Writer should get facts straight over staffing at St John’s

Jan 8 2009 by Our Correspondent, West Lothian Courier

I WOULD like to respond to a letter published in your letters section on December 18, "Appalled at the pressure hospital staff are facing at St John's".

The statements made in the letter are totally untrue.

The author claims that a clinical support worker was left in sole charge of Ward 22 for over three hours.

This was simply not the case.

In fact a staff nurse and an extremely experienced specialist nurse were both on duty that day.

It is a great pity that the author did not check the facts before putting pen to paper.

NHS Lothian staff work very hard to ensure that St John's Hospital remains where it should be, as the anonymous writer says, "at the heart of the community" and these inaccuracies are both demoralising and damaging to an excellent hospital's reputation.

James McCaffery

Chief Operating Officer of Acute Services