"No management, no communication, no..."

After two days accompanying sick partner at Basingstoke Hospital here are my highly critical observations. It was a constant comedy of errors that you wouldn’t believe unless you were present. Being repeatedly asked the same questions by several different specialists and nurses despite everything being written down. I won’t explain all the mistakes and errors although the most ludicrous was when a specialist phoned me to arrange a visit from my partner and he wasn’t even aware that she was a few feet away in their bed waiting to have the tests that he was trying to book in for later in the week.

Theconclusions are that there is no management of staff and no systems in place, for even the most basic care. Consequently, there is no communication between the staff themselves or to patients. There is a complete lack of organisation and has a feel that every staff member is doing their own job in complete isolation.

The nurses are lethargic, with complete disregard for the patients’ time and concerns. Their constant errors and forgetfulness was very scary. Some became quite rude when you reminded them that they were supposed to be giving some painkillers two hours ago but never returned! They never apologise as they feel they have nothing to apologise for and found it amusing that they don’t even realise which patients are in the ward.

The inefficiency of the whole operation is where the NHS is going wrong. They have the money and resources, it’s the staff and management that operate so inefficiently th atthey squander the resources. My partner could have vacated a bed by late morning, but waiting for some basic paperwork to be done meant she left at 6pm ! It was shocking to see a perfectly able individual left occupying a bed while staff chased requests for medicine all day and forgot, again, all about it.

It is not that the NHS is underfunded or inadequately staff. It has sufficient funds and an enormous number of staff. The problems lie in the inefficiency of resources driven by an absence of management and systems of work. This results in disorganisation, lack of communication and a waste of resources (man hours, beds, money).

Luckily my partner was not in the hospital with a life threatening illness. For the relatives of anyone who is, it must be so frightening to witness the ineptitude at Basingstoke hospital that I feel genuinely sorry for them as the likelihood of their loved ones dying must be only too real.

I spent several hours while waiting looking at prices of private medical care as this experience has convinced me that it is an absolute necessity.