Private sector employees could learn from caring hospital staff
Like, many of your readers, I had assumed that Rome had fallen on the wards as well as in the strategic planning and administration divisions of the country’s hospitals.
It came as a most pleasant surprise, then, to find that my experience in a public ward in Cork this week was quite the opposite.
What I have met then has been the epitome of world-class professional care and empathy by consultants, doctors, nurses, internees, porters and catering staff. It was delivered in a way in which only the Irish and their multi-national colleagues can — with gre at humour, understanding and a deep understanding of the much misunderstood concept of “customer care”.
While the whole country is battering at the self-esteem and reputations of healthcare workers, the staff of St Anthony’s Ward at Cork’s Mercy University Hospital continue cheerfully plying their craft in the most important of all callings — that of preserving and saving lives, 24 hours a day.
As most of us bemoan the low standards and complacency in much of the Irish service sector, it is ironic that many private sector employees could learn more than a few lessons from the staff of St Anthony’s Ward.
Unlike some shops, restaurants, hotels and bars where there are begrudging attitudes and long pusses, this place is a bastion of excellence.
These people actually want to be here, doing the great work that they do, unlike many of those in the private sector. They have found their true calling.
I trust too, that Mary Harney values and preserves these difficult-to-measure professional traditions which have survived an almighty battering by the media as she continues to sacrifice her political career to rescue a health system which has been mismanaged for so long.
Jerry Kennelly
Caragh Lodge
Caragh Lake
Co Kerry
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