by Paul O'Brien
Thursday 28 February 2008
Normally I spend all of my time focused on local government but having spent the last few days in hospital following a football accident I have managed to view the NHS close up.
I have to say that my experience was first class from the accident and emergency staff to the Doctors, Consultants, Porters, Nurses, Cleaning and Catering staff everyone was thoroughly professional and couldn't do enough for me. I have always known that the media hype is very different from users experience, but really those with influence need to stand up and defend what is a excellent public service.
Being confined to bed for a few days I managed to talk to nurses, cleaners and caterers about 'agenda for change' and they told me it had transformed the place. For those not familiar with this it is the NHS version of dealing with equal pay grading. The difference is that Government fully funded the pay differential in the NHS and took the pain out of the situation - if only this could be done for local government then it would mean that I was the only one feeling intense pain at the moment.
