Ex M and S boss to advice NHS

Whether good at it or not, Stuart Rose is an experienced manager in business. The NHS is still a service and not supposed to be a profit-making organisation. To extend the process of treating it as one [business] will be more nails in its coffin.

Perhaps he could improve the food, Lloyd Grossman couldn't

I wonder how much he is being paid for his consultancy.
There was an 'expert' on the radio today saying that the M & S chairperson was used to putting the customer first. In the NHS there were more things to consider before the patient. I nearly blew a gasket surely the patient should be first.

LESS managers and more nurses, I say!

ah well M and S ready meals would sort the food out. at about 500 times the cost.
I would like the hospital to be like the Apple store not like M and S. That is:

Clinically clean and bright
Full of the very latest equipment
Brimming with plenty of well trained people, desperate to be helpful
You can book an appointment with an expert on line and it will happen, on time
They do their very best not to keep you waiting even if you turn up without an appointment
And if your hard drive is buggared they give you a new one free of charge, even when the warranty has expired.

Now that is something to emulate.

Having met Stuart Rose when I worked at M&S I was very impressed by him. I think he could make quite a difference if he is allowed to. Can't be too hopeful though after the lack of interest James Martin has had in his hospital food. A hospital DH was in was one that turned James down, and their food is completely inedible.

Gerry Robinson did it in Rotherham Hospital years ago.

But what difference did Rose bring about in M and S. Anyone notice anything of significance?
I saw some of the Robinson stuff on TV. Interesting. He obviously found it very frustrating dealing with the complexity of the NHS. Having worked in both NHS and corporate I can attest - change is hard to bring about in corporate but at least you can have a single management structure. In the NHS you can't because of all the different professional groups that have their own hierarchies. (and of all the professional groups i have worked alongside over the years there are several who just don't accept the notion of being managed, even by members of their own profession.)

What difference did Stuart Rose bring to M&S? Better designed clothes but with such a reduction of quality, after being lured in once, and had most of what I had bought in the bin with in six months, not even fit to go to a charity shop. I haven't been back.

Is this what he is going to bring to the NHS, superficial shine and even worse quality?

I agree with Alie. The NHS needs someone from outside to look objectively at what is really needed to improve things for patients rather than thinking up yet more paperwork!

Does this mean 'you won't just be having a heart by pass, but a NHS bypass' ?

My mum was admitted to hospital (yet again) on Wednesday. She has dialysis at the same hospital three times a week.
Recent observations include:

Lots of staff "hanging around" what are they doing? No-one very sure.
Waiting ages for someone to bring painkillers/heat pack/whatever.
Chasing medication up regularly with various members of staff.
Keep being told it's being dealt with.
Being taken directly for a scan after dialysis with no painkillers (and even refusing her any) very angry!
Beautiful new state of the art renal unit.
First bed had a huge split in it that she could have literally fallen into.
Second bed(a gel bed) all the gel had shifted to one side and she could only lie on the very edge.
Third bed better but not perfect considering she has bone cancer in her spine and kidney failure the least I would expect was a decent comfortable bed.

I could go on and on but won't bore you with any more of the details.

Like always. Some excellent nurses, some rubbish ones. Left hand and right hand not working together. Fantastic new building but shortage of basics.......

If Stuart Rose can even begin to sort out some of these problems then he will be doing a fantastic job. Perhaps it might take a complete outsider to have a look at it before anything will change.

That's awful for your mother gillybob and very upsetting for you. It is going to take a huge amount of work to sort out the NHS and I don't think Stuart Rose would be good enough. There will be even more targets and less genuine caring if that's possible.

If Stuart Rose can turn round Basildon hospital, he's a Saint.

Gilly - been there done all that last year with Dad - you have all my sympathy. There is a basic failure of communication within hospitals. It is not necessarily lack of staff or facilities, but a lack of proper co-ordination of same. If a better manager can improve this, then good, but I share absent's feeling that a head of a private organisation simply reinforces the fact that the government don't understand the difference between private businesses and service organisations, or recognise that they need to be treated differently.

Gilly this all sounds so familiar

Our hospital now has a client feed back form. Very basic and easy to fill in, it just assesses how satisfied you were/are with the treatment.

As it sounds as if your mother is a regular visitor then why not ask if such a thing is available. If not then ask for the senior nurse on duty and ask her/him for a copy of their Complaints Procedure. Don't let them fob you off with saying there's one online, ask for a paper copy.

When I did this at the back end of last year I had a very interesting reaction.

I noticed when I had to go to our local hospital recently, that the foyer was more like a mall. Costa, smiths, a clothes shop and wait for it:-

A M&S simply food!
Are the patients now supposed to be self catering courtesy of M&S?

Following my rubbish discharge from the above hospital, I wrote a letter of complaint to the hospital and copied it to my MP.
I have had a supportive letter from my MP but after a week only an acknowledgement of receipt from the hospital.

Every hospital manager should be forced to spend 48 hours in an NHS assessment ward, the service would improve very quickly.

Now if only someone would get John Lewis to run things (and why stop at the NHS, why not the country?) And before anybody jumps up and says that John Lewis is not a person (and he jolly well ought to be) Andy Street would be the go-to man. When he was a store manager he insisted that everybody from the top to the bottom was on the shopfloor at "Clearance "- manning tills, wrapping, directing and helping, whatever it took.
SIL teases DD who has inherited her JL habit from her Mum, saying that if John Lewis ran schools she would be putting the boys' names down for them!

Bed linen would be Lurverly soutra
I guess the NHS equivalent is a major incident

Nothing against the private sector - there are a lot of good ideas and good practice. It amazes me for instance that you can order something online and it arrives the next day.

Unlike First Class Post!!

Well sometimes in fairness they do arrive via postman

I agree harrigran although I am sure they would enjoy the very best attention during their (undoubtedly pre arranged) visit. A bit like royalty visiting a factory. Everything in site would be cleaned and painted before they arrived. No fear of finding a hole in the bed they were given eh?