Finance boss leaves University Hospital of North Staffordshire amid debt crisis

“As for the hospital Chief Ex pay its £130k plus £60k perks total £190k a year plus pension.
Not bad for failing to run the service on budget and failing to plan to have enough beds and staff.If you sack staff with experience and then pay out mega££££ for deaths eg the poor 8 year old girl who died.What do you expect!!!!
Poor management with not enough clinical staff and in simple easy words the hospital is too small under funded and badly managed like most PFI deals it will fail.
Paying a Band 8 for a carparking manager when you have not enough clinical staff shows what the management think is important.
Also giving Penalty charge notices to cancer patients is poor care and shows zero empathy.
Sadly nothing new.
The last annual reports said the Audit Commision gave a good report!!!!! what HOW AND WHY.
The trust is bust and can not get out of this mess unless a bail out occurs.
Time for new managers with the ability to manage not rocket science is it.”

“That is the big problem, no one knows who is responsible for what anymore,Bodies, Trusts and what other fancy names they have come up with. The truth is, within the names of change, we are having the wool pulled over our eyes of all the shortcomings that are prevalent. Why does anyone get fined? It can't be just a numbers game, if it is, somewhere along the system we are not going to get the care required. Because of ? BEDS. The very thing that they keep on cutting constantly, regarding of what Bodies, Trust, COUNCIL etc. They are all interlinked, all cogs within the system of care. If one of them make a decision to cut beds, it is not rocket science it will impact on the rest of the system. All the fines that they have been hit with, invest it in beds so they can move people on. It might ease the problem, but it won't cure it. THERE IS NO PLASTER BIG ENOUGH. We are looking at a bottomless pit regarding the ownership of buildings, bed cutting and the false concept of care in the community. We need a total rethink. with all the various groups working as one, and understanding the problems of needs. The first being, the council to , KEEP ST MICHAELS OPEN”

“I feel sorry for Mrs Bridgewater actually because this is an impossible situation for her and the Trust. The Primary Care Trust (or whoever they are now) were supposed to be treating more people in their homes and at community hospitals. This hasn't happened. The result being that more patients are being seen at UHNS, when in fact they should have been reducing beds and having less A&E activity. The commissioning groups, along with UHNS, should be facing the Department of Health and jointly resolving this problem, UHNS cant do it alone.

And Mrs Bridgewater salary is nowhere near £140k, and to be honest I wouldn't do her job for £1m because the situation is impossible to resolve unless primary and acute care services work together. If she cuts services she'll face criticism, if she cuts jobs she'll face criticism, if she closes A&E she'll face criticism, and she can only work with the budget she's given, she cant magic money from nothing. If she walked the hospital would be in a dire state, can any of you remember what is was like before she arrived? The place was a crumbling, dirty mess and standards of care were very low. The turnaround has been fantastic with the nursing care having improved beyond recognition especially in the specialities of cancer and maternity.

Lets just hope this article doesn't dishearten the good staff who work there and are all facing huge pressures. Keep up the good work.”

“This hospital faces a daily battle to safely care for the increasing number of patients turning up for treatment. Surely it is time for the abilities of the Clinical Commissioning Groups, formerly Primary Care Trusts, to be brought into question. This hospital is racking up a massive financial debt due to its attempts to care for patients by opening additional wards and paying for extra staff. The required community services which should have been developed have not materialised. Therefore patients are still being treated at the hospital. At the other end of the patient journey, there is once again failure to develop adequate services to discharge patients to free up beds. Does the focus actually need to be on primary care and its failure to deliver adequate community services to support the hospital. Good luck Mr Maddison. I hope the primary care colleagues in your new position deliver the requirements of a successful health economy.”

“watch this space!!!!!!!”

“Wonder what his Golden Goodbye cost us?”

“someone please tell me how does the chief exec keep her job, its said she gets £140,000 a year and nothing is ever her fault, the new hospital will be falling down before its ever paid for and as for bringing sodexo in to man manage the cleaning staff, porters & others what awaste thats turned out to be they are only acountable every 7 yrs,”

“All these buildings should have been funded by the government. get people back to work in this country. So the initial costs of these buildings would have been offset by keeping people in work,as why we should now be investing in our infrastructure . £50 million a year for a building they will never own. it beggars belief. Haywood hospital the same. rented buildings. with Sodexo running the show. There is only one outcome in all this. the collapse of the whole NHS . They are all profit making companies. the bottom line, money and profit. How will they achieve this? We the taxpayer will be held to ransom. no building no hospital. The reduction of staff they employ. which in turn leads to a reduction in the quality and care provided.which in turn leads to low morale within the staff, the downward spiral. The same ethos that exsists within the companies that the council tender out to, the so called care in the community. Its a sham. and we should fight for what services we have left. Be sure you will pay through the nose or it will eventually disappear.”

“Don't think you can blame one chap who inherited a financial mess; symptomatic of what this government inherited off the last one! Hope you labour voters from 2005 can sleep soundly in your beds”

“I hope the extra patients turning up are ready to apologise for being injured !”