Dave Curtis

People working in the NHS can be pretty cynical and bitter and I certainly have some major gripes about how I've been treated by management but in a spirit of fairness I think it's only right to post the email we got at the end of the year from our service director. It's practically a model for the kind of communication a manager should be sending to staff. It's about providing a high quality, compassionate and efficient service and you'll see buried in the middle there that they've been making economies in management and not in frontline services. So if you're working in the NHS and you didn't get a thank you email from your manager please feel free to show them this. Anyway, here is the email in full. It went round to everybody in the Tower Hamlets Adult Mental Health Directorate from the service director, Paul James. Dear colleagues Can I take this opportunity of thanking everyone who has worked for the Tower Hamlets Adult Directorate over ...

Example Ranking Question You are in charge of a large national organisation responsible for assessing the abilities of all the country's newly qualified doctors and matching them to appropriate employment. Shortly before distributing the results and final allocations you become aware that there is a problem with the marking system which you have outsourced. Rank in order the following actions in response to this situation (1= Most appropriate; 5= Least appropriate) A. Cross your fingers and hope it will all be OK. Probably nobody will mind too much. B.  Send out the incorrect marks and allocations then follow with an email saying you will get medical schools to check all the papers and have another go at it. C.  As above but attempt to shift some of the blame onto one of the candidates by implying that their smudgy pencil confused the marking machine so really it's all their fault. D.  Admit that things may not have been perfect but undertake to try to do better ...