Health and Efficiency
The Government wants better value for money in the NHS. To get it, a manager from Selfridges has been put in charge of the biggest hospital in Oxford. He arrives with high-street business attitudes, determined to save money and make further spending cuts.
But, as Gerry Northam reports, he finds doctors, nurses and ancillary staff complaining that services have already been cut too far; the unions are refusing to work on a new ward for private patients; and even emergency patients have to wait more than three hours for an empty hospital bed.
Can the man from Selfridges make the hospital more efficient? Or have its standards of care already fallen dangerously low?
Film cameraman DAVID JACKSON Film editor TONY ROBINSON Research NICK ROSSITER
Executive producer COLIN CAMERON Producer BRIAN JAMES BBC Manchester
The Brass Tacks Talkback line is open until 11.0 pm tonight on [number removed]or leave a message anytime on the answerphone on [number removed]