"It would be a great job , if it wasn't for the customers!"

To cut a long story short! From being diagnosed, treated, & recovering from cancer, lymphoedema, hip replacement, & arthritis,(not necessarily in that order)over the past two years, it seems the system is the most important denominator in the equation.

Without an efficient system, staff couldn't be produced, protocols couldn't be followed, so without a system you cant ultimately service the "end user". The end user being the last concern, the patient! Sadly in any system, quite often the human element is not taken into consideration, people can make mistakes, they get tired, they become bored, they operate differently under pressure, they all have differentspecialties or talents, regardless of rank in the system, & when one of the links in the chain breaks, mayhem ensues! & the one who suffers is the end user.

When everybody who works in the system starts remembering who the end user is, i.e. the customer, & the hierarchy stops complicating the system by introducing more & more surveys and endlessly asking the end user what he or she wants,( like ,we're the experts?). So I presume targets can be met? Or so that the powers that be can say "well we had a survey & thats what the customers want! If the staff used English instead of "Hospital speak" so they could be understood, if the managers went on the wards & worked more with the staff to impart their knowledge & experience to them, (if they have'nt got any what are they doing in the position ?) and train the staff that require it, so that the chain has less chance of breaking.

I've been in selling for the past thirty years, & I've seen alot of changes in attitude in people, a lot for the worst. There's a saying which I 've always tried to guide me both in selling & in life: Always try to do as much as possible for the customer,not try to get away with as little as you can, always improve the package for the better, not just change it, for changing sake.

If I could see the same doctor at every appointment, If I could

get an appointment when I wanted, If I could see the same doctor, when I wanted, I would probably be told I was expecting too much? I would be told the system has been created for my benefit, so if that's the case, why do I feel as a NHS customer, that the NHS is trying to get away with as little as it can!

I feel staff need more training, when money is wasted on Taxi's from Weston Park Hospital. I missed a medicar so I missed a chemotherapy "hook up" by twenty minutes because staff were discussing tickets for the band appearing at "tarina".

I feel annoyed when drugs are being developed to cure terminal diseases, then patients are denied them because they are too expensive, why are the developed in the first place? I believe a system is needed but there is no conectivity, everybody seem to be singing off their own hymn sheet, not the same hymn sheet. I am not the expert, to put things right one is needed, or maybe not. Afterall , you know what expert means -'ex' means has been, & 'spurt' is a drip under pressur! Maybe you should have anlother survey!

Don't forget if you do, ask the questions that are relevent, not the ones you want answers to because my story is ongoing.