Vicar's letter
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Vicar's letter |
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I find it very difficult to obtain a good picture of the state of our health services. There is evidence that for very many people, they are obtaining a good service, the staff work very hard and in a very dedicated way, many for low pay. There is also a certain cause for concern. Anne Widdicombe has raised questions about Maidstone Hospital; all who live in Maidstone must have cause for concern about Hospital services moving to Pembury, there are several stories about frustration by patients.
My concerns centre on the way the NHS is organised. It cannot help that over the last 20 years there has been one change after another in areas covered by Hospital Trusts, Specialist services Trusts and Primary Health Care Trusts. The evidence is overwhelming that patients are treated better by a doctor who knows them well, yet some surgeries make this hard for patients to arrange. There are clear deficiencies in a few important areas of our hospital’s services: whether this is to do with bad organisation or lack of funding for important areas I cannot say. I believe that better organisation can come without increasing, and probably decreasing, the numbers of administrators.
Each of us has our own experiences and I suspect that none of mine are typical. Last year I had to attend on several occasions clinics in both Medway & Maidstone Hospital. Those in Medway were vastly more pleasant in every way than those in Maidstone. When I was in hospital for five days some of the care I received went far beyond the call of duty; some care was severely substandard sometimes through the sheer overwork by staff, some by staff who seemed not to care and to leave as much as possible to other staff; at times there seemed a lack of supervision; I suspect that was because the supervisors were overworked as they must have been on two occasions when they spoke on the wards to student nurses in a way I considered quite unacceptable. It was also unacceptable to witness a very loud and heated argument between a bed manager, ward sister and doctor on the ward itself.
I believe it is important to maintain pressure for good health services for everyone. Most of us have seen bad organisation and inefficiencies that can with ease be changed. I hope governments will stop tampering with basic structures and concentrate on each part of the service doing its job well. I am very concerned that to ensure a viable size for the new Public Finance Initiative (PFI) Hospital at Pembury services are being moved from Maidstone. I believe that the workings of PFI projects both for hospitals and school is very bad for our country and that there are better ways of financing public capital projects. I think that there are great advantages all round for keeping services at Maidstone and building a smaller facility at Pembury.
I am also concerned that some hospital trusts are reducing the numbers of hospital chaplains. I believe that this is very short sighted on every level. Economically I believe chaplain’s work helps healing and so patients can go home earlier; their work with staff reduces absences and helps morale and so better services.
I hope we will all think and pray about these matters and speak to our elected representatives at every level of government about them: I know the County and Borough Councils are concerned about our local health services. It would be good if local trusts would be more honest in their public accountability and tell us if it is the need to better organisation or more money and in what proportions that would most help improve the service in every way.
Christopher Morgan – Jones.
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