Poole hospital on critical list (From Bournemouth Echo)
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Poole hospital on critical list
8:30am Saturday 31st July 2010 in
A DEFICIT of millions, bed cuts, a recruitment freeze, the threat of redundancies and now a national regulator threatening to step in.
The financial strife at Poole hospital, which seems to have been played down by hospital bosses for months, is now painfully clear.
A deficit of £4.5 million during the last financial year instead of the planned budget surplus of £2.1 million has left the hospital fighting to claw back £10 million this year.
And watchdog Monitor could intervene should it fail to achieve certain milestones on the way back to financial health.
Union bosses have told the Daily Echo that morale at the hospital is at a “low ebb”. Staff have been buffeted by rapid changes, including ward closures and mergers which involved reallocation of some 100 people, mainly nurses.
And working patterns have changed with the introduction of electronic rostering and the move from three-shifts a day to a two-shift rota. A 50 per cent hike in parking charges also angered staff earlier in the year.
Now hospital bosses are carrying out a review of the entire workforce and have not ruled out redundancies.
Hospital chief executive Chris Bown told the Daily Echo the focus was on cutting back expensive agency staff, and natural wastage in the workforce, but he added: “It would be wrong to say there’s not going to be any redundancy”.
Hospital bosses insist the changes will “improve clinical quality”, but patients will inevitably notice a difference. Primarily many will spend less time in hospital.
Elderly patients are being transferred more quickly when they no longer need acute care, cutting pressure on beds following the closure of a 28-bed acute elderly medicine ward.
The hospital has also closed 23 surgical beds and eight medical beds –while at the same time stepping up the number of day beds.
Pre-op assessments are being done on the same day, which cuts out the need for people to stay overnight before surgery.
The accident and emergency refurbishment had been scaled down and mums-to-be will also be affected. The £30 million state-of-the-art new maternity hospital – which was scheduled for completion in 2012 – is now on hold indefinitely – despite the rising birth rate.
The current facilities in St Mary’s Road are more than 40 years old and have been earmarked for replacement for 20 years already.
Mr Bown added: “If we get ourselves back into financial health and start delivering surpluses, it will enable us to borrow the funds that will enable us to build the new maternity hospital.
“We’re committed to developing a new maternity facility, but it’s not possible until we get back into financial health.”
Poole mayor Chris Bulteel, chairman of the borough council’s health scrutiny committee, said while he had “every confidence” in Mr Bown’s plans, they would be keeping a close watch as they were “very concerned it could have an impact on patient care”.
“If anybody experiences any troubles I would ask them please to get in touch with me, through the council,” he said, adding: “I have every confidence it will work, but having said that, if it doesn’t, we as a scrutiny committee need to know as soon as possible.”
Comments(11)
Square Old Codger
says...
9:10am Sat 31 Jul 10
BmthNewshound wrote:There has been no attempt to give any explanation as to why the Hospital is in the red and until the facts are known it is unwise to assume that it is mismanagement alone that has lead to this predicament. It could be for a varity of reasons, including extra demand on services and doing more than was planned . What there should be is an inquiry, the true facts ascertained and if anyone is guilty of poor or mismanagement they should be dismissed. There is as much poor management in the Private as in the Public sector.
Just another example of incompetent public sector management who appear to be incapable of managing a budget. One of the roles of the Chief Executive is to ensure that the hospital finances are managed properly. . There appears to be a total lack of respect shown towards money in the public sector which has become used to dipping its hands into what they conceive to be a bottomless pit of taxpayer funded money just there for the taking. This is particularly true of the NHS where managers trade on the public’s fears of cuts in front line services to leverage more money to cover up their poor management.
WIGGINSv
says...
9:18am Sat 31 Jul 10
Square Old Codger wrote:With 'Open door' immigration policies in place, is it any wonder that the services are breaking down.
BmthNewshound wrote: Just another example of incompetent public sector management who appear to be incapable of managing a budget. One of the roles of the Chief Executive is to ensure that the hospital finances are managed properly. . There appears to be a total lack of respect shown towards money in the public sector which has become used to dipping its hands into what they conceive to be a bottomless pit of taxpayer funded money just there for the taking. This is particularly true of the NHS where managers trade on the public’s fears of cuts in front line services to leverage more money to cover up their poor management.There has been no attempt to give any explanation as to why the Hospital is in the red and until the facts are known it is unwise to assume that it is mismanagement alone that has lead to this predicament. It could be for a varity of reasons, including extra demand on services and doing more than was planned . What there should be is an inquiry, the true facts ascertained and if anyone is guilty of poor or mismanagement they should be dismissed. There is as much poor management in the Private as in the Public sector.
It was difficult enough to manage before, now I should think it is nigh on impossible.
They could also dump the 'cosmetic' procedures recently highlighted in the press.
Adrian XX
says...
10:32am Sat 31 Jul 10
Sue Sutherland was the chief executive from 2005-2010. Perhaps her decisions should be investigated.
Sources:
http://bit.ly/bZ6l3C
http://bit.ly/aWzrhN
plastic
says...
10:34am Sat 31 Jul 10
NO, another example of the failed myth of cutting costs = management.
Where's that £2,000 a day consultant when he's needed ?
Syd Poumen
says...
11:04am Sat 31 Jul 10
I am, however, pleased to see that there is to be a cutting back at Poole Hospital of expensive agency staff, many of whom have little or no concern for their patients.
marmite man
says...
11:27am Sat 31 Jul 10
Whether it’s the civil service. the private sector or public sectors, it’s the procurement side that needs to be looked at. When I was a Civil Servant I sourced pencils at 2p each, but when I approached a manager I was firmly told that Whitehall dealt with procurement and there was only one company that we could purchase from and the same pencil from them cost 75p each!! So who was getting the benefit from such a high profit? The supply company? The officer in Whitehall who chose this company? Whoever it is, is costing this country many millions of pounds.
Procurement should be open to all suppliers and then perhaps we will get realistic pricing instead of the fact that one company can charge what they like as they know they are the only company that can be dealt with.
McVICAR
says...
3:41pm Sat 31 Jul 10
marmite man wrote:A few years ago an office assistant at a hospital near Portsmouth wanted a new pencil sharpener which would have cost about 50p at wollies, because the nhs has to buy equipment through certain companies this pencil sharpener cost the hospital £30, the reason was published in the newspaper and raised in government at the time but nothing has changed, the reason for this £30 charge was 49p for the sharpener and £29.51 administration costs, this is where all the money goes in the nhs and why so many hospitals are in the red.
Just like GP's who prescribe certain drugs get a 'reward' from the pharmaceutical company, do the procurement officers at Poole Hospital get the same if ordering for their own gain and not purchasing the lowest cost as they then wouldn’t get a ‘reward’.
Whether it’s the civil service. the private sector or public sectors, it’s the procurement side that needs to be looked at. When I was a Civil Servant I sourced pencils at 2p each, but when I approached a manager I was firmly told that Whitehall dealt with procurement and there was only one company that we could purchase from and the same pencil from them cost 75p each!! So who was getting the benefit from such a high profit? The supply company? The officer in Whitehall who chose this company? Whoever it is, is costing this country many millions of pounds.
Procurement should be open to all suppliers and then perhaps we will get realistic pricing instead of the fact that one company can charge what they like as they know they are the only company that can be dealt with.
Everything purchased within the nhs is double or sometimes triple the price of everywhere else.
Trish1
says...
5:04pm Sat 31 Jul 10
Say no more................
....................
.
Gordon Clifton
says...
7:23pm Sat 31 Jul 10
EGHH
says...
7:47am Sun 1 Aug 10
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BmthNewshound says...
8:50am Sat 31 Jul 10
.
There appears to be a total lack of respect shown towards money in the public sector which has become used to dipping its hands into what they conceive to be a bottomless pit of taxpayer funded money just there for the taking. This is particularly true of the NHS where managers trade on the public’s fears of cuts in front line services to leverage more money to cover up their poor management.