Condition Red

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I am in my second year of my degree and at present looking into capacity issues within the Hospitals in the NHS. I have identified 3 main problem areas I believe are contributing to the service. These are, shortage of nurses, shortage of beds and finally catch 22 not enough money.
Andrew
Horfield, Bristol

Hurrah for Panorama! Highlighting the pressure we are under to provide a quality driven service to the public with the staff shortages, and frustrating lack of support from management... and all for a salary that rookie policeman start on !
Anon
Essex

I am sixty-eight and in good health, thanks to Maidstone Hospital, who repaired an aneurysm in my aorta two years ago. I did query with my doctor whether I was queue jumping as the operation was carried out within six weeks of diagnosis. The point I wish to make, having watched the ninety-year old lady on your recent programme, is that I personally would not want to take up precious NHS time when should I be fortunate enough to live beyond 80 +.
Denis Knowles
Maidstone

Great Programme. Would you be kind enough to reshow it on May the 2nd/3rd? Ideally on large screens outside polling stations.
Dennis (Cynical Medical Student)
London

The Management at St. Peter's should be applauded for giving facilities to Panorama. Equally the Panorama team is to be congratulated for taking the opportunity to produce such an excellent programme highlighting as it did some of the more pressing problems faced by the people with the responsibility for coping with our health problems. It is unfortunate that due to scheduling, an excellent opportunity has been missed to enlighten the public at large of the problems faced on a daily basis by NHS staff. Such knowledge might eliminate some of the abuse suffered by staff doing their level best to cope with problems over which they have little or no control.
Anon
Portsmouth

During the last Conservative Government, Care in the Community was brought in, most of the 'Geriatric Hospitals' were closed and these hospitals and grounds were sold off. This plus the inadequate funding to social services to pay for privately run nursing homes with high charges would account for the bed shortages and bed blocking. During the same period many highly qualified nurses were given early retirement after the white paper on the health service was implemented. The numbers being recruited for nurse training were allowed to fall, all of which added to the nurse shortage we now see. These factors combine to give the severe problems the heath service now faces and this government will need to re-establish some of the smaller, geriatric/ rehabilitation hospitals again.
Linda Teasdale
Doncaster

I found the programme enlightening. In my opinion the last government introduced a whole tranche of managers, including PR managers and an internal market with its inherent inequalities, from which the NHS is still recovering. Blame the Conservatives, I say.
Roger Selwyn
Hemel Hempstead

After watching your programme, I am left with strongly cynical perceptions about the admission of a friend to St Peter's Hospital last Tuesday with what seemed to us lay people, as clear evidence of appendicitis. It took the medical team until Friday to manage an "exploratory" operation - only to discover a burst appendix with an abscess --- did the delay in diagnosis assist the recording of an acceptable time difference between diagnosis and treatment --- all at the serious risk to her life but to the protection of the hospital's government imposed targets?
Linda Tame
Shepperton

Thank you for showing it just how it is, I get completely demoralised having to answer complaints about trolley waits, something that is out of my control. It is strange that to the best of my knowledge no MP has ever suffered this indignity!!
Anon

I nurse at a rural district hospital in north Wales. We closed a twenty eight bedded surgical ward after xmas due to nurse shortages. It will shortly be reopened because we have recently employed seventeen nurses from abroad. We have been unable to meet government targets due to surgical cancellations. No nurses, no beds. At the end of last week an operation for a thirty six year old patient with throat, neck cancer was cancelled and rescheduled with a two week wait because we had no ITU beds. How fearful must that person be? Doctors and nurses are fearful for the future of the N.H.S. Please do as much as you can to inform the general public. We need the publicity to help us hopefully reverse the decline
Carol
Colwyn

I thought it was a very skilful programme that managed to get across the suffering caused by bed shortages without being mawkish. In my hospital we have exactly the same problem of shortage of beds particularly in medicine which means that medical patients clog up surgical wards and prevent surgeons from doing their job i.e. operating. Like St Peter's, our problem is compounded by lack of run off by Social Services who work at a different speed (in order to save £££). Thank goodness we do not have the problem of agency nurses which must really affect morale and team-building - and the budget. Well done.
Charles Fox
Northampton

Why do our politicians not learn from the success of other countries. In particular Germany, their health system is so good that they are offering their spare capacity to anyone who wants it. Perhaps our leaders will not admit that they are more interested in political dogma than the health and welfare of the population. Maybe instead of employing foreign nurses we should be employing someone from abroad who knows how to run a successful health service.
Donald Gilbert
Mablethorpe

I feel helpless, frustrated and extremely angry. My father was taken into hospital last October. He is still there - blocking a hospital bed because we have been unable to find him a nursing home place. The situation is a nightmare - thank you for highlighting this problem in your programme. Admittedly I am trying to move my father from Bristol to Reading, but the situation in Bristol is just as dire - the hospital is blocked with elderly people waiting to be discharged to nursing homes which do not exist. Some of these poor people have no relatives to support them and must feel completely abandoned. This situation cannot continue. We need more places for the elderly where they can feel safe and secure at the end of their life. Of course we need more funding from the social services - many homes have closed because they cannot survive with the little money that the DHSS offers. How can we make the government do something about this dreadful situation? It is inhuman to treat people in this way.
Jackie Dulewicz
Henley-on-Thames

My daughter, a recently qualified nurse in our local Health Authority, is unable to obtain a mortgage as the only contracts that the Health Trust will issue are temporary ones. Despite the fact that Bank Nurses are used so frequently, Herefordshire Health Trust insist that they do not have the funding to give her job security. No wonder moral is low and recruitment so difficult!
Liz Sykes
Hereford

I tuned into this programme because I too am very concerned about the parlous state of our NHS. Unfortunately this was a programme about the problems of hospitals, which although they are often at crisis point, ignores what goes on in the rest of the NHS. Primary Care (GP's and other community professionals) look after 90% of the care in the NHS. Secondary care (hospitals) look after only a small, though clearly vitally important part. The solution to the problems of the NHS is not simply about pouring more money into hospitals. We need to invest in staff and infrastructure in primary care to ensure that only those patients who really need high tech hospital care are admitted there, and those who are medically fit can be discharged back into the community. This of course places an increasingly large burden on community staff. I was disappointed that the programme yet again concentrated only on the high profile "trolley wait" type stories without exploring a little more deeply the problems with the other 90% of our service.
Dr J Courtney
Holywood

I am so disillusioned by the labour policy over the past 4 years to ignore the mounting problems in the NHS dispute warnings from everyone directly concerned, while raising public expectation. This means that my surgery is full of people complaining about long waiting times and asking me to sort them out. They all have legitimate claims to urgent treatment. The NHS is already coming apart at the seams and I for one never support it. I think seriously about moving to Australia or the USA. If I am then so are many others. How much longer before a political party campaigns honestly on a policy of funding the NHS properly or moving to a private system. The public is ready to understand this need and the cost of it.
Dr R S Beardless
Manchester

I am a MA E-Business student and currently studying the NHS from the prospective of electronic services and information. Having just watched the 'Condition Red' programme, I wondered if a national website providing information about the availability of beds in hospitals and nursing homes might be a good idea. Also could not the NHS return to the old social services & NHS funding agreements that used to exist. These appeared to offer some form of onward services. Strikes me that a good supply chain management process might help along with a lot more electronic information regarding the status of the nations medical resources. Failing that why not just give up and adopt the model as mentiond on the programme by a lovely young nurse who was going to work in USA. Money is only half the problem the other half is just lack of structure, information, and national organisation. No private company could exist operating as the NHS does, both my wife and myself have worked for the NHS. It has never a very enjoyable undertaking at the best of times.
Jonathan Spooner
Great Dunmow

If the money paid on extortionate agency fees was channelled into recruitment and retention of full time staff, patients would receive the continuity of care they deserve. It is another act by this Machiavellian government that gives differing pay rises to different grades of nurses. I spend part of my day asking GP's if their acutely ill patients are able to wait at home until I have a bed available for them. My staff and I live in dread and fear that somebody is going to die before we have a bed for them in the hospital.
Jayne Rolfe
Lincoln

I went in to St Peters for a hysterectomy nearly 2 years ago. After all the telephone 'will there/won't there be a bed' I was admitted. After the pre med I was sent home. I decided to pay for the treatment (as my family are young and the organisation involved in arranging childcare post op had been immense). I wrote a letter of complaint and because St Peters could not honour the "patients charter" regarding the date of their next attempt, they practically paid for the operation. This amazed me. I feel that the government must address the problem because if they put the "correct" amount in then there would be so much less money wasted on "crisis" management of funds.
Sue
Woking

My husband and I are nurses within the NHS. This programme highlighted many of the problems which we face everyday. I am on the point of leaving the NHS as I don't want to be part of this intolerable situation. The whole thing has a ripple effect from which so many people are affected. My husband, despite being both adult and paediatric trained is also seeking alternative employment as he currently has to work extra agency shifts on his days off in order to support our family. Lack of support, low morale, high stress and a salary which doesn't compare to the police force, for example, makes this profession too much of a burden. I feel very sad, as I have enjoyed caring for patients but I feel more than compromised in the care that I'm able to deliver due to the ever increasing demands.
Carl and Gillian Laidlow
Bristol

I currently work in an NHS hospital in the north west. I totally sympathise with the nursing staff on the programme. I help train student nurses for the future NHS, only to see them disillusioned with the system once qualified and generally overwhelmed by the pressures placed on them as newly qualified staff nurses. We don't have "winter pressures" any more they are year round pressures. I have been qualified since the early eighties and I have never seen it so bad, I don't blame this government totally, I believe it has been years of under investment in the service which has lead to this crisis, and I do mean crisis. I would ask this government to put their money where their mouth is and give the staff and the NHS the financial investment that is needed. I think the future is very gloomy,we are going to lose many more experienced staff if we continue to put them under the pressures that you have seen on the programme tonight. An excellent programme now very true I just pray it will make a difference, lets hope so!
Wendy Johnson
Northwich

It is downright unfair to state that agency nurses get paid more than an NHS staff nurses. Taking an NHS staff nurse's TOTAL employment package into account and comparing this with the agency nurse's (effectively) SELF-EMPLOYED status, the NHS staff nurse is way ahead of the agency nurse. I have nothing at all to do with any health service but agency staff generally do not cost more than employed staff - often not as much overall. But perhaps you wanted to show the worst possible bias?
Dennis Scott
Poole

Why was no blame for the present situation placed firmly on the previous Tory run it down and privatisation philosophy. It takes at least 4 years to recruit and train staff, all shortages are down to the under investment by the previous administation . In 1997 France now considered No 1 health servive invested 9.8% gdp on health the UK invested only 5.8% France had 8.5 beds per 1,000 pop. UK had 4.3 beds.France had 3 doctors per 1,000, the UK had 1.7. The NHS plan will need time after all it is a 10 year plan.
Fred Marsden
Formby

Enjoyed the Panorama programme, an open view of the real problems in the NHS; which this current government tries to hide. More programmes like this please!!
Mr Clifton
Surrey

I looked forward to Sundays programme, what your report showed me worried me greatly. As a man of 58 years suffering from lung disease after years of working in industry now too ill to work. Hardly a day goes by without me having to rely on drugs and my own device's to enjoy some quality of life. Its a frightening thought that some day I will have to be taken to hospital and the facilities needed to save my life will not be available. Your programme only reinforced the views held by my wife and son based on our own experiences at our local hospital in that the NHS is on its knees and a radical overhaul & yet larger injections of cash are needed if it is to serve the public as it should. I have waited 8 months now for an appointment to the lung clinic.
Mr Geoff Harper
near Peterlee

Last night's programme reflected what is happening throughout the NHS. Whilst managers are busy playing the "numbers game" they are driving experienced staff into the ground. There will always be a lack of staff - particularly in areas such as A&E and Theatres - because managers do not look after the experienced staff, so they leave at the earliest possible opportunity and the new recruits cannot or will not take the strain that is placed on them. We are not doing thirteen hour shifts now - we have reached eighteen hours - would you like to put your trust in a nurse that is at the end of that shift? I wouldn't. I have voiced my fears to management, but they will not listen - there will be a disaster before changes occur.
Mrs. Margaret Nixon
Rossendale

The usual high quality balanced investigation BUT no sign of follow-up into the money system itself. If the infrastructure is there, the skilled labour is there or can be taught, then there is no reason to be short of money. Money is a human invention, and any shortage of it is the result of banking policy, while the failure to rectify this is the result of government being captive to banks.
Kevin Donnelly
Manchester

Sadly the programme last night was all too familiar. I too was an accident and Emergency Sister who felt on a daily basis my professional integrity was at stake. Regrettably after much soul searching I resigned from a job that I loved. I now work in an NHS led telephone advice centre, surrounded by highly qualified A&E, intensive care and experienced nurses from other disciplines that would have remained in post had the situation in their former places of work not been allowed to deteriorate to these levels.
Ex A & E
South of England

The truth is that Labour has been a total disaster for the NHS. I never thought for one minute that I would be contemplating leaving the NHS/UK to work overseas, but Alan Milburn & Co have changed that. Aside from working 80-100 hours per week for 12 years as a junior doctor - for peanuts - now the government wants to blame bed & nursing shortages on consultants' doing a few hours of private practice. No evidence of that on Panorama! Mr Milburn - in 2003 - I will be a newly qualified Consultant Surgeon - looking for a job overseas! Goodbye!
Tom Pearson
London

Superb programme. Shows NHS failing to provide even basic standards of care, let alone improved services. In America the patient with the kidney tumour would have sued the organisation for such bad treatment. When doctors and nurses are working under this level of stress there is a huge risk of mistakes. Good news for negligence lawyers. Bad news for everyone else. When patients are reduced to snags to be shifted around the building, rather than treated as people there is a fundamental problem in the organisation. Thank you for graphically illustrating this problem.
Dr Peter Davies
East Kilbride

I was appalled and alarmed at the conditions of my local hospital. This was like watching something from a third world country! The government should be pulling out all the stops to get NHS back up and running and nurses doing the jobs they were trained to do. It should be recognised that hospitals are in a crisis and that charity begins at home (England).
Mrs Tina De Netto
Addlestone

I used to be a student nurse at Surrey Uni. This is one of the trusts I could have worked for. Until they make the course more practical they will not resolve the nursing shortages. I loved nursing, but the course was useless. I have never felt so helpless, when I was left on the ward. I didn't even know how to bedbath and I was in my second year!! They really need to look at the course, if they change it, the problems would be sold. There was a sixty percent drop-out rate in my intake alone!!
Sacha-marie Dobrin
Essex

I returned to NHS work 3 years ago as a Staff Nurse for the NHS Trust featured in your report, I had well over 20 years experience as a Registered Nurse including 7 years of managing an Elderly Care Unit in the community. I resigned last year and do not intend to work for the NHS again, why? The disgracefully poor standards of patient care, some of which would be classed as abuse, the culture of bullying (reported recently) when trying to raise my concerns (a legal requirement of my nursing registration with the UKCC) and the sweeping under the carpet. The closing of the Ashford Hospital A & E department and closing many beds including ITU, despite massive local opposition would of course exacerbate the problems at St Peters and the local community. The abuse and violence directed towards health care workers and lack of seriousness by Magistrates is disgraceful, last week a man who physically attacked 3 NHS staff at Ashford Hospital was sentenced to 1 years probation and £75 damages this attitude has got to change. If you want Nurses and other professionals to stay in the NHS they need to be treated with some degree of respect, decent pay would be good to.
Tony Ross
Egham

I write as a G grade nurse near to breaking point. I have over 50% trained nurse vacancies on my ward and am finding it impossible to recruit to the south east where properties price push nurses out of the market. Unlike St Peter's my trust are refusing to even consider closing beds at present, perhaps they will when the unthinkable happens? I salute St Peter's for the honesty they have shown by appearing in the programme and its great to know I am not alone.
Frustrated nurse

The St Peter's programme was excellent. A true reflection of everyday life in the NHS acute sector.
Bob Handley
Oxford

What a sad but so true look at the failing NHS. I have been qualified 18 months as a staff nurse and already am feeling that every shift is becoming more stressful and less rewarding. I came into nursing for many obvious reasons however feel that I simply can't carry out even basic care anymore due to bedding and staffing crisis. I feel your programme showed the NHS for what it really is. I just hope viewers who watched did not think that particular hospital was in the minority, we have exactly the same problems in the North of England! When is someone going to take notice and offer sensible solutions??
Sarah Dollin
Newcastle

Thanks for the reality, the truth. It's tragic to see lottery cash expended giving healthy individuals the millionaire life style, while much needed medical facilities are closed and life placed and risk. We seem to know the cost of everything, yet the value of nothing. Thanks again
John Newton
Maidenhead

Having just got home exhausted from yet another busy weekend working unsociable shifts as a staff nurse in Intensive Care I found your Panorama programme, showing all too familiar problems, refreshing and accurate. As one of numerous experienced Critical Care nurses reluctantly considering leaving the NHS for many of the reasons highlighted by the programme and other forum commentators I was pleased to see such matter of fact reporting. Especially as it was about a hospital many of my family use regularly! I live and work in the North West where the poor wages go further and would find it virtually impossible to return to Surrey due to the cost of living and yet identical wages to those I earn here! I don't know how nurses cope on them there, it can be tough enough up here!!
Leo
Stoke on Trent

Nice to see a true reflection of life in our hospitals - both good and bad. It would have been good if the producers also showed how much of A&E is filled with inappropiate patients, i.e. those who should not be wasting the time of the A&E staff with minor complaints that can be treated at say their local GP's!
C Gorman
London

I am glad that this programme has been shown because we in the medical profession have been saying this for a long time. As a doctor in the NHS, I go to work knowing what dreadful problems we will face, which really have nothing to do with medicine. The real reward for us is a 'Thank You'.
Philip Korsah
Kilmarnock

What a captivating report from the very front line of the NHS. The programme showed viewers the many problems and impossible demands placed upon doctors and nurses. There is more money going in to the NHS, but the ever increasing flow of patients, with in many cases life and death conditions, will soon absorb the extra money. With the problems that the hospital trust has, shown in your film, I do not think there will ever be enough money for our NHS. We as a nation should be full of praise for all of our doctors and nurses, who do a great job under very difficult, and at times stressful conditions.
Steve Fuller
Brighton & Hove

It has been disappointing watching your programme. At no time has been shown how the increasing number of patients, expectations and medico-legal pressure affect the working conditions of doctors, particularly trainees. You gave the impression that all the medical work (with the exception of surgical procedures) was done by nursing staff.
Dr. C. Diaz-Navarro
Cardiff

Bring back the "waged" student nurses. This would solve staffing problems and encourage more people into Nursing. Although not able to do all that trained nurse are able, at least they are able to help. My daughter's greatest wish is to Nurse, and she is training to do this. Unfortunately not in the NHS. You've lost another nurse there Tony!
Emma
Newcastle

A very honest and forthright programme. I was impressed with the Consultant urologist who spoke out and his analogy with the animal rights movement. He should be made secretary of state for health tomorrow. Scenes that are seen in every A & E Dept. every day of the week. The situation in A & E has gone from bad to intolerable in the last 2 or 3 years. This government are obsessed with waiting lists and don't give a stuff for the acute emergencies many of the elderly who have paid their taxes to incept the NHS and deserve better. It does not equate with a civilised society.
Danny McGeehan
Newcastle under Lyme

We have only ourselves to blame as a bargain basement society stamping our feet at the prospect of really only getting what we have been willing to pay for. We are consumerists, our god is Tesco, we pray only for pay rises, and, crucially, vote only for the party of the lowest cost public service provision. I hope nobody will have the hypocrisy to blame politicians who can only obtain power by proposing policies which we are willing to vote for. We have only ourselves to blame, and a more honest Panorama programme would have the courage to tell us so.
Nigel Armitstead
Yeovil

I am an Australian registered nurse who has recently done a "return to nursing" course after running a residential care home in Australia. It has been very challenging rejoining the acute sector. There is extra pressure on nurses from changed expectations of the role; e.g. checking on investigations & reminding doctors when results require action. Ideally this makes the job more interesting but unfortunately there is often no time for updating badly designed unwieldy care plans, let alone to do hands on work. As I have been working as an agency nurse while awaiting a permanent position in a local hospital, I am not surprised that you have trouble filling vacancies. I do not get paid much more than non agency staff, nor do I get sick leave or holiday leave. I am paid at the lowest grade and I suspect that a large part of your additional costs comes from agency fees & the fact that nurses are taking more sick leave as a result of the pressures of understaffed conditions. Improving nurses pay and funding residential or nursing home care are both necessary measures.
Judy Kay
Malmesbury

The state of the NHS is appalling and this government has done v. little to help it since they came into power, despite what Stephen Fash says. Crawley Hospital is one such hospital in a crisis state - with A&E and maternity cases being referred now to the East Surrey Hospital - out of county! Suicidal move for north Sussex, especially as we have an edict from the government to provide some 2,000 + more houses in Sussex. This idea of providing "Centres of Excellence" is an utter farce and should be stopped - it just looks like they are pooling their resources to help their sums - not helping the public. East Surrey Hospital is already struggling to cope with their own patient load, let alone add West Sussex to their list. Coupled with the fact that we have one of the busiest airports in the world in Crawley - money should be invested into the area and not taken away. I just wonder what would happen if all of us who pay large sums of money per year to have the privilege of private health care, were to suddenly decide to pull the plug and return back into the NHS system! It doesn't bear thinking about. Good healthcare still looks extremely bleak for the public in this country - and this is not the fault of the nursing staff.
Hazel McNeile
Horsham

If the NHS paid their staff a proper rate of pay, there wouldn't be any Agency nurses.
Ron Evans
Liverpool

I have worked as a GP & in hospital (inc. A&E) for nearly 25 years. Despite the heroic efforts of all concerned, the service in many respects has never been worse. There is a year round bed crisis; when I try to admit seriously ill patients to hospital, I am frequently told that there is no bed, and they will phone the patient when there is one. This is for emergencies! We have had to import 25 Spanish nurses because we cannot recruit locally. I could go on & on. Sadly, your excellent programme showed that nothing had changed since you covered this subject 2 years ago. We have had 4 years of lies & spin from the Government. Unless they get a grip, I sincerely hope the public will use the ballot box to choose someone who will.
Dr Robin Jackson
Lancaster

What a brilliantly honest programme! I applaud every member of staff for their continuing care and compassion in the face of such utter chaos. I qualified with a 2.1 degree in nursing 6 months ago, and already I have left my first post as I am so disillusioned and disheartened. The Govt has proposed plans which improve patient care, staff education, and morale but these need to pass beyond senior management, and junior staff need to be given greater support. Personally I see no reason to stay in the NHS. As a graduate I have skills which are desirable, and for which I will be reward financially, and hopefully be given respect, so I am not verbally or physically abused. (I might also be able to afford my student and graduate loan repayments, a mortgage, a car, and a life!)
Miss J Brown
Nottingham

An excellent programme. A very thorough and thought provoking piece of work. Why haven't successive Governments increased our National Insurance contributions to deal with this situation long before this? Instead of increasing indirect taxation when no-one then knows where our money is being spent. My wife and I are in our late 50's and the future is very bleak. Please keep us informed by other programmes like this. Thank you.
Mr. Alex G.M. Smith
Wishaw, North Lanarkshire

Congratulations on being brave enough to show the reality of the NHS and the constant pressure on staff. As usual no mention was made of rehabilitation and its potential to speed up discharge and improve patient outcome, particularly for older people. The programme did not adequately focus on the role of timely discharge planning and the need for adequately resourced and developed community services (to provide ongoing rehabilitation and support). There is a crisis in the recruitment and retention of rehabilitation staff (occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech therapists). It would have been interesting to know what the vacancy rate for these professions was at St Peters Hospital, and what impact this had on the 'bed blocking'. The impact of an under rehabilitated ageing population on the NHS and social services has yet to be explored by programmes such as Panorama.
Anon
Halifax

This programme was showing just the tip of the NHS crisis iceberg, when will government learn that agency nursing is very expensive just as having contractors doing other jobs in hospitals i.e. cleaning, portering etc. I know because I have spent twenty eight years working in hospitals. In house is better you get to know who is who not some nameless contractor here today gone tomorrow. The only way this will be achieved is to pay the health service staff a proper wage, not just nurses & doctors BUT EVERYONE.
T Vale
Bicester Oxon

How does the NHS reconcile its policy of recruiting agency staff to perform duties similar to waged NHS staff on rates of pay that exceed the rates of pay being offered to its employees? The practice is not only unjust and a root cause of dissatisfaction but by applying the principles of supply and demand, economically unsound. Surely to attract new and retain the existing staff NHS pay scales should be equalised with Agency rates? I'm not xenophobic but recruiting Phillipinos with a doubtful command of English is not the answer particularly when you consider the impact that their loss has on their country's health system!
Kadnad
London

A very big thank you to Mr Harvey-Hills for taking part in this programme and speaking out so frankly. If more consultants had made their views public over the years perhaps the NHS would not be in its present sad state.
Norma
Weybridge

If I offer the Night Sister on the show tonight a 50% salary increase and another two week's paid holiday to leave the NHS and work for my Agency she probably will leave. Then I will contact the NHS Hospital she used to work for and tell them I believe they require a Nurse to cover the night shift slot. I will charge 150% more than the Hospital were paying her last week, but what can they do? What will they do? They will accept because they have no option. This scenario is also causing Nursing Homes throughout UK to close because they too have no option. Why does this Government stand by and allow this to cripple the Nation's Health Services. They have the power to revoke the licences of all Nursing agencies. This will create thousands of unemployed Trained Nurses looking for a job back in the NHS and put the NHS back on track and back on budget with a team of regular Nurses providing continuity to the vulnerable patients.
Ben Brodie
Prestwick

As a nurse I am worried about the time I spend with patients. Complaints usually arise when enough time has not been given to either a patient's or relative's needs. This problem comes from poor staffing levels, the causes of which can be put down to, changes in management (cost driven), increased needs (changing expectations and procedures), reduced time on the wards of student nurses, the need for continuing education (work and own time), covering holidays and sick leave, expanding the nurse role (medical and secretarial tasks). I could go on and on but my depression score is increasing rapidly.
Berris Jones
Leek

The most damning, hard hitting and factual Panorama I have seen, excellent reporting! My wife and I both work in the public sector and were truly appalled at the state of one of our 'flagship' state services - the NHS. I expect every politician will either be attempting to defend the current position of the situation, or slating the 'opposition' with empty political rhetoric. The fact remains, that the truth of such situations is all too often glossed over with politically acceptable massaging of figures and manipulative terminology. It was refreshing to note the mooted honesty expressed by the hospital staff. If only individuals were not in constant fear of career limitation by the use of 'free speech' we may have seen a greater impact from your programme. A lesson for ALL politicians!
David Arnold
Reading

Congratulations on an excellent and essential exposure of this. My wife and I have just managed to sell a 50 bed nursing home (almost gave it away). We could not continue with the chaos. In 10 years wage rates have more than doubled whilst fees are up by 28%. Effectively fees have halved compared to wages. Consequently the people who should be convalescing in care homes are blocking beds at 5 to 10 times the cost of a care home bed. We know hospital doctors who are having to work 14 days at a time without a day off, 12 hour shifts. Often they do not have back up or resources. With so many agency nurses in the wards the Doctors have additional work doing tasks that would be done by NHS nurses. Do you realise care homes normally look after 500,000 people whilst the entire NHS has only 100,000 beds. Now 2 out of 3 NHS beds are occupied inappropriately (Milburn last year). Meanwhile 40% of community care funding is spent (wasted) on administration by soc services - BBC You and Yours last month.
George Burnham, Care Professionals Ltd
Chesterfield

Good programme. Shame it's not on when most of the public it will affect can see it i.e. 8 pm on a Monday. My 88 year old mother was a bed blocker in Princess Margaret's hospital, Swindon for five months. The nursing was abominable - she had her hair washed twice & when a bed was found in a local nursing home due to pressure on her MP, they sent her out with no knickers. How demeaning is that!
Sue Pethybridge
Tetbury

I work at St. Peters as a senior staff nurse. Thank you for your responsible reporting and showing the dedication and the angst felt by my colleagues. Every day we strive to provide the care we know our patients deserve and we would hope for ourselves and our families. Life in the NHS is not easy, conditions for staff play as an important role as pay in the struggle to recruit the nurses and doctors we desperately need in order to provide a service we can be proud of. I haven't felt pride in my working day for quite a while, I still hope to have that feeling again. The NHS is too big for politics and the media to play with. You managed to effectively portray the daily struggle to maintain a quality service. It could have easily been "hospital stories from hell part 2". Thank you.
Kelvin Green
Chertsey

I think that tonight's Panorama programme showed what a marvellous job the NHS is doing in spite of all the increased demands on it. It was a nice try at another hatchet job on the NHS, better luck next time.
Gerald Driver
Halifax

The NHS plan promises 20,000 more nurses - this may fill the current vacancies but does not take into account the increasing workload and demand made on nursing staff. Why do we have to rely on agency staff to keep the wards running? If the NHS paid the same rates as the agencies, more nurses could commit to a permanent position and provide a stable workforce. As the nursing staff take on more of the tasks previously performed by doctors, who is looking after the patients basic needs?
Anonymous
Middlesbrough

I would like to commend the programme on a fairly accurate presentation of the present disaster in the NHS. I think the problem is far worse. The bed closures and lack of nursing staff having been highlighted in the programme. The effect of this is that the junior doctor is expected to cope with the result. The perception that doctors chose this profession and are well paid hence should cope is very wrong. The morale is very low and many are obviously not coping. I can only say that the demand far outstretches the resources. I have no solutions for there are none other than simple equation. Satisfaction is achieved when resources meet demand. As for the new NHS plan I guess only time will tell. Time which the patients waiting for their life saving procedures don't have.
Dr A Ahmed
Portsmouth

I've just watched the programme and think the staff are absolutely wonderful; it's the lack of money in the system that's the problem. I hope the ridiculously rich people in our society were watching it and felt compelled to donate a bit of cash to help out. What's a few million to them?!
Anna Langleben
Manchester

THANK-YOU! At last the truth about the scandal of bed crisis in the N.H.S has been shown in it's harsh light. I am an Accident and Emergency nurse who is exhausted, trying to care safely for patients who should have gone to wards hours before the beginning of my shift. The scandal of putting these patients onto hospital beds so as to, "stop the clock", has angered all the staff with whom I work. The patients still have to wait in a noisy, busy, hostile environment, where their nursing care is barely safe. As was pointed out, this would never happen to animals, yet we let it happen to our relatives every day. Lets hope this programme makes the wheels turn a little faster. Thank you Panorama for letting my voice be heard.
Catherine Jackson
London

I was made redundant in June 98. As I was 50+ I received a pension. Now I cannot work for the NHS without losing part of the pension I receive. Therefore I have to work in the private sector. I am a registered general nurse with lots of hospital experience.
K.J. Dinjar
Melksham

Thank you very much for an excellent programme. Thank you also for drawing attention to Health Care during the foot and mouth crisis. I work extremely hard in the NHS and as you correctly reported the situation is very similar around the country. I work in Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow and these are some of our statistics. 24% Nursing vacancy. £4.8 Million overspend. 'Red' bed status for all but about 5 days so far this year. Our A+E holds the record for the longest A+E of 72 hours. My only criticism would be that you didn't make the political point a bit more strongly. As I said thank you for drawing attention to these very important issues.
Jeremy Weldon
Harrow

After having spent a week in Northwick Park hospital with an unknown intestinal infection, it was very clear the amount of stress that the NHS and it's long suffering staff are under. No wonder many of its caring and professional staff are leaving to work abroad. My personal opinion is that successive Conservative and Labour governments have ignored the warning signs that doctors have been trying to get across until they are blue in the face. It is high time that those in power received a very LARGE dose of reality! Another eye opening programme. Well done.
Matthew Bliss
Pinner

A question that should and could be developed more is the use of agency nurses. Despite the government rhetoric the NHS is still an inflexible employer. Pay, working conditions and professional development opportunities still appear to rate low in the list of Trust / government priorities. If staff genuinely felt valued, were paid a salary that reflected their job, had flexible working conditions and were offered time (other than their own) to develop professionally then the need to work for agencies would not exist. The NHS would have the benefit of a stable workforce which would provide continuity of care to patients as well as supportive environments for newly qualified, back to nursing and overseas recruits. The wish list is no more than that offered to many other public servants and certainly no more than the vast majority of private employers offer a professional workforce which is in short supply.
Liam Williams

Thank you for drawing attention to the overall plight of the medical staff in the NHS. However, the support areas are equally understaffed and underpaid. As an accountant qualified over 20 years I am paid less than a newly qualified accountant in the private sector. My wife, an experienced medical secretary earns less than many office juniors in the City. There is a belief among senior managers that if you choose to work in the NHS you do not want a reasonable wage because you have chosen to 'altruistically' work for less than the 'going rate'!
Robert House
Maidstone

Having worked as an E grade staff nurse at The Royal Surrey in Guildford where the situation in A&E is at a similar, if not a worse level than at St Peters, I became so frustrated with the NHS. Now having moved to Colchester to work for an agency and earn around £3 an hour more and suffer minimal stress. Please re broadcast your programme at peak time, the public have such high expectations and deserve to know why we as health care professionals are unable to deliver care at the level that they expect and deserve.
Jen Reehal
Colchester

Just wanted to thank you for a first rate programme. Shame on the BBC for its scheduling. It should have been peak viewing. Let's hope the government is shamed into action as a result. Much more cash is needed. They are lucky to have such dedicated nurses and doctors who keep the system afloat. (And, no, I don't work in the NHS - I can't imagine how anyone does.) Thanks again.
Jill Fenner
London

About time that the problems of the NHS are correctly documented on. Bring back the old Nursing Training. Pre project 2000. Not only will it encourage more students, there will be more people in the hospitals and wards, there for the patients. I am a student Nurse who has turned to the Forces for her training. This grieves me greatly but I simply cannot afford to train as part of the NHS's project 2000.
Annaliese Slater
Bebington

St. Peters is my local hospital. I was interested to note that no mention was made of the closure of the A&E Dept at Ashford Hospital, thus directing all such cases to St Peters. This has obviously had a very serious effect on the running of this Dept, this closure was carried out in spite of thousands of people signing petitions in the area.
Chris Bennett
Egham

I am a Pharmacist working for an NHS Trust. As a profession vacancy rates nationally exceed nursing at 20%+. The Government has still to settle the April 2000 pay award and the 2001 is yet to be discussed. Nearly all clinical departments have some Pharmacy input and much of it runs on goodwill these days. However that goodwill can only bear the strain so long. The facts in your programme I see every day. If I were single and without children I think I would emigrate as well.
Renfrey Pearson
Chandlers Ford

Your programme made no mention of the reason for the shortage of nursing staff, namely the poor pay in the NHS. It seems ludicrous to me that the NHS are prepared to pay agency rates for nurses but are unwilling to pay decent salaries for permanent staff. This also applies to other staff in the NHS. I am a medical secretary and am unable to live on the pay I receive. We are all being complimented by our politicians on our dedication but we would like to their appreciation reflected in our salaries. None of the alleged extra millions being invested in the NHS are being investigated in realistic salaries for the hard-pressed staff.
Judi Green
Stevenage

Things have been bad with staffing levels for some time but in the last few weeks have become absolutely dire. At times there have been just two qualified nurses for 25 acute newly admitted patients, on one occasion just one qualified nurse was on duty for several hours before another started a shift. We have trouble finding enough equipment to continue treatment started in A&E. Staff are working double shifts without adequate rest breaks. I and many of my colleagues feel that there is nowhere left to turn now, there are no more staff available to plug the gaps. We feel that we are a sitting duck waiting to be blown out of the water by a major incident caused by poor staffing, over-work and stress and it seems that only then will someone sit up and take notice, when it is too late.
Melissa Ambery
Cheltenham

Thanks for the excellent programme. Watching it, however, I was surprised that there was no mention of the fact that only a short time ago we were training nurses that would be unable to get a job in this country. Our local teaching hospitals were graduating whole intakes of student nurses into unemployment - large numbers of whom left to work overseas giving no return to the tax payer and no benefit to our patients. Now we have the situation where we are having to import nurses to maintain a meagre 70% staffing level. This is a disgrace and reinforces my view that our politicians have been pretty useless for the last three decades.
Brian P.E. Batt
Leeds

As nurses, we are taking on greater roles then ever before. The pressure is immense. As I work in an acute neuro high dependency unit, where people are extremely ill and often unstable, it is not over dramatising to state that at (frequent) times, my patients lives are in my hands. Yet the pay does not reflect this. Whilst I realise that this Government has done more in the last 4 years for nurses than the Tories ever did in 18 years, pay is one of the main issues. One of the measures that this Government could possibly do, is to increase nurses pay in certain speciality areas that require specialist/acute nurses. Eg: those who work in critical care; such as A&E, ICU, HDU and other specialities.
Staff Nurse
Yorkshire

I take great exception to using the word "Bed-blocking" I have insisted in my professional career in using the term "inappropriately placed" which throws the blame, where it should be on to the service and NOT the patients (usually old). Also a patient suffering from Alzheimer's has an organic disease which should be an NHS responsibility.
Joyce Cormie
Leven

I applaud the BBC for producing a realistic report on the appalling state of the NHS. Despite government "spin", which would like us to believe that conditions are improving, I have personally witnessed conditions deteriorating. The government tends to focus attention on nurses' working conditions rather than those of doctors because they feel there is greater public sympathy for nurses. Perhaps it would surprise those outside the medical profession that junior doctors are still working 80+ hours a week. This is clearly highly dangerous to the health of both patients (tired doctors make mistakes) and the doctors themselves. Ultimately there are stark choices to be made: either taxes are raised considerably to pay for a high quality NHS, or the NHS remains of third world quality with the well off paying for private care. There is only one country in Europe with fewer doctors per capita population - that is Albania.
Dr. Stephen Perry
Croydon

How will the NHS retain its staff if Agency staff, less qualified than the staff nurse are paid more money. Perhaps the answer is to pay the regulars more than the Agency staff. Extra money for the NHS could come out of higher taxation of those paid more than £30,000 a year. No journalist is worth more than a skilled nurse and yet they are paid more. The values in our society have to change if we are to achieve a dignified health service.
Gordon Wellard
London

What a shame you didn't talk about some of the reasons why the NHS is struggling. It isn't just a lack of nursing staff. I can think of several small hospitals in and around London closed by the last government. This happened at the same time as the Care in the Community policy also closed local Part 3 care and respite homes for the elderly without providing the alternative care necessary to support elderly people in their own homes. Your programme made it sound as though the problem were a new one. It isn't. Neither is it the fault of this government - the rot set in under Thatcher.
Sue
London

I am a student nurse. If the health service paid us a wage and employed us properly on the wards, we could be used to 'staff' the hospitals that are short staffed. We can't do everything a trained nurse can do, but there are a lot of things we can do. This would give the trained nurses more time to do the things only trained nurses can. Also - the Governement should bring back SENs. LISTEN TO US, TONY ! From a hard working Student Nurse who really wants to help.
Ann Newman

The programme was so true. I work in a District General Hospital, in a clinical role, and everything you showed was exactly like the hospital I work in. We have had to close a ward (surgical) due to nursing shortages, nurses, and other staff are leaving all over the place and we have big recruitment problems. This is not restricted to nursing staff only, other groups of staff have severe staffing shortages. Just giving the NHS more money will not help recruitment. More wards may be opened, HDU units built, but without the staff they will not be able to accept patients.
Margaret
Sheffield

You didn't mention Junior doctors working hrs. Last weekend my daughter worked 60hrs on call with only 3hrs sleep
John Hughes

As a senior nurse manager working within the acute sector of a local DGH, I welcomed the Panorama report. Thank you for not sensationalising the current state of the NHS and reporting exactly what is happening throughout the UK. I deal with complaints for my directorate and have felt that many of our patients that understandably complain about the service we sometimes provide do not appreciate that the problems they encounter are not confined to our Trust. All of the staff I work with are becoming increasingly despairing of the conditions they attempt to work in and I sometimes feel that patients actually think we are happy with the service we are able to provide. Although there are no quick fix solutions, I am hopeful that the recent cash injection will go some way to improving the care we are able to provide to NHS patients, all we need now is appropriately trained staff!!
Paula Crosby
Warrington

Condition Red reveals a totally accurate picture of the NHS today. Dedicated and increasingly demoralised staff struggling on a daily basis to provide the best possible care for their patients in the face of extreme difficulty.
Anon

Thank you very much for screening your programme. It brought THE FACTS to the general public clearing the mists of misinformation created by the government spin doctors. My husband is a NHS consultant whose character has changed in the past 4 years due the pressures and increasing demands of his under-resourced job. I would like my husband back!
Georgena Ng
Lincoln

The NHS is too important to be at the mercy of politicans. And the public MUST be prepared to be MUCH poorer in their pockets to have MUCH better hospitals. In return they must be given BINDING guarantees that any extra taxes they pay will go to improving services. The NHS problems will NEVER be solved as long as we discuss it terms of COST instead of quality. There is no higher cost than needless pain, death, and distress.
Phil Dennett
Burgess Hill

It is absurd to waste £1m a year on agency nurses. Why isn't this money used to boost salaries of the kind of NHS nurses that St Peters particularly needs?
P Facey
Winchester

At last a programme which shows the reality of the NHS in 2001. It was difficult to watch because it was so accurate and I know that tomorrow I will be dealing with exactly those problems. Your conclusions were exactly right. Thank you for a high quality programme which was sympathetic to the needs of patients and staff.
Dr Anthony Bradlow
Reading

I can't help feeling that if the doctors and nurses put as much energy into diagnosis and treatment than they do into shuffling patients around the beds they would ease the pressures themselves. More consultants to provide prompt and accurate care decisions would be beneficial. Every hospital ward I have visited has at least 6 nurses standing at the nurses station shuffling paper and ignoring relatives and patients. Hire admin staff for paper, hire catering staff for serving meals and give the nurse's time back to patient care.
Jane Ashworth
Liverpool

Instead of paying inflated rates to agency staff, perhaps morale and staff retention would be improved if permanent staff could be paid higher salaries.
Helen Webster
West Byfleet

You point out the Government definitions of trolley waits. As you say, these are a fiddle. Similarly, when we have to transfer ITU patients to another hospital because of over-crowding, we have now been told that if they are transferred to hospitals within the "network", i.e. nearby towns or cities, they no longer count as transfers at all! Brilliant! This is an intelligence-insulting redefinition, but then, we're all stupid anyway, aren't we?
Dr Paul Shannon FRCA
Doncaster

Originally from Devon, I study in Egham in Surrey. Last November I was taken to St. Peter's A&E in Chertesey. I arrived at about nine in the evening, and waited on a trolley in the corridor for several hours before being assessed by a member of staff. It was after midnight when the first blood tests were taken, and painkillers given. In the early hours of the morning the decision was taken to keep me in overnight, at which point my friend who had travelled with me from College had to travel back home. The night was spent on a trolley in the corridor outside the x-ray lab. The next day I received a CT scan and a lumbar puncture, after which I spent a second night in A&E, this time in a room, sharing with another lady who was being treated. My situation isn't really comparable with those of cancer patients whose operations are cancelled four times before finally receiving treatment. But I was not the only patient who had to spend that Monday night in the corridor. One patient was an elderly gentleman who was confused even as to how long he'd been in hospital. I was fortunate enough, as a 20-year-old student, to be able to get up and walk around (even though this is not recommended after an LP) when I felt I needed to. To have not had that ability would have been intolerable.
A Ruffle
Egham