A READER writes: With last week's welcome resignation of chief constable Maria Wallis, can we now get rid of the top management in the National Health department that oversees the R D & E Hospital at Exeter? It has recently gone through the same 'job evaluation' project farce as the Devon and Cornwall Police has just undergone, whereby nurses, who have been there for many years, some from their school-leaving days, and who know their jobs inside out, have had to re-apply for their own jobs. Most, if not all, have seen their jobs given to their management colleagues, who now find themselves without their original jobs, who are mostly under qualified, do not have the relevant experience to do the necessary office work that goes with these jobs that the older nurses have been trained for (all at the ratepayer's expense) and have not worked on a ward for many years. Nurses have been down-graded, top jobs given to nurses with less qualifications and experience than the previous position holder (ward managers, sisters, etc.) Nurses are being shuttled from one ward to another to try to keep the hospital going, leaving wards short of experienced staff at critical times. This is definitely 'jobs for the girls' at a time when we should be recruiting more English nurses and encouraging our existing staff to try to do a little bit more. What are their union doing to help them? Absolutely nothing. Are they in the NHS's pockets? The existing staff are now having to carry all this 'dead wood', and can only do so much. The system will surely collapse soon, and then where will we be? Up the proverbial creek without a paddle. It certainly needs an independent inquiry to investigate this situation before it is too late, as many staff will probably look elsewhere for future employment. Is this also happening throughout Devon and Cornwall?
