Press Releases ...
& Dr. Taylor's ~
"Letters from Parliament

From the District Auditor to the Acute Hospitals N.H.S. Trust
26 November 2002, made public 16 January 2003

Main Points of criticism in the letter with comments and highlighting from Dr Richard Taylor MP

The Trust is heading for a £6 million overspend this year despite assuring the auditors after the audit of 2001 / 2002 (5 August 2002) that it had achievable plans to break even in 2002 / 2003.

The Trust has had some success in delivering its original financial recovery plan mainly due to "savings flowing from the re-configuration of services away from Kidderminster". 
Proof that the robbery of services from Kidderminster General Hospital was for financial reasons and has failed to benefit anyone and has in fact led to the devastation of hospital services in the whole county of Worcestershire as we predicted it would.

At long last it has been stated that "the original recovery plan assumed £3 million would accrue from a reduction in bed numbers when the new hospital opened in Worcester". 
This has been our belief since 1998 and was confirmed to us by Professor Allyson Pollock and colleagues in the report "Deficits before Patients" (June 2000). 
This was condemned as inaccurate at the time by the health authority and the NHS Executive (West Midlands).

"A recent review of PFI costs has highlighted that there is an annual increase in the revenue costs of the PFI contract of £1.87 million. These costs are not supported by additional income." 
No comment is necessary to underline the lack of affordability of this for the next 29 years at least. 
No wonder Mr Harold Musgrove in his letter of resignation from the chairmanship of the Acute Hospital Trust Board in December 2001 wrote that "Investing in Excellence" was un-implementable and unaffordable.

"The Trust is one of the most expensive large acute Trusts in the West Midlands."

"The Trust faces some major challenges. It must improve its performance to meet waiting list targets, and address the weaknesses identified in a number of areas of its services, whilst improving its underlying financial position." 

Among the weaknesses picked out for mention is Medical Staffing.

• Apparently no consultants have job plans "signed by the consultant or senior manager". 
  Job plans for consultants were demanded in the early 1990s by the Department of Health. Virtually all consultants at Kidderminster General Hospital had theirs by 1995. 
  There is no excuse for this appalling lapse in medical manpower management. 
• The Trust has "the highest medical staffing to workload levels for all large acute trusts in England…". 
  This is not a condemnation of lazy consultants but recognition of the fact that consultants' outputs have fallen dramatically across the whole county since the downgrading of Kidderminster General Hospital. 
  For example; surgeons are at times idle as, due to loss of staff, beds or theatres (or both) are frequently not available for use. 
  The loss of nursing staff due to the downgrading has been crucial. This has led to the huge overspend of £7.2 million on agency nurses.

"The layout of the new hospital requires additional staffing." 
This is a criticism we have heard frequently from staff members, patients and their visitors. 
At no stage has the management acknowledged this even though the current Trust Management is largely different from the management of the old Worcestershire Health Authority and the previous Worcester Hospital Trust who were responsible for the PFI design and contract.

Further issues to be evaluated include 

• Outpatients, 
• Waits for Admission, 
• Operating Theatres and 
• Bed Management. 

Reports are expected in January 2003.

In my opinion the Annual Letter is so bad that it supports all the fearful criticisms I have received of the management of the hospital services in Worcestershire from patients, relatives and staff members. The latter have been too frightened to speak out in public and have always asked me not to reveal their names. At no stage has any member of the Acute Trust management been prepared to admit to major difficulties or faults and so there has been no possibility of change. A personal last straw is when my friends and campaigners are blamed by management for the failings of the hospital service because we are said to be damaging morale by passing on the views of patients appalled at the standard of care they receive and staff desperately disappointed at the standard of care they are able to provide despite their best efforts.

R.T.
17 January 2003

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