'Talk to us' — chief says NHS Fife is ready to listen to Victoria Hospital complaints
NHS Fife bosses say they are prepared to listen to staff after a spate of serious claims about poor standards of care at Kirkcaldy's new hospital.
The new wing at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
- By Aileen Robertson
- Published in the Courier : 18.02.12
- Published online : 18.02.12 @ 11.37am
Speaking exclusively to The Courier, NHS Fife operational division chief executive John Wilson said he acknowledged the enormous pressure staff are under at Victoria Hospital's recently opened £170 million wing. But he said anonymous claims made to the press would not improve the situation and urged staff to come forward with any difficulties they are experiencing.
The new hospital wing opened at the start of the year. Since then, The Courier has been inundated with emails, comments on this website and calls from nurses and relatives who say have had a bad experience at the hospital.
Typical of the tone of the comments was one which claimed: "The mood in the hospital on the shop floor is that of frustration and sadness at being prevented from doing a good job for the patients, staff will soon become despondent and bad practice will become the norm, sad but true. We need the Scottish Government's help now."
Another commenter posted: "As a nurse in this NHS, the comments reported are so true and sometimes diluted to what is really happening. We complain to our line manager, but they dont support us, as their hands are tied from further up the tree, as the object is to save money and that means compromising patient safety and care."
The Courier has also received reports of overworked nurses, patients left on trolleys in corridors and staff forced to use pillow slips instead of towels — all things we put to Mr Wilson.
He said: "We recognise that staff are under pressure and want to be supportive ... but staff in the wards don't necessarily see the work that is being done behind the scenes.
"What is frustrating is when people, as they might choose to do, go directly to the press, where they are anonymous. We need specific information — where something happened and when it happened — otherwise it is very difficult for us to do anything about it.
"We want to hear about things that are not going well from people on the frontline, because they are the people who are first made aware if something is not right."
Mr Wilson, who is set to take over from George Brechin as chief executive of the health board in April, said the "teething problems" had been caused by staff having to adjust to different ways of working at the new hospital.
Moving acute services from Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline and maternity services from Forth Park to the new site has resulted in services being centralised at a sprawling complex.
"I think a lot of what has been written is a direct result of the period of settling in to a completely new environment," said Mr Wilson. "We acknowledge that staff have concerns. That's not entirely a surprise because we have asked them to do a lot.
"The transfer of services was a big event that has caused major upheaval. They are working in a completely different environment and the model of care provided in the hospital is different from the models they are used to. We recognise there has been huge change for them to manage, on top of all the normal pressures faced in a hospital of this nature, where there is heavy demand on acute care."
Mr Wilson added: "There have been a number of teething problems and we acknowledge there have been some difficulties in getting supplies to the wards in the early stages, including linen. There was never a shortage of linen but we have had logistical problems getting it from A to B. To be fair, it's difficult to get that absolutely right until you are in the place and see how it is functioning."
He denied there is a shortage of nurses or doctors at Victoria, saying: "There are no restrictions on bringing in extra nurses and locums when we need them, as long as we can get them. There is a limit to the number that are available."
Director of nursing Caroline Inwood urged patients and relatives to speak up where they had a problem with standards of care.
"There's no need to fear speaking up. We do want to hear from people — that's a positive thing — and we are doing a lot around patient experience."
She added: "Staffing is reviewed on a daily basis. Managers visit the wards at least two or three times a day. We need to empower people, when they need additional staff, to simply ask. There is a large bank able to meet that."
12.17pm - 18.02.2012 anonymous - Kirkcaldy, Scotland Report This
The management should be ashamed of themselves. Concerns were raised before the move happened and ignored. The infrastructure was never in place and is still unable to cope. The basic problem is too few beds, doctors and nurses who are treated as a number, morale is rock bottom.
02.46am - 19.02.2012 R.D.Robertson - Freuchie, Scotland Report This
Yeah, "Talk to us... we'll just ignore you and do what we want anyway..." and you can bet that they won't build any new car parks!
11.04am - 19.02.2012 anonymous - Kirkcaldy, Fife Report This
I cannot believe the management's continuous denial of all that is happenning at VHK. It was a disaster from the start, dropping medical and surgical beds,low morale,no equipment or resources,not exactly rocket science what the result would be.Extra staff? we are told 'no money for bank'.
01.47pm - 19.02.2012 Anon - Leven, fife Report This
The council cannot provide ongoing care so we have patients who cant go home, these patients go into 'unfunded beds', the nurse bank cant cover these shifts so staff are removed from their areas to cover. Come on Mr Wilson, surely you know this? The council should be funding and staffing these beds!
04.09pm - 19.02.2012 anonobviously! - Falkland, Fife Report This
I think Mr Wilson is perhaps being kept in the dark here, staff ARE telling managers their concerns and nothing was improving so they then spoke to the press, NOT the other way around! Most of us would be glad to speak to him, if he visited.
07.42am - 20.02.2012 Peter - Dunfermline, Scotland Report This
Too little, too late! You would not listen! You built it in Kirkcaldy!
10.31am - 20.02.2012 joppie - dundee, uk Report This
Either Mr Wilson isn't in total control of the situation or he is ignoring the situation. Can I suggest he has a walk around the wards without telling anybody he is on his way? Most of us wouldn't recognise the faceless bearacrauts anyway. Maybe then he will actually see what is going on.
06.33pm - 20.02.2012 anon - kirkcaldy, fife Report This
This is a situation which was always going to happen. There is just not enough beds,prior to the move some weekends there were 80+ unfunded beds open,surely that should have rung alarm bells. As for speaking to line managers,it takes some of them to say "good morning" never mind listen to concerns.
09.58am - 21.02.2012 M Wallace - Kirkcaldy, Fife Report This
Far too many ANONYMOUS comments for my liking on a subject of extremely high importance. Back in the day when nurses were REAL nurses, we would have stood up and been counted on fundamental principles. That's professionalism for you I suppose - it's taken the vocation out of the occupation.
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