Poor management at hospital

I too worked at RDGH for a number of years until recently and totally agree with Unison comments about the lack of leadership and poor management, but would also add, a very high level of arrogance by Mr James et al.

Historically, Mr James was brought in to RDGH in response to the financial issues of the previous Chief executive and senior management team and arguably he has done a disastrous job worsening the burden, rather than easing it. Ironic isnt it?

There is no doubt that a problem lies within the attitude and approach by Mr James. which must include a lack of foresight and business planning.

Take for instance the staff end of year bonus awarded a few years ago (£100 each) after a "financially stable year".  This followed the first "cull" of staff in terms of downgrading and job cuts. You will remember this was sold to staff and patients of Rotherham in a propaganda story that staff had worked very hard to maintain services etc and this was a reward when actually and arguably, this was a softener for his self-awarded, inflated salary increase.

That he spends £4 million on the frontage of the hospital ( why is this so necessary in these times of hardship rather than patient care and staff retention is incredulous but says more about Mr James' ethos ...literally all front and image), then £50 million on the new, ineffectual IT system equates to almost exactly the shortfall that the public of Rotherham and the staff of RDGH are now going to pay dearly for.

One of your readers letters ( 2.11.12) referred too many chiefs. This is true. You forget others, such as Mr Lowry and the senior nursing team etc. Then there is a layer of Directorate senior managers and another of general managers, followed by matrons and middle managers before the 'Indians' , the hard-working doctors, nurses, midwives and ancillary staff.

The place is top heavy with senior management and it will be interesting to see who is affected, if anyone (without leaving on their highly-paid redundancy/pension deals).

This then leads me onto the alleged use of a management company to tell the senior management team how to manage. Put this with the gloriously disastrous 'Can Gerry Robinson fix the NHS' debacle where arguably, Mr James was made to look incompetent and out of control ( remember the outcry of the medical staff at the time who controversially spoke out and said that the hospital would be lucky to find any senior manager who held O levels never mind a degree?)

The truth of the matter is that some managers did have degrees and vast experience, but the arrogance and almost intimidating atmosphere in which we worked made any change extremely difficult and voices were never listened to.

Indeed, Mr James chose to disregard us and did not even acknowledge us most of the time. How many times does Brian James and crew need telling how to manage? I would be extremely embarrassed as a Chief Executive to even go there.

The fact of the matter is is that an eternal NHS review from Monitor (the body governing the functions of NHS Trusts) needs to be completed here with the effectiveness of the Hospital Management team at the top of their agenda because it is hard to believe that the hospital is managing to meet the tough requirements of Monitor, the Care Quality Commission and NHS Litigation Authority registration and standards as honestly as they purport.

Service provision at RDGH is on a slippy slope to NHS services being dissolved and disseminated to other localities such as Barnsley, Sheffield, Doncaster etc due to this poor management. Please wake up people of Rotherham and get a voice before you don't have a local hospital at all.

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