Continuity essential for care of patients

LETTER - I wonder if all the people who thought that the joining of the Telford and Shrewsbury hospitals was a good idea, would change their minds if they knew what a waste of resources it is, and the effect this has had on staff morale.

There are numerous instances where staff are shunted from one site to the other, for no apparent reason other than at the whim of the manager. What is the point of having staff moving across sites?

These staff are vital to the health service, and the people of Telford and Shrewsbury, and should be treated with the respect that they deserve - not demoralised.

They are motivated and professional enough to be able to get on with the job they were employed to do, without the stupidity of middle management.

It is about time that the patient came first. Many of the patients affected by the lack of continuity of care are chronically ill and a friendly, familiar face is priceless to them.

I can't bear to imagine what it must be like, facing a chronic illness and then, on each visit to the hospital, seeing different people each time, knowing that these staff will not have had time to read the, sometimes, vast amounts of notes that are created.

This is not a safe situation and the NHS leaves itself open to mitigation when uninformed staff are unnecessarily being forced to work in unfamiliar situations across different sites. The time wasted in updating themselves with patient information must be tremendous and the margin for error increased.

Obviously there are times when cross site working is necessary, but as an exception surely, not as the rule. Continuity of care is vital to the patients.

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