Belsize Park and trained at the Royal Free Hospital, said that Mr Way’s own post could be amongst the job cuts. He said: “The increased spending of the current government seemed like a welcome relief. Unfortunately, this opportunity has been squandered by incompetent management, increased bureaucracy and overzealous targets.”
Professor Harry Keen, president of the NHS Support Federation, said: “We find government trying to apply commercial management philosophies to health care. A payment by results systems that could make it more profitable to amputate a leg than to save it with costly, labour-intensive patient education cannot be right in our wealthy nation.”
He added: “More money for the NHS must be good. But not if it is going to pay for a new army of accountants and marketing managers. We need a modern, flexible and efficient NHS but one that is also humane, compassionate and responsive.”
spacer
» A-Z of Theatre
» Local Reviews
» Local Listings
» West End Reviews
» West End Listings
» Theatre Tickets
» Theatre & Hotel Packages













spacer


Theatre Music
Arts & Events Attractions
spacer
 
 


  up