Chairman hits out at the critics

I HAVE made it a policy, hitherto, not to respond to media statements about the NHS and the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust.

However, the nature of your reporting of recent events including, but not limited to, the District Audit Management Letter, the adjournment debate in the House of Commons and Worcester city councillor Richard Udall's letter compel me to make a response.

It is my opinion that your "grabbing the headlines" approach to matters concerning the trust does not give a fair, equitable and balanced view of health issues to your readership nor fairly represents the hard work and high-quality services provided by all staff, including managers.

You do not realise how the continual criticism of the trust, much of it unwarranted, is damaging the morale of all who work in it and may also be affecting our ability to recruit. I accept that when criticism is due it should be made, but in a balanced and positive way.

The trust, like most organisations, has made mistakes and no doubt will do so in the future but will seek through Clinical Governance and Business Excellence Models to deliver continual service improvement.

I realise that the NHS and hospitals particularly are a source of contention within Worcestershire, but the clock cannot be turned back and it is my aim that, with the support of all the team within the trust and on-going capital investment to improve facilities at all three sites, the Alexandra, Kidderminster and Worcestershire Royal Hospitals, we shall provide highest quality clinical care on a countywide basis accessible by all.

I now respond to specific allegations made over recent days.

The District Audit Letter was for the year 2001/2002, in which financial and waiting time targets were met.

District audit reported no financial irregularities and found the accounting and control framework sound.

Although all financial targets were achieved in 2001/2, the auditors were concerned about the deficit in the current year that had already been reported to prior public board meetings.

The trust is currently expected to be in deficit for the year 2002/2003 and as the District Audit Letter states: "This is mainly the result of overspending on nursing agency staffing."

With a national nursing shortage and despite various recruitment efforts, agency staffing was necessary in order to provide patient care and to meet Government waiting time targets.

As you will be aware, the Worcestershire Health Economy as a whole has a serious financial problem, of which the acute trust is but a part.

All stakeholders within the health economy are working together and with the Strategic Health Authority to restore financial balances and yet maintain and improve healthcare following the substantial investment being made by Government into the NHS.

It is claimed by Wyre Forest MP Dr Richard Taylor and Coun Udall that staff are "gagged" but neither they, nor anyone else, have produced evidence to me.

The trust has a Public Disclosure Policy, in accordance with national guidelines. If I am made aware of any so-called gagging, then I will pursue it vigorously and eradicate it. But I cannot act on hearsay and unevidenced comments.

Comment has been made about the need to communicate with staff. By the involvement of clinicians on the trust management board, the appointment of "modern matrons", development

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of the trust intranet, internal and external publications, information is shared across the trust.

A trust-wide staff survey is being implemented to ascertain whether further communication and with whom, is necessary.

Dr Taylor claims the cost of the Private Finance Initiative for the Worcestershire Royal Hospital is increasing by £1.87m each year.

Not true. These claims are wholly misleading. Such an escalating payment would be completely unaffordable to the local health service and would never have been agreed as value for money.

The figure relates to an initial agreed increase in the costs of maintaining a wide range of services and facilities on the new hospital complex and as such constitute variations to the original business case.

Most of these costs are internal trust costs or money paid to external organisations - only a small element will be paid to our PFI partners.

Dr Taylor has stated that the audit letter points out that the current management has failed. Not true. Nowhere in the audit letter is this statement made.

Dr Taylor has made reference to suddenly redesignating red alerts as yellow 2 alerts. Not true. Our escalation policy for medical admissions was drawn up in conjunction with our primary care trusts and ambulance trust in late 2002. The detailed policy was mailed to all GPs in our newsletter sent out in December.

Although we have had a number of red alerts which has meant that our Medical Admissions Unit has been closed, at no time have the hospitals closed the A&E units at Worcester or Redditch. They have always remained open.

You carried a front page headline on Friday, February 14, based upon comments from Coun Udall and carried our rebuttal of his inaccurate statements upon Page 5 on Saturday, February 15. I am very willing to meet Coun Udall so that I may give him accurate information and reassure him of our commitment to patient care.

The difference in your approach to Coun Udall's letter and our rebuttal statement more than amply demonstrates my point about inequitable and unfair journalism.

It is right that, in this letter, I should publicly thank Ruth Harrison, chief executive of the trust, who leaves us to take up a new challenge in the NHS. She has implemented the merger of three separate trusts, delivered a new hospital at Worcester, overseen the commencement of a pioneering Diagnostic and Treatment Centre at Kidderminster and brought about improved facilities at the Alexandra Hospital.

All of this is at a time of great change in the NHS and yet delivering upon Government waiting time targets. I wish her well in her new career opportunity.

Finally, may I reiterate my call for fair and equitable journalistic reporting. I am very willing to be interviewed when necessary by you so that accurate information is obtained and published.

In this regard, you're aware that I'm about to supply weekly information to the Worcestershire MPs so that they are regularly updated with accurate data on issues affecting the acute trust including, but not limited to, admission rates, waiting list information and delayed transfers of care.

The acute trust has one objective, and that is to provide the best possible clinical care for the 550,000 people of Worcestershire.

May we have your, the politicians' and the public's support in this objective?

Michael O'Riordan,

Chairman,

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust