26 June 2010

I hate to spoil what promises to be a beautiful weekend, when we are in the middle of what is, as yet, ‘an uninterrupted by rain’ dry Wimbledon, a very rare mud-less Glastonbury  Festival and the prospect of English wins against Australia in cricket and Germany in football in the World Cup tomorrow. to have a whinge, but I feel justified in at making the point.

Over a month ago, when I left Addenbrooke’s Hospital, I went to some trouble to write a glowing report about my stay, being cognisant that most people are critical about the NHS I thought I would try to say something on the other side of the scales. I sent copies to the chief executive of the hospital Garath Goodier; the chairman of the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation trust, Dr Mary Archer; the chairman of the PCT (Primary Care Trust), Dr Maureen Donnelly and the trade union representative. Jonathan Yule. Now, you would think that all of them would have been at least been sufficiently pleased to have received such an accolade to have taken the trouble, at least, to acknowledge receipt and mumble a few words about how kind of me it was to write etc. However, the only person to have written back  is Jonathan and hopefully he shared the e-mail with the rest of the staff in ward F4, towards whom the accolade was directed Having said that I must admit that Dr Archer, at least, got her secretary  to acknowledge  my letter but promised a response. Now I know that 500,000 letters a year (or is it a week?) go astray through the post and that not all e-mails ever get through, thousands of them still floating about in the ether, so, in advance, if any of these miscreants have indeed already have sent an effusive response that has got lost, please accept my humble apologies (and send me a further copy).