The ‘popular posts’ gadget which I put at the side of this
Blog sometimes irritates me, then again, it can be quite useful in getting my
feet back on the ground.
It is actually a top five of page views, so I can’t fix it,
(one day I’ll tell you all about fixing the pop charts – if you’re interested)
it means that the pages that are highlighted are ones I wouldn’t chose. Also,
because they have built up such a page count, it won’t ever change much, now.
So, my first leaflet is a run-away best seller but also an
embarrassment to me. Obviously it wouldn’t be right to change it; even though
it wasn’t a junior Doctor who messed up, it was a consultant. However, it’s
from the heart and it was my first step so I’m stuck with it. I use different
publicity now.
‘A moments reflection’, isn’t going anywhere either. I
remember writing it, late at night, really angry. Ms Jacintha Saldhana was a quiet,
caring, diligent Nurse who took a hoax phone call from two Australian radio
pranksters pretending to be royalty. She just passed it on, but was taken in
and probably gave it a bit of credence when she put the call through.
You or I probably would have ruefully shrugged our shoulders,
giggled from embarrassment and tried to forget it. She didn’t, a couple of days
later she committed suicide.
There’s an inquest coming up, so I shouldn’t jump to
conclusions, but I will.
It doesn’t look like her employers took it out on her or
threatened her with dismissal which would normally be the problem. The chances
are that previous bullying by her fellow workers flared up again after the
incident, and this, together with the notoriety and press interest was just too
much for a shy and isolated individual far from her family.
It’s a bad, bad story. She was a good, caring Nurse.
It highlights the problem of bullying in the NHS. I know it
was a private hospital, but many of the staff would move back and forth between
the State and private sectors and it’s the same profession anyway.
It’s not just managers bullying staff, there are Doctors
bullying Nurses and Nurses bullying Care Assistants plus a lot of in between
bullying.
It’s a problem because if people don’t have respect for each
other, how can they expect to have solidarity when things are going wrong.
It suits managers to have staff fighting and disrespecting
each other rather than fighting their corner together.
It’s also about race, sex and class and how these are used to
divide us against each other.
So take two nearby hospitals; St. Peter’s Chertsey where a
majority of the Nursing staff are white and Wexham Park, Slough where a
majority of Nursing staff are from ethnic minorities. Before you say “that
reflects the racial mix of two different areas”; I would say that the staff car
parks tell me that most of the Nurses have cars and most don’t live near the
hospital where they work.
These two hospitals are about 16 miles apart.
Now is it Human Resources and management who are operating a
colour bar?
Or is there bullying
going on that means Nurses are self-selecting about where they work?
Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you drop production)
Contacy: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
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