Department of Controversy

The concentration of children’s services at the BRI is a disgraceful waste of money.. The misguided Kennedy must have been off his head !

Paediatric neurosurgery is to be moved to the BRI site. This is involving the appointment of additional consultants and other staff and also extensive new premeses. The Barbara Russell recovery and rehabilitation unit at Frenchay, which cost millions of pounds raised by public donations ,is to be demolished and the chjldren moved to a smaller facility at the Children’s Hospital. All so that the mantra that all children’s services should be under one roof can be implemented.

Does no-one realise that the BRI site is hopelessly congested? The lack of car parking makes for a nightmare situation. How is a mum with three children under the age of five,one of whom is in a push-chair, supposed to cope when there is no-one at home to look after the remaining children ,one being an in-patient? She likes to visit at least once per day.

All this is unnecessary. As far as I am aware there have not been any complaints about the quality of care at Frenchay, If it works-don’t fix it !

The local NHS does indeed appear to have money to throw around.

Kennedy was not a biblical prophet and his recommendations were deeply flawed. We shall all have to live with the results.

R. Langton Hewer.

Kennedy was far from being a reliable prophet. Kennedy's report was flawed from the start because he arrived with the belief that the doctors were entirely at fault and that more management controlling them was the answer. Low and behold that is exactly what he reported when in fact the evidence suggested the opposite: the management had been primarily at fault not the doctors.

Paul Goddard

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