Frontline healthcare staff are constantly “badgered” by managers, leaving them with less time to concentrate on caring for patients one of the responses our campaign has received from our readers. Here we give some of the comments of those readers another platform we think they’re worth listening to.
Health workers have spoken out after a former senior consultant at Perth Royal Infirmary lifted the lid on the low morale and climate of fear that is threatening the NHS.
John Blair warned that unnecessary bureaucracy and top-heavy management structures had left the health service in critical condition.
He has sparked debate on The Courier’s website, with several professionals having their say.
John Irvine from Dundee was among those agreeing with Mr Blair’s hard-hitting assessment.
He said, “Primary care health workers these days are constantly badgered by managers to ‘do this’ and ‘do that.’
“None of this benefits patients.”
He added, “Money is being sucked out of the NHS by highly-paid managers both in the community and in the hospitals.”
Like Mr Blair, “docdoc” is a consultant.
He praised the management but said “daft initiatives” from central government were piling unnecessary pressure on the NHS.
He said, “The management (within NHS Tayside) is actually generally very good.
“Problems arise when they have to enact daft initiatives from government such as the endless twaddle on diversity monitoring and appraisal.”
Docdoc said that services in Tayside are “excellent,” adding, “It is the politicians rather than the managers who are the real problem.”
One fellow consultant from Dundee said, “In my field, the management are supportive of the clinical staff.
“However, management time is wasted responding to government ‘initiatives.'”
He added, “If these ‘headline-grabbing ideas’ stopped then the NHS could concentrate on its core business healthcare.”
Others claimed they were not at all surprised by Mr Blair’s damning indictment of life within the NHS.
Debbie from Dundee said, “There are now apparently four or five layers of managers between consultants/GPs/nurses and the board of NHS Tayside.
“There should be two layers at the most, like many years ago when things ran a lot better.”
She added, “This would save money and make the system much more streamlined. We need to act now.”
Meanwhile, ‘Bud Ice’ from Edinburgh agreed that hospital staff were spending too long “filling in boxes.”
He said, “Reduce the amount of data the Scottish Government demands and there will be no need for small armies to collect, enter, check and submit data.
“Stop inventing more and more initiatives and using expensive agencies and instead concentrate on healthcare.”
Mr Blair had warned that morale within the NHS was so bad that experienced professionals were looking to take early retirement.
He said, “I know for a fact many people within the health service feel the same but are loath to say so publicly.”
The response to his comments on the website would seem to suggest that his assessment is accurate.