Communication is everything

I’ve had a couple of incidents this week with the NHS, one with me and another with a close relative, in which the lack of communication has played a major role.

Before I continue, I must say that the NHS is an amazing organisation. It is one of the best inventions ever and, despite its shortcomings, is something we should be proud of as a nation. It has so much to deal with including an ageing population, medical inflation, increasing expectations and the rapid advancement of technology. At all times it is expected to deliver the impossible  and so criticism is easy. We should be careful, however, when we criticise it as there are plenty out there who would like to replace it with a profit driven alternative. No thanks.

The problems I will highlight are more to do with the fact that the NHS is such a large organisation, one of the largest in the world with over one million employees. The bigger an organisation becomes, the more difficult it is to manage communication between the different units and sections. Indeed, at times it is hard to communicate within a ward yet effective communication is absolutely key to the efficient and effective running of any service, including health.

The first incident was the failure of a member of staff to let the team know that my close relative was ready for release. She remained in the hospital for at least four hours longer than she should have done yet, had we not chased around, she would have remained in her bed over the weekend. All because a message was not passed on.

The second incident came in a letter to me telling me that there was an appointment arranged for me that I knew nothing about and that the time had passed and they would need to rearrange it. The author said that they had tried to ring me but no message was left and I try to avoid calls from numbers I don’t recognize, including ‘private’ numbers. After all, if it’s important they will leave a message. The letter arrived sixteen days after the appointment was due. Again this was a costly failure of communication.

In both incidents there was no medical failure. The nursing staff was all in place but, due to a breakdown in communication, it was left with resources it could not use and an appointment which did not show. Poor communication costs money and I would hate to think how much is lost when incidents like this are multiplied across each hospital and across the nation.

Medical failures hit the headlines. They are investigated and steps are put in place to try and stop them happening again. Is the same process put in place for non-medical failures, such as poor communication? I doubt it but they should be followed up. 

Improved communication will lead to an improved service which will lead to the improved use of resources, as well as more satisfied and healthy patients. 

Good communication is everything! It should be addressed and not be ignored.