NHS Efficiency
This post does not cover the controversial issues of funding levels, use of A & E departments, relationships with social services, whether Wales (under the Labour Assembly) has underperformed England (under the Conservative and Coalition Governments) etc. etc. It does, however, look at one example of gross inefficiency at local level.
Last February, I stood in at short notice to take an old lady to the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford (the RSCH). She had an appointment letter and two forms. The letter said that one of the forms should be handed in at Main Reception in the RSCH foyer (as opposed to the desk in the clinic). It seemed strange, but Main Reception said it was right and took one of the forms. Maybe there’s a central scanner as part of a new computer system, I thought.
I took the old lady to the clinic and then into the doctor’s room. Everyone said I should stay and we were introduced to a young nurse who would be there as part of her training. “Have you got the appointment letter and forms?” asked the doctor. I gave the letter and one of the forms and explained about the other one. The trainee nurse was sent to Main Reception to retrieve the form, but it had disappeared without trace. The doctor then had to ask us all of the questions on the missing form.
Our appointment over-ran and the nurse missed out on some of her training. A wrong instruction in the letter had wasted valuable NHS resources. When NHS efficiency is discussed, it is usually in terms of spending £millions on new computer systems. There are, however, quick and easy common sense changes which can be implemented at almost zero cost. In this case, the appointment letter should simply have asked us to bring both forms to the clinic with us.
(16/01/2017)