King’s Lynn’s debt ridden hospital
Now I really know we do have a Third World hospital in our midst.
Staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn – a stone’s throw from the royal residence in Sandringham – have been told to take their rubbish home to help save money.
This follows a reduction of bin collections from five times a week to one, albeit for non-clinical staff. The idea is to reduce smells and potentially nasty germs that might be lurking in the bins which could spread infection.
How gross is that? How can a hospital be allowed to run to such low standards? What does our Health Secretary say about this?
The QEH is struggling with debts of nearly £11m and warned of probable job cuts and bed closures this week.
It is hoped the bin scheme will help save more than £2,000 a year by cutting down on the need for cleaners and domestic support.
A union official has surprisingly backed the initiative. Ron Glazebrook, the hospital’s Unison representative, said:
“What they are asking is for people to take bins to central collection points instead of a domestic cleaner. It is saving thousands and it is not a huge hardship. The hospital has got hundreds of offices, and this will only affect non-clinical staff.�
I think the hospital’s stressed and overworked staff will just ignore this. I’m very surprised that the union is so compliant. Are our unions going soft?
Things never change – it was an awful hospital when I last lived in the area – more than a decade ago. I wonder if it’s got worse since? My parents haven’t had very good treatment there…. but I don’t know if it has got any worse over the years.
My father was admitted there and was treated very poorly. We had to pay £6,000 privately for another hospital to rectify their mistake. I wouldn’t recommed it to anyone.