Infirmary staff reaction to bed cuts

Date published: 23 March 2007

Rochdale Infirmary staff reaction to the announced bed cuts has been a mix of ignorance, disbelief and dismay. Pennine Trust called a meeting to officially inform staff of the 37 bed losses, however, the majority of staff had no idea the meeting was taking place as the Trust sent the notice by email less than 24 hours before the meeting was to take place. Staff on busy wards, and those on shifts, who had not had time to look at their emails reacted angrily at finding out the meeting had taken place without them and that the notice had been sent out by email only and without being flagged as a priority.

Staff on the Special Care Baby Unit were amongst those not aware the meeting was taking place, as were the staff on the Children's Ward - not even the Ward Manager or the Paediatric Consultants were aware the meeting was taking place.

Such was the ignorance about the meeting that out of the whole Infirmary staff only ten turned up to the meeting.

One staff member who did turn up expressed deep concern at the lack of communication and described it as "a complete farce".

Another staff member said, "this is closure through the back door, the Paediatric Unit has already dropped from 24 to 18 beds last year, we simply can't afford to lose any more beds".

Those who made it to the meeting were told the cuts would take place over the next 12 months, however, this failed to convince those who now expect an exodus of good staff from the Infirmary, as one staff member said: "who in their right mind is going to work for an organisation that keeps closing units and cutting beds?"

Another complained that all the Pennine Trust hospitals are suffering seriously low staff morale and staff at the Infirmary in particular believes this is, "a cost cutting exercise, brought about due to mismanagement that will undoubtedly affect patient care".