John Mann has been contacted by a number of his constituents who work at Bassetlaw and Doncaster Hospitals.

The following comments have all been received by John Mann regarding Bassetlaw Hospital. The personal details of his constituents have been kept private.

This list is not exhaustive, and many constituents who work at the hospital have been raising similar concerns with John in other ways.

If you would like to raise your concerns with John Mann confidentially, email his at mannj@parliament.uk or write to him in the normal way. John will not disclose your identity, but if you would rather your comments do not appear even anonymously, please make sure you clearly state this.

14 January 2011

John Mann recieved the following email in September 2010. Portions have been redacted to protect the author's identity:

Dear Mr Mann - your input to the Worksop articles on the possible demise of Bassetlaw Hospital whilst commendable I am afraid is probably woefully too late.

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There has been a slow decline in resources and services at Bassetlaw ever since the merger (take over). Of recent times there were no toilet rolls, washing up liquid, cleaning materials for the offic e areas and the decision had been taken not to clean offices on a daily basis partly due to lack of staff - they are unable to recruit and staff sickness is high.

Staff at Bassetlaw are demotivated and demoralised having been made to feel unvalued with nothing to offer to the organisation.

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Patients have been actively encouraged to attend DRI appointments rather than Bassetlaw for years - this affects the payment by results numbers - this will no doubt be disputed by the Board as 'we are one Trust' but it is true, believe me - there has been written minutes when senior people have stated that Bassetlaw is a drain on finances - of course it is - Bassetlaw pays for agency staff not totally because we cant recruit but because staff from Bassetlaw are sent to work at DRI to cover staff shortages which then leaves the service at Bassetlaw vulnerable and unsafe - wards are then closed or expensive agency staff used to keep it open.

When a friend was recalled for a mammogram some years ago having had the initial scan at Bassetlaw she was given an appointment at DRI - when she queried why and refused to go she was told that facilities were better at DRI - a total blatant untruth.

There are practices and procedures in place at Bassetlaw which if implemented across the Trust would save thousands of pounds but Management will not acknowledge this fact and instead implement a DRI procedure at Bassetlaw which is costly and sometimes ineffective. Paperwork now used in Theatres and on wards which has been inherited from DRI lacks vital information which was provided on the Bassetlaw paperwork.

There is a distinct lack of investment at Bassetlaw - hundreds of thousands of pounds (if not millions) has been spent at DRI - building on and in areas that previously was though unsuitable for expansion. The only real investment at Bassetlaw is the new dining room - that investment was unavoidable - the HSE was about to shut the kitchens down! The new renal unit is thanks to PFI - not Trust investment.

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Bassetlaw has always had an excellent reputation for training junior staff - this has declined over the past few years and resulted in several visits from regulatory bodies - Management continually try to divert training money elsewhere.

Bassetlaw was a 5 star Trust when we merged - the new Trust was awarded the same accolade the first year only on the back of our efforts - interestingly we have never achieved the highest awards since.

The financial information submitted by the Trust must be a fairytale - budget reports are inaccurate, staff wages are inaccurate with alarming regularity and the Trusts obligations regarding informing staff of their pensions under the new legislation is a joke.

I am in no way criticising the staff in these areas - they work under incredibly difficult situations - when they raise issues of concern to Management they are bullied into submission, ignored or over-ruled.

Consultation with staff on changes to services is paid lip service therefore consultation with the general public will undoubtedly receive the same contempt.

The interim Chief Executive Dr Reading appears to be willing to tackle issues head on and is unafraid of confrontation which will no doubt occur when he tackles issues relating to senior medical staff.

The Trust has utilised the services of teams of Management Consultants several times since the merger - costing hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds - the latest report was not accepted in full by the Board - not entirely sure why but it cost a lot! Could it be that Bassetlaw featured positively in the report which was unpalatable to the Board and didnt match their expectations?

With the planned reorganisation of services this will jeopardise the ability to train doctors at Bassetlaw as they will not be exposed to the required variety and number of cases - training attracts millions of pounds to the Trust. The majority of local GPs were trained at Bassetlaw.
The campaign to Save the Hospital is commendable and I for one will be happy to be involved in any way I can to preserve such a fantastic facility for Worksop but my real fear is its all too little too late.

John Mann held a public meeting regarding the future of Bassetlaw Hospital in October 2010. Following the meeting he was contacted by a number of constituents. This email is from a current member of staff at the hospital.

I have just returned from the meeting held tonight at Christ Church in Worksop ... As a member of staff at Bassetlaw I was extremely gratified to see how well respected our Hospital is from the comments made by several members of the audience.

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I strongly believe that services should remain at Bassetlaw. I feel that it is fundamentally wrong to put acutely ill patients in the back of an ambulance to receive treatment at another hospital. This would include Stroke and Heart Attack victims and patients requiring emergency abdominal surgery. How painful and distressing both for them and their families.

One lady brought up the timing of care for Stroke patients. I don't know what time factor has been allocated for this but you can also include Heart Attack patients in with this. These patients are now apparently being sent to Sheffield - this I can understand if a removal of a clot which caused the attack is required as this is a very specialised procedure but for those that don't we have an excellent Coronary Care Unit at Bassetlaw.

One thing I was slightly dismayed about tonight was that there was no mention of the proposed cuts to Intensive Care/High Dependency provision.

If this department goes than it will be only a matter of time, in my opinion, before the Accident and Emergency Department goes. What's the point of an A+E if you don't have the services to back it up - such as Intensive Care and Coronary Care. Who will be trying to stabilise patients prior to transfer for surgery etc?

Another point is that Doncaster do not have the capacity to take the patients that we care for so critically ill patients will be transferred further afield - you might as well turn the clock back 25 years to before Bassetlaw had these services. Even if Bassetlaw just does elective surgery things can and do go wrong so an ICU/HDU is essential in my opinion.

We also care for Maternity and Paediatric patients at times so that begs the question what will happen to those patients if all our acute services are cut? It has been stated the we care for a "relatively small" number of patients. Relative to what is what I would like to know? there seems to be a demand for the service as we always seem to be busy - in fact in an audit that took place earlier this year we were consistently understaffed for the patients we had - a fact that someone in management chose to ignore and said that we had filled in the audit wrong so it would be ignored!

One point I would like to make at this time is another way in which the Hospital Board have been a little devious. The Clinical Director for ICU/HDU is one person that has always said that whilst he was in the job Bassetlaw would always have an ICU/HDU.

He apparently is no longer in that post from the end of October! I don't know what the reason/excuse for the post to be re-interviewed was and I do believe he was the only one interviewed. I do not know why he was not re-instated(and I don't think he does) as he has done an excellent job both for Bassetlaw and Doncaster Critical Care Service. Makes you wonder doesn't it?

I truly believe that patients will die unnecessarily if these changes go ahead - a point I have been told that a member of the PCT deemed to be "acceptable". I certainly do not!

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I do not mind if you use any issues /comments raised in this e-mail in any way you see fit but would be grateful if you could keep my name out of it ( see paragraph 1) I will of course support the fight to save our services in any way I can.Please feel free to contact me if you wish.

Another constituent wrote to John Mann following his public meeting in October.

I was at the meeting tonight at Christ Church...

It was about the letter you read out from Dr Chapman, at the moment i am involved with the mortuary at Bassetlaw Hospital, because they are wanting out Porters to carry out the work that is currently being done by Band 5 staff, our Porters are only a Band 1.

I was at a meeting with the management and they told us that it was Dr. Chapman who withdrew his services at Bassetlaw, not as it states in the letter that they did. I asked you if i could have a copy of the letter, not for the purpose of showing them, but just to have the proof so that we can go in and deal with them so that our members and public keep their services.

We at the hospital ... have been told that they are not allowed to state that we are on 'red' meaning we have no beds, but at DRI they have it plastered on our intranet when they are, at Bassetlaw we have to open a Day Surgery unit and ' baby sit' the patients until they can get them to Doncaster!

Why did we have to go into 'partnership', takeover with Doncaster when it takes us into another area, we have always been in East Midlands, but now we come under South Yorkshire and Humberside, it has been a total disaster from day 1.

Staff have to go to work at Doncaster to work, who have always worked in Bassetlaw, thus meaning their day is longer...

This message was recieved from another constituent in October 2010.

I have just been passed a message from someone who works at Bassetlaw hospital who cannot be named for obvious reasons and they informed me that the next step is to turn ITU [Intensive Therapy/Care Unit] into an HDU [High Dependency Unit]. This would mean that no surgery could be carried out at Bassetlaw at all. I just thought you should know this and my contact will keep me up to date with what is heard

This corrospondence comes from a former employee at Bassetlaw Hospital.

I was talking to a colleague and they have been told they will know in December if the maternity unit is to become midwifery led.

Therefore it seems the decision is probably made.

This was expected when Gynaecological services were moved to Doncaster, as the consultants who cover Obstetrics also cover Gynae.

I think all this has come about as a result of the reduction in doctors hours, causing extra cost and difficulty recruiting. It now takes 3 doctors to cover 24hrs when it used to be done by 2.
You were right when you predicted lives could be lost.

 have enquired how patients who have a heart attack or a stroke can obtain the urgent drug treatment for the best outcome. I was informed paramedics can now give these.
Clever as they may be I don't think they will be able to deliver a baby by emergency Caesarean.

In emergency, it won't be possible to get a mother to theatre in the recommended time if she needs transfer.

I wonder if the management have counted the expense of the extra litigation from such cases. Obstetrics already costs enormous sums in compensation.

Any help we can give in resisting these changes?

I do feel it is probably too late unless some of the changes can be reversed, such as the Gynae servce move.

Despite my resistance to what seem to be the management plans, I am not against change as long as it is an improvement.

The staff at Bassetlaw were praised for the quality of care and proud to belong to a top performing trust.

It would be such a shame to throw the baby away with the bathwater.

John has recieved a large number of emails from constituents who do not work at the hospital but who are nevertheless concerned about it's future. This message is included here because it reflects private conversations John has also had with staff.

I dont know if you know this, but the bassetlaw hospital is on about closing all of the childrens wards which will include labour ward. my wife is pregnant and we cant afford for that to happen. they are going to move it to doncaster or anywhere but worksop. this info is from midwifes from the hospital. they need your help. please help them, they are scared for there jobs because they have morgages to pay and they cant afford to be traveling all over to keep there job.

John recently raised concerns about bullying in Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals, and has since recieved a number more emails supporting him for speaking out against this. Here is one example from a former employee:

I watched with avid interest the Look North programme shown 13/01/11. As an ex employee I can confirm there is a culture of bullying within the Doncaster & Bassetlaw NHS Trust. I worked at the Doncaster site for 15 years and witnessed many examples where employees were treated badly out of what I can only describe as sheer spite. I know of at least one case where a first-class engineer from the Bassetlaw site was 'made an example of' after raising safety concerns at the Doncaster site.

I won't mention any names at this stage but these people (managers) can be ruthless and I don't want a libel case on my hands!

Another example of support for John Mann speaking out against bullying:

well done for your stand on the intimidation issues at Doncaster and Bassetlaw hospital ...yes we as workers are affraid .the management needs changing you dont know the half of what they do ... thanks again.

Another email from a constituent who works at Bassetlaw Hospital:

I am a member of staff working a Bassetlaw who is becoming increasingly concerned about the way the hospital is run and its future... We feel so abandoned by the powers that be, none of the hospital management are listening to our concerns. It is reassuring to know that someone outside the hospital is fighting our corner.

... I apologise that I am doing this anonymously but I have seen staff recently who have been bullied and victimised after raising even small concerns, and we've recently had a notice warning us off contacting anyone outside the hospital (in particular, mentioning yourself!). To be honest, I would fear for my job if I raised these concerns internally, or externally.

I have seen members of nursing staff and doctors in tears on the wards because they are asked to cover work they simply cannot do, and they know it affects patient care. It breaks my heart to see such dedicated and caring members of staff put in positions where they feel they cannot provide the level of care the patients need...

I love Bassetlaw hospital. The staff are incredibly dedicated and friendly, the local people who use are services are wonderful...

I really, really hope something can be done. A lot of staff believe that Bassetlaw will close, and now things are getting so bad that staff are saying the only way to sort things out is to close.

Please feel free to use any quotes from my email.

Dr Jessica Sibson emailed John Mann about her experiences with Bassetlaw Hospital. Dr Sibson has kindly given permission for her comments to be made public.

Dear Mr Mann,

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I also note the comments about Bassetlaw maternity and children's services when I looked on the website. I had my first child in December at BDGH in the maternity unit and my son and I were readmitted to the paediatric ward for a few days. I had a great experience, and was impressed by the professional, all encompassing and holistic approach we received, I have been intending to write to the hospital about this since but have not yet had chance.

As a GP I have worked in many hospitals during my training and seen how teams operate in the NHS firsthand. I considered having my baby in Sheffield or Rotherham, but decided on staying with my local services here in Bassetlaw. I have to say that my experience as a patient could not have been better and even with insider knowledge as it were - I could not find fault at all.

Most of the staff caring for me were unaware that I was a GP. If I had had unlimited money to pay for my treatment I do not think it could have been improved and this shows how lucky we are to have the NHS and our local services here in Bassetlaw, certainly the level of support and thorough care we received was amongst the best I've seen delivered in any of the places I've worked in. It would be a huge loss to have these services cut and a significant move away from the individual supportive approach that maternity and child services are supposed to be moving at this time.

I will be writing to the Trust to highlight this and give my support for the continuation of these services in Bassetlaw.

If there is any other way I can show my support, I'd be very happy to help,

Regards

Dr Jessica Sibson

If any of these issues affect you, or if you want to raise other concerns about Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals, please get in touch.

Find out all the latest on John Mann's
Bassetlaw Hospital News Page.