"QE Review April 2013"

Anything else?

I am unfortunate enough to have a relative in the new QE hospital. I (and everyone else I have spoken to as a patient or visitor) am apalled! The size is rediculous, much too big to be efficient. There is no warning that you need to be fit and active to almost athletic level just to walk from the (few) lifts to the wards. The poor staff are so thin on the ground that proper care is impossible. Press the call button, no one comes. God help anyone without family to keep an eye on things. A worn out doctor told us about the foot problems he is having since working there. He said the distances to cover on foot were unrealistic and greatly affected the patient care. A porter got into our lift just for a rest!

A screamingly obvious problem apart from design is the inadequate number of staff. It may be too simplistic an idea but there are far too many 'chiefs' and not enough 'indians'. Thin down admin and management and double the nursing staff.

Secondly, stop closing smaller hospitals! The A&E at the QE is not coping. More than one member of the hospital staff and ambulance personnel told us this. People are at risk of dying because ambulance crews are not being releived from their patients in A&E and, therefore, cannot answer further emergency calls!! This is reality, not a moan! When the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch no longer offers this service, we just better hope we don't get ill.

Who makes these decisions? How much money do these people get paid to do so? Why is our healthcare now in the hands of these incompetants? Replace these people with those that actually understand how a hospital should function. Size does matter! Small is best!

A family member is on the nursing staff at the QE. I am reliably informed that the original plan did not include a morgue or pharmacy. Now we can laugh but come on! Also, the patients in intensive care are not visible from the nurses station. Who exactly did design this monstrocity?? Was it the same idiot who decided that a ship would capture the 'essence' of the Leyland plant at Longbridge? I can't actually remember much of a ship building concern going on there, and in the Midlands? It beggars belief.

There are far too many questions to put down here, I have outlined the main ones with the backing of everyone else we have spoken to whether patient, visitor or staff members. Please pass this on to the highest possible level, and maybe remind them that most of us cannot afford private healthcare!