Over 20 years ago I worked at a hospital where the then chief executive officer could be frequently spotted informally wandering around clinics and wards, stopping to chat with patients
and staff alike. Each year the staff ran a Christmas show with various people, including the CEO, dragged onto the stage to participate in a gentle comedy of shared laughter.
In contrast to this many UK hospitals have management centres, some of which are situated miles away from where healthcare is delivered. The physical separation of the managers and the
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managed causes disengagement and an understandable lack of shared understanding.
Removing managers from the coal face can also be seen in governments where data is examined and decisions are made, reports are commissioned, and then politicians move from one meeting to the next in order to inform decisions. While spreadsheets may facilitate the running of certain businesses I suggest that first-hand experience of problems grants the best insights.
I beg those who can effect meaningful change to step away from their office world of bureaucracy and truly bear witness to the current state of our NHS in Wales. Please turn up and ask to sit with a GP partner who starts work before 8am and locks up after midnight after writing that final prescription. Please sit in an Accident and Emergency department waiting room corner and witness how many days some wait for access to unscheduled healthcare.
Please shadow the on-call medical team and join the post-take ward round. Please serve tea on the ward and listen to the stories of those who are unable to leave hospital, with their worlds reduced to a bed and a neighbouring chair, listening to constant pings of monitor alarms.
Please experience for yourselves how efficiency savings have created inefficiency where healthcare can become so busy that it grinds to a halt like a rush-hour traffic jam. Come and walk a mile in our shoes.