Here in Auchendreich we have had our troubles; all new hospitals, even private finance initiative (PFI) projects, must expect them. The important thing is to keep them in proportion: a task that occupied our public affairs subcommittee throughout a six hour meeting last Monday afternoon.
Ten days previously there had even been some quite favourable coverage (“Car-park angel saves a life”) following a successful out-of-hospital resuscitation by an off duty critical care nurse. But the unusual willingness of the patient to speak to the media later should perhaps have alerted us. The stories in the weekend papers were not so helpful.
The patient had driven himself to hospital in great pain because he had been told an ambulance might take up to two hours. After a day in our emergency department he was transferred, with a diagnosis of renal colic, to our 24 hour ward, where fortunately he passed his stone after only three days. But in a regrettable series of media interviews he made it clear that he'd had his heart attack only because he'd just discovered that getting out of our car park would cost him £154.80.
Lessons have been learnt, and a series of screening questions for apparently grateful patients is now being piloted. But even this initiative would not have helped with our next problem. The disappearance of frail elderly patients always gives rise to anxiety, and in normal circumstances the retrieval of the 95 year old man concerned would have been something to celebrate. But “Scotland's luckiest Granpa” was rescued by a sharp eyed young Albanian only seconds from the exit point of our advanced but problematical high speed clinical waste disposal pathway. And although it was recognised immediately that the young man's immigration status might be a sensitive issue, that was clearly not a matter for the trust, since his employer was our PFI partner, McEachern Services plc.
Would that it had been so simple. The “Albanian” turned out to be a Scottish tabloid journalist working under cover on an investigation of the alleged problems of our PFI. Another thorough mole hunt was indicated. The subcommittee was discussing this when, for reasons beyond our control, the meeting had to adjourn. Happily it was nothing serious: just another power cut.