[lettie]

Of course it is right to complain Willow, it backs up what the staff say to the management and, believe me, they are more likely to listen to you than to the staff.

When our ward cleaner is off duty, we are lucky to see a cleaner. One of the problems of contract cleaning is that the cleaners won't do anything that is not part of their contract. For example, when cleaning was put out to tender, part of the contract probably stipulates that the bins will be emptied 'x' number of times a day/week. If the bins need emptying more than that, the cleaner won't do it. Like everything else in life, you get what you pay for.

I feel that another issue is the training of student nurses at universities. Student nurses used to be trained, from scratch, on the wards. As a student nurse, you knew that you were the bottom of the pile and the least important member of the ward team. In other words, you knew your place. If the ward sister asked you to clean bedpans, dentures, vomit bowls etc. You did it, no matter how unpleasant the job, and you didn't question it.

If you ask students to do these jobs now......... there's hell to pay. They will often say that it is not their job, they are here to learn, then run off to Uni and complain to their tutors. Uni then threaten to pull all students from your ward because they are not getting the right experience (even though they are).

Nursing has changed beyond recognition in the last 10 years, more nurses are now trained to do procedures that only doctors used to do, intravenous cannulas, suturing, defibrillation and many more. Due to these increasing tasks, bedbathing, toileting, keeping somebody clean and fed and what we used to call basic nursing care has gone out of the window in favour of more technical tasks and ever increasing paperwork. I feel that there is no tier of staff to perform these basic nursing tasks any more as there is a continual lack of support staff.

All in all, I think the NHS is stuffed. Money is constantly wasted on new tiers of management, there are managers for 'Diversity and Equality' 'Patient Experience' and many other fancy titles, in order to meet Government targets. I read again today that Lord Darzi is proposing another NHS reform. This will no doubt take more staff away from the front line and put in another tier of managers to handle the changes. I, for one, would like to say to the government............ Stop ruining the NHS, any changes should take us back to basics instead of wasting money on paper exercises, quangos and managers who have job titles which leave us clueless as to what they actually do for their £50-80,000 a year.