UNHELPFUL WATCHDOG

AS two patients grateful for the excellent care (in every respect) we have received at Stepping Hill, we are writing in response to your January 2 article headlined ‘Worries over lack of staff for patients’ about the report of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on the hospital.

The CQC’s criticisms are entirely unhelpful. Stepping Hill did not need to be told that there were serious staff shortages, that sometimes patients needed to be moved at short notice, and that there was a lack of funds to maintain equipment.

These are the predictable consequences of the Tories’ underfunding of health and social care since 2010, compounded by the catastrophic reorganisation of 2012 aimed at privatizing the NHS, and local plans to transfer funds from cash starved hospitals to cash starved community services.

If the CQC really wanted to be useful, it should have saved its finger wagging for the government.

Incidentally, Mrs May’s 10-year plan (published on January 7) will not make up for nearly a decade of underfunding and consists of largely of targets imposed upon an NHS that, in the absence of more funds and staff, will not be able to deliver on them.

Doubtless, therefore, the CQC will be back in due course with more finger wagging.

Meanwhile, we echo the CQC’s observation that ‘patients were supported, treated with dignity and respect, and were involved as partners in their care.’ Thank you, Stepping Hill. Theresa and Raymond Tallis, Valley Road, Bramhall