The Cost of Quality

[Orr]

Interesting to note that documents on the creation of the 29 Networks in the UK shows insignificant cost-savings involved. Considering that staffing levels in transfusion depts in particular to address regulatory needs and across pathology as a whole have never been properly calculated- resulting in massive staff deficits. These plans were flawed at the start when no consideration was given to the quality or training structures and individual training needs.
The introduction of so-called 'shifts'- which are in fact mostly lone working without staff having proper rest breaks, and are introduced without increasing the core day staffing levels is a major issue. This will result in having to eventually increase staff levels- which will negate the alleged 'cost-savings'.

Additional layers of management within these structures without the understanding and ability to carry out roles is also a contributory factor.

Apart from this, the IT infrastructures that should have been the priority are an afterthought.

Is it any wonder we have a demoralised,demotivated and highly stressed workforce that is also becoming an inexperienced pool of staff, as many are leaving these conditions? No doubt we will all soon see patient safety incidents escalate as a result of inadequate time to train and expose staff to managing these inadequate 'shift' conditions. Transfusion staff must have access to the right out of hours technical support as well as learning to cope with increasing workload demands-which requires time to acquire this.

At what cost to everyone involved?

So I now challenge all involved across the organisations and regulatory bodies, to properly and honestly perform a full review on these Networks- looking at realistic staffing levels, skill mix, efficiencies, cost of correct IT infrastructures and every aspect of the service.

It would have been easy to make savings and improvements without the damage caused to the teams involved.