Morale 'rock bottom' at QMH, claims nurse
Published 21 Oct 2011 07:28
19 Comments
Share this
MORALE among nurses at Queen Margaret Hospital is at "rock bottom" due to the effect of NHS Fife's budget pressures, a nurse has claimed.
The Press has been told nursing staff are being asked to work with "less and less but do more and more", as managers are being asked "to find more and more cuts".
The health board is already under fire for its plans to axe the hospice ward at Queen Margaret Hospital to save £320,000 from its budget, and now one of its nurses has come forward about the impacts of cuts on staff.
The nurse, who did not want to be named, said, "The NHS is under pressure and we need the new build (Victoria Hospital), but it's costing so much money every month we're struggling to find money in other areas.
"We are facing frozen jobs, staff unable to find work, staff leaving and not being replaced, all because of the budget costs of the new build. Staff are being asked to work with less and less and do more and more. We've been told we will not get bank staff if we were short-staffed and will have to go through the managers.
"There have been no jobs advertised for weeks and most staff are desperate for a permanent post. Some have been offered temporary contracts but the interviews to make them permanent have been pulled.
"Morale in the hospital is at the lowest I've ever seen and because of that some people are considering leaving nursing altogether."
She claimed the amount of paperwork left nurses "hardly any time to nurse people any more".
She said, "Managers are making senior nurses have three bed meetings daily, taking them off wards and demanding discharges of patients as we are so full."
Such demands, she said, were "soul-destroying", especially "when you have 24 people to feed, many who need assistance of two to toilet, a few staff, drug rounds, phone ringing constantly and piles and piles of paperwork you are being pressured to finish".
And she said elderly patients were bearing the brunt, claiming, "We have to find two discharges a day but there are a lot of people who are not suitable to be at home. It's very easy to say discharge people home, but it's not always safe. They need rehabilitation and support but elderly wards like the ones at Lynebank Hospital are getting shut down.
"If you discharge someone without proper support they'll just come in again and that's very distressing for staff and the family. I have known staff leave shifts in tears because they feel they can no longer do the job properly.
"If this doesn't improve, I don't know how the NHS is going to cope - so many nurses will leave because they're fed up."
The nurse's revelations came on the back of Cowdenbeath MSP Helen Eadie publishing new figures that 144 NHS executives and staff in NHS Fife are being paid over £100,000 a year.
Mrs Eadie also laid into the SNP over the NHS, saying, "The SNP promised to 'cut the pay bill of the highest earners'.
"Yet there are now over 144 executives and employees in the NHS in Fife alone paid film star salaries of over £100,000.
"They promised to 'protect the NHS budget in Scotland'. Yet the SNP is cutting the NHS budget by £319m in real terms.
"They promised to 'protect the frontline'. Yet have allowed the NHS to haemorrhage almost 4000 staff, with frontline nurses forced to bear the brunt of the cuts.
"When times are tough and budgets are stretched, we must focus resources on the frontline so that we can protect jobs and patient care here in Fife.
"Despite all their promises, the SNP are simply not doing that. The SNP have been caught out making empty promises to the people of Fife."
An NHS spokesperson said, "Patient safety is of paramount importance to NHS Fife as is the health and wellbeing of our staff who deliver a dedicated high quality service to the people of Fife. We do not have a 'jobs freeze'.
"Managers are reviewing vacancies as they arise and filling appropriately. Similarly, requests for bank staff to cover vacant shifts are to be fully considered and agreed with the relevant manager.NHS Fife would only discharge a patient deemed medically fit by their doctor.
"Recently we have started to discharge patients, identified as ready, in the morning instead of the afternoon so that bed availability is maximised for new admissions."
Have your say. Post a comment on this article.
-
kaka30
310 posts
Oct 21, 09:18
Report commentNurses filling out paper work doesnt help patients, Nurses, Nursing them does, its simple.
Helen Eadie says the SNP,
"Have been caught out making empty promises to the people of Fife"
If the people of Scotland are daft enough to vote for independance in any future referendum, they wont be long in finding out about empty promises.
Recommend?
Yes 11
No 9
-
triskel
257 posts
Oct 21, 10:54
Report commentAktion T4. This is what happens when economics and delusions of grandeur get involved in healthcare.
Recommend? Yes 1
No 26
-
triskel
257 posts
Oct 21, 10:58
Report commentAction T4 (German: Aktion T4) was the name used after World War II[1] for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination".[2] The program officially ran from September 1939[3][4] until August 1941, but it continued unofficially[5] until the end of the Nazi regime in 1945.[6]
During the official stage of Action T4 70,273 people were killed,[7] but the Nuremberg Trials found evidence that German and Austrian physicians continued the murder of patients after October 1941 and that about 275,000 people were killed under T4.[8] More recent research based on files recovered after 1990 gives a figure of at least 200,000 physically or mentally handicapped people killed by medication, starvation, or in the gas chambers between 1939 and 1945.[9]
The name T4 was an abbreviation of "Tiergartenstraße 4", the address of a villa in the Berlin borough of Tiergarten which was the headquarters of the Gemeinnützige Stiftung für Heil- und Anstaltspflege, bearing the euphemistic name literally translating into English as Charitable Foundation for Cure and Institutional Care.[10] This body operated under the direction of Philipp Bouhler, the head of Hitler's private chancellery,[11] and Dr. Karl Brandt, Hitler's personal physician. This villa no longer exists, but a plaque set in the pavement on Tiergartenstraße marks its location.
The "euthanasia decree", written on Adolf Hitler's personal stationery and dated 1 September 1939, translates into English as follows:
Reich Leader Bouhler and Dr. Brandt are charged with the responsibility for expanding the authority of physicians, to be designated by name, to the end that patients considered incurable according to the best available human judgment [menschlichem Ermessen] of their state of health, can be granted a mercy death [Gnadentod].[12]
Recommend? Yes 3
No 27
-
beaker
80 posts
Oct 21, 12:26
Report commentgot to laff at eaddie. seem's like the men in black have flashed yon forget me thing in her face, poor wifie dosen't seem to realise the damage done to this country financially was done by her party, and the right for fife debacle was governed by her party.,
Recommend? Yes 12
No 3
-
kaka30
310 posts
Oct 21, 15:12
Report commentIt seams quite fashionable to slate the Labour Party & blame them for all our present financial troubles. Dont get me wrong some on the criticism is justified but what people are forgetting, this is a WORLD economic recession.
The NHS has been struggling for years under both Tory & Labour Governments.
Whether its the Police, Nurses or Teachers, im sure they will tell you that they are being snowed under by bureaucratic procedures, leaving them little time to do the jobs that they trained for.
Recommend? Yes 4
No 9
-
beaker
80 posts
Oct 21, 17:07
Report commenttriskel - the waffen tories rely mostly on the freeze your sick and old to death, works for them.
Recommend? Yes 8
No 0
-
triskel
257 posts
Oct 21, 18:48
Report commentAs long as managers etc. accept the lie that there is no money for resources and use that lie to bully staff; nothing will change. Money is a total illusion that has humanity in chains. People need to protest against monetarist bullying and ostracise the managers etc. who threaten them. There is absolutely loads of money. It gets printed in Wales. There is not the will there to share it out fairly though. The police used to be only too happy to batter stiking workers looking for a living wage and anybody else who complained about the vagaries of capitalism. It is about time the police turned their guns on the rotten politicians, crooked businessmen and venal aristocrats instead!
Recommend? Yes 1
No 34
-
******
Oct 21, 23:30
Report commentThis comment has been removed by a moderator
-
triskel
257 posts
Oct 22, 11:10
Report commentSo what is the "mindset" of the 21st. century Blackadder? Don't worry if you can't tell me. I can see from your previous posts you are limited in your vision and only able to condemn people's views without being able to supply an alternative. Do you think that mangagers, economists and politicians trampling all over our NHS is cool?
Recommend? Yes 2
No 22
-
******
Oct 22, 13:43
Report commentThis comment has been removed by a moderator
-
******
Oct 22, 16:05
Report commentThis comment has been removed by a moderator
-
******
Oct 22, 17:19
Report commentThis comment has been removed by a moderator
-
Ulysees
40 posts
Oct 22, 17:43
Report commentMy OH qualified as a nurse last year and was very very lucky to land her dream job on her first interview. Many others that graduated at the same time still have no permanent job and are working banking hours in order to make ends meet financially.
What is the point in studying hard for 4+ years to earn a degree in nursing if the cost cutting is so high and the moral is so low? Is it any wonder many (6 that we know of) are now actively seeking jobs abroad and are planning to emigrate given that the prospects abroad are so much better when compared to struggling for years to make ends meet, paying your taxes and then getting screwed out of your pension is the only option left in this country!
Recommend? Yes 28
No 1
-
******
Oct 22, 19:23
Report commentThis comment has been removed by a moderator
-
triskel
257 posts
Oct 23, 02:29
Report commentI'd say that we all have a collective responsibility to make the NHS work for the benefit of everybody and a collective responsibility to ensure everybody doesn't work too hard and is looked after properly when they get too old or sick to work. Economics has no place in the caring sector.
Recommend? Yes 4
No 34
-
******
Oct 23, 11:27
Report commentThis comment has been removed by a moderator
-
Blackadder
257 posts
Oct 23, 11:49
Report comment -
******
Oct 23, 12:03
Report commentThis comment has been removed by a moderator
-
triskel
257 posts
Oct 23, 14:26
Report commentClicking the Yes/No buttons is the equivalent of saying uggh! It means you are inarticulate with nothing to contribute.
You come onto a forum about serious stuff like the ruination of the NHS and all you can do is pursue some petty vendetta from previous forums. You are a tragedy!
It is our COLLECTIVE responsibility to address the problems economists and managers are causing the NHS and not to act like knuckledragging playground bullies!
Recommend? Yes 2
No 25
-
******
Oct 23, 14:35
Report commentThis comment has been removed by a moderator
-
linzi49
3 posts
Oct 23, 15:46
Report commentI used to do bank nurse shifts but have reluctantly decided to retire for several reasons. Paperwork has taken the place of real nursing, putting full time staff under intolerable pressure and taking them away from the job they trained for. They are sick and tired of having tried and tested systems changed for the sake of it by people who either do not know or have forgotten, what it's like to work on a ward. Then, when it doesn't work, it's changed back to the old system, having incurred hugely unnecessary expense along the way. (Needless to say, no consultation with staff beforehand to work out whether a change would be feasible or even desirable!) What is even more galling is that these bosses are being paid 4 or 5 times an entry-level nurse's salary to justify their existence.
I feel massively sorry for anyone working within the NHS at the moment. Nursing is a wonderful profession and should be extremely rewarding but staff are being treated like mushrooms (use your imagination!) - no wonder morale is at rock bottom. Management needs to sort out its ideas before they end up losing a lot of hardworking, dedicated staff.
Recommend? Yes 30
No 1
-
******
Oct 23, 17:48
Report commentThis comment has been removed by a moderator
-
Tradesman
94 posts
Oct 25, 08:48
Report commentThe NHS like so many other public services seem to give greater priority and resources into creating an evidential record to prove that they were not guilty of some form of professional malpractice should they be challenged of said malpractice at some time in the future.
I am not for one moment supporting the current Government's stance of restricting the activities of 'no win, no fee' companies as I feel this is the only chance that those who are not financially endowed of accessing and receiving justice. That said I feel there should be a national database to identify 'repeat offenders'.
The Government's plan is to restrict justice to those who can afford the fees of overpaid solicitors and council, leaving those who cannot pay to accept Hobson's Choice.
The NHS need to be honest with the public as to their real agenda, that of covering their rear.
If the NHS improved their standard of care there possibly would be fewer instances of actions of malpractice!
Recommend? Yes 6
No 0
-
kaka30
310 posts
Oct 26, 09:32
Report comment" Covering their rear "
Thats how the world operates now, thats why there is so much paperwork. The fear off not being able to prove that a procedure was being followed, if something was deemed to go wrong.
What starts in America allways ends up here & unfortunatly the NHS is suffering because of it.
Recommend? Yes 6
No 0
-
triskel
257 posts
Oct 26, 13:06
Report commentI made a long series of complaints about the NHS to the Health Service Ombudsman. I was invited along with other complainants to a meeting in Hatton Garden to discuss how the Health Service Ombudsman could improve their service. An interesting point came out at that meeting; the Housing Ombudsman finds for the complainant in 45% of cases while the Health Service Ombudsman finds only 5% for the complainant.
The GMC is even worse. They systematically ignore communications, demonise complainants and lie.
These two organisations are protected by law, i.e. the police. Whenever the public protest about state inefficiency and greedy bankers they are attacked by the police.
As a society it is our collective responsibility to get economists out of our public services, especially the NHS and Education. We have to protest about the police protecting corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and businesmen.
Recommend? Yes 5
No 13
-
******
Nov 3, 21:55
Report commentThis comment has been removed by a moderator
-
Givingup
1 post
Nov 4, 15:53
Report commentI've nursed at QMH for 20 years and have seen the changes made by managers go wrong time and time again. Unfortunately there is terror in our midsts about whistle blowing and if the public knew half of what goes on, there would be an outcry!
Our wages have been frozen for the fourth consecutive year and yet we are still expected to do our own job plus cover for the nurses who have left and not been replaced. To say there is not a job freeze on is downright lies! I try to do my job as best I can but its not what I trained for!
I feel for anyone who requires in-patient treatment at QMH. I work there but have told my family, if I collapse don't take me there, I know what goes on!!
Recommend? Yes 5
No 1
-
triskel
257 posts
Nov 7, 12:13
Report commentMy sister blew the whistle on staff abusing a disabled teenager in a Fife Region Education establishment. She was frozen out by all the staff and had to get another job. There are many, many cases where managers and politicians don't want to hear the truth. We have to unite as a society to support whistleblowers and get oppressive managers off our backs!
Recommend? Yes 3
No 0
-
bicyclebob
159 posts
Nov 19, 15:01
Report comment"In Cuba,an old age secure and dignified".
Recommend? Yes 0
No 0
Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.
