‘I spent the day in a hospital – it’s a real head-spinner’published at 18:01 GMT 25 November
18:01 GMT 25 November
Roger Johnson
Presenter, BBC North West Tonight
It’s always confusing to go into someone else’s workplace.
You don’t know the systems, you can’t understand the acronyms, but my first
introduction to life behind-the-scenes at Whiston Hospital was a real
head-spinner.
The morning bed meeting sees all departments report their
numbers: how many patients have arrived, how many are staying, how many could
go home.
If they can’t get a flow through the departments, the whole
system gets jammed.
So, as much as medicine, hospitals are about
logistics. Porters moving patients about; cleaners making sure infections
are avoided; catering staff delivering meals; pharmacists ordering and
delivering medication.
The on-site pharmacy has to be seen to be believed.
Everything relies on IT.
From the moment a doctor prescribes medication,
it barely touches a human hand, until it gets back to the patient.
There
are 200 staff working here alone, yet all the day’s 1,500 prescriptions are
picked by a robot. It works 24 hours-a-day, even re-stocking its own shelves at
night when the humans have gone home.
Diane Stafford, who is the Deputy Divisional Director of
Operations, told me “everybody who works in this hospital comes to this place
because it’s where their families come to as well.
“So you know we want to
make it the best it can be because this is where our family would come to if
they were ill.”