Forget rebranding, NHS chiefs face takeover threat

Published: 4 June 2010

• TOM Foot is to be applauded for showing how Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust proposes to waste some £35,000 of public money on rebranding itself (NHS bosses and their £35,000 logo, May 28).

This particular organisation is posturing as if it were a multi-national when in foundation trust terms it is actually a minnow.

It provides mental-health services for only two boroughs whereas most of the London trusts, including neighbouring Central and North Western, have much larger catchment areas.

Camden and Islington’s real worry is that it is just too small for the business it is in and will be taken over. Quite likely in the current review of NHS structures.

Instead of seeking to improve services, the board of directors is running around rearranging the deckchairs as the Titanic sinks, with ever more grandiose plans to try to persuade people that it must stay afloat.  

The last two weeks have exposed how chaotically the organisation is run.

Furthermore, the public’s watchdogs in the board of governors, led by former Tory council candidate Richard Bunting, either cannot or will not hold the directors to account.

It is strongly rumoured that Camden and Islington will merge with Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust to form a larger North West London Mental Health Trust.

All we can hope is that when that happens it is not the Camden and Islington board which takes the lead in managing the new organisation.
DANNY BLOOM
Tollington Park Road, N4

• I WAS very excited to read your recent articles outlining the thrilling reforms in the NHS.

These have stemmed from New Labour’s initiative to open up our health service to the challenges of the market.

First, spending money on a new logo while sacking staff is definitely the way to go .

I have for some time been worried about what would happen to me if I fell ill in an area with an out-of-date, tatty, old logo.

Now I can be assured that everything will be bright, modern, fully in tune with the market and completely care-free. Thank heavens!

Second, and possibly even more exciting, is the prospect for “self-care” as proposed by the McKinsey report on the Whittington.

This is terribly encouraging.

For isolated inventors, such as myself, there is now a long overdue recognition that our work can be of real value.

Let me give you an example.

I am working on a system to avoid all that icky hospital stuff with a homemade kidney dialysis kit.

This involves combining a perfectly normal blender, the washing machine and three lengths of flexible tubing (I find pulling the wire out of electric cable is just right for the job).

It’s early days yet, of course, but I have already been able to remove all traces of strawberry from perfectly normal strawberry yoghurt.

It would be great if the Trib could support this kind of work and make space in a regular column so that people can swap “self-care” tips.

If we’d only be prepared to “self-care” properly we could let hospitals get on with the serious business of rebranding.

This is the New Labour way and we should seize the day.
RICHARD ROSSER
Highbury New Park, N5

• AS a patient of Camden and Islington Foundation Trust I have complained that I cannot get access to mental healthcare. How many other patients is this trust failing through its fanciful diversion of selecting notepaper and logos that are meaningless?
I take objection to this extravagance while I suffer indifference from a system meant to offer care.
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED