Cheer up, or be carded!
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 5:53 am
Health chiefs have been accused of wasting £10,000 of taxpayers’ money by running workshops just to encourage staff to SMILE more.
Doctors and nurses have also been issued with punishment cards by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust to dish out to colleagues who need to cheer up.
Bosses say the training is to improve 'patient experience' and 3,000 staff have taken part in their Active Caring for Everyone (ACE) scheme.
The cards given to doctors and nurses say 'You didn’t play your ACE card', which they are encouraged to show to colleagues who do not smile at patients.
But staff today expressed anger at the workshops, branding them 'patronising'.
One nurse said: 'Staff have too much to do anyway but now we’re being told to plaster a smile on our faces - it’s disgraceful.
'I can’t see anyone dishing out the ACE cards to colleagues, it’s beyond patronising.'
The Taxpayers' Alliance say health chiefs should get punishment cards themselves for thinking up the expensive scheme, especially as the NHS is trying to slash £20 billion from its budgets in the coming years.
The cuts are leading to patients across the country missing out on some treatments.
The workshops are being run by private firm Impact Innovation.
Spokesman Nick Fawcett said: “We’re not talking about an American, cheesy, have a nice day kind of smile,
'It’s about common courtesy.
'It’s treating people how you would like to be treated.'
The scheme is being funded by the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Locality Board which is linked to the local Strategic Health Authority, the regional arm of the Government.
Director of nursing and midwifery at the NHS Trust Helen Blanchard said: 'What patients have told us is that they don’t always have a good customer experience.
'Patients may say their treatment was fantastic but staff could have been more professional in their approach.
'They could have smiled more. Communication could have been better.
'We do it well, but there are some people who need to do it better. It’s not that nobody smiles.'
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