EDITORIAL COMMENT

Two weeks ago we received an article reproduced from a recent magazine. It was an account of his short stay in a psychiatric unit by David Leitch, Foreign Correspondent of the Sunday Times and author of a book on Kim Philby, "The Spy who Betrayed a Generation." The article is well worth reading, and makes some cogent points, e.g. "Some depressives are right to be depressed; any other reaction would be the insane one."

However, we have decided not to publish it in The Standard, as we do not feel that a suitable climate of acceptance exists here yet for us to do so.

Please contact Mr. Brian Nugent, who brought the article to our notice should you wish to read it in full.

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Social Therapy Review

There were two cricket matches this week , the first on Tuesday when we were paid a visit by Rainhill Hospital who won the match by one run. Unfortunately, no women were able to come because their female instructress was in hospital at the time. Thhe second was on Thursday when the men paid a visit to Mary Dendy hospital. The final score was Winwick 73 for 1 and Mary Dendy 54 for 7.

As you know Tuesday evening is reserved for anyone who would like to go to the baths. However it seems as though the same few people are going every week. We have a bus that will carry thirteen people and it's a shame to see so many empty seats, I'm sure that with a little encouragement more patients would derive benefit from this weekly venue. Incidentally, we encourage the patients to have private towels and no.one goes to the baths with a hospital towel. Although we are not ashamed of coming from the hospital we feel that these people should be treated exactly the same as everyone else and not enjoy the added politeness and courtesies they receive just because they are from Winwick. There is no Therapy in being treated as a race apart and so they should endure the same public inconvenience as anyone using a public place.

K. Appleton.

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Industrial Relations Code of Practice 2

Responsibilities

Management

1. The principal aim of management is to conduct the business of the undertaking successfully. Good industrial relations need to be developed within the framework of an efficient organisation and they will in turn help management to achieve this aim.

2. One of management's major objectives should therefore be to develop effective industrial relations policies which command the confidence of employees.

3. Good industrial relations are the joint responsibility of management and of employees and trade unions representing them. But the primary responsibility for their promotion rests with management. It should therefore take the initiative in creating and developing them.

4. Where trade unions are recognised for negotiating purposes, management should:

i)	maintain jointly with the trade unions effective arrangements for negotiation, consultation and communications, and for settling disputes;
ii)	take all reasonable steps to ensure that managers observe agreements and use agreed procedures;
iii)	make clear to employees that it welcomes their membership of an appropriate recognised union and their participation in the union's activities.

5. Where trade unions are not recognised for negotiating purposes management should:

i)	maintain effective arrangements for consultation and communication and for settling grievances;
ii)	take all reasonable steps to ensure that managers use those arrangements;
iii)	make clear to employees that it respects their rights under the Industrial Relations Act to join a registered trade union and to take part in its activities, which include seeking recognition for negotiating purposes.

6. Effective organisation of work is an important factor in good industrial relations. Management should therefore ensure that:

i)	Responsibility for each group of employees is clearly defined in the organisational structure;
ii)	each manager understands his responsibilities and has the authority and training necessary to do his job;
iii)	individual employees or work groups know their objectives and priorities and are kept informed of progress towards achieving them.

7. All managers should receive training in the industrial relations implications of their job. This is as necessary for line managers, including supervisors, as for personnel managers.

8. The supervisor, (first line manager) is in a key position to influence industrial relations. Management should ensure that he:

i)	is properly selected and trained;
ii)	has charge of a work group of a size that he can supervise effectively;
iii)	is fully briefed in advance about management's policies as they affect his work group;
iv)	is an effective link in the exchange of information and views between management and members of his work group.

9. Management should recognise that each employee has his individual needs and aspirations at work and should take this into account in its day-to-day conduct of business. In particular, management should recognise the employee's need to achieve a sense of satisfaction in his job and should provide for it so far as practicable.

Publications Committee

(This series is taken fron HMSO booklet "Industrial Relations - Code of Practice".)

Next week - Responsibilities - Trade Unions.

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We have received a request for information on the growing of cacti. Can anyone oblige?

Publications Committee.

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The Modern Sequence Dance held in aid of the Joint Consultative Staff Benevolent Fund recently, realised £146.40. I would like to pass on the thanks of the H.M.C. to all those who helped make this possible.

M. Milner.

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Self-Financing Lead-In Payments

The main topic on conversation among Ancillary Staff this week seems to be the proposed introduction of the £1 per week Self-Financing Lead-In Payments.

The very obvious fears and uncertainties would probably be alleviated by more information and this could readily be conveyed via The Standard.

Certainly staff views, and we could publish these as well, would help in clarifying the problems involved.

Publications Committee.

0. & M. Study of the Nursing Services

We have, eventually, completed our investigation of the nursing services. The next stage is for us to obtain approval of the draft report and to have it printed in an official form. Due to the size of the report, this will probably take several weeks. Copies will then be forwarded from the Regional Board to the Hospital Management Committee.

Although the study is finished and we officially move on, one or other of the team will visit the hospital from time to time over the next few weeks to help put into practice some of the more minor recommendations which have already been accepted by the administrators. This may be a continuing feature if the H.M.C. accept the other recommendations in the report when it is published.

This has been a long study but the enthusiasm and co-operation of the staff have made it, for us, an extremely pleasant one. Our sincere thanks are due to all who have been involved in this exercise.

J.M. Clifton.

A. N. Other versus Hospital Management Committee

The following is a short, true account of a general hospital patient who, a few years ago, sued a Hospital Management Committee for damages for an assault on her person by a nurse employed by the H.M.C.

The Facts are as Follows

Mrs. A. N. Other, an elderly lady who was an extremely uncooperative, garrulous and cantankerous person, but had undoubtedly a mind of her own, was admitted into Hospital suffering from serious heart disease.

Subsequently during her hospitalisation she persistently and openly stated, to both the medical and nursing staff that she would not take any medication prescribed for her under any circumstances and that the rest she was having whilst in hospital was sufficient for her recovery to full health.

A distressing feature of the patient's illness was insomnia, but she still continued to refuse a night medication, until, however, a young staff nurse on night duty decided to crush the tablet that had been prescribed and administer the drug in the patient's evening hot milk drink, without, of course, Mrs. A. N. Other's consent.

This method of drug administration worked very well, as for the next few nights the patient slept soundly, and in consequence her general condition improved.

. Fortunately, or unfortunately, when the young staff nurse had her nights off, the relieving nurse failed to crush the tablet and left it whole in the milk drink, and in consequence Mrs. A. N. Other found a partially dissolved tablet at the bottom of her cup.

At a subsequent legal action the learned judge stated that in spite of the fact the medication administered to the plaintiff undoubtedly had improved her general health, it was, however, administered against her will, and he had no alternative but to award the plaintiff several hundred pounds damages.

J.E. Wright.

Rice Pud - Part III

The constitution of the pud's
attributed to the oven.
I wonder if the Engineers
in turn can be at fault.
A new control, a switch perhaps
The temperature to govern
and then Supplies Department
Is the next lot to assault.

The recommended remedy
Is hard to comprehend,
To join with others eating pud
In communal Canteen,
Or is this more of a rebuke
For doctors' eating trend
Than invitation to the place
Where better rice is seen?

A passing conversation now
Suggests that perhaps the reason
Is not that cooks eat better meals
But feel a bit forlorn.
Their rice pud may be worse in fact
And this they'd like to seize on
To get us down to Staff Canteen
Where new tastes can be reborn?

Aside (3.7.72)

The steak to-day was delicious
The ovens have excelled.
The soup was good, but not the pud,
The gooseberry tart rebelled
Against the knife, but finally
It fell onto my plate.
Let's hope my rice pud fancies
Will be cured by quirks of fate.

D. E. Wallace

Censorship and Pornography

It is clear that it is not pornography that offends, as much as the emergence around it of serious social satire. What after all is pornography, and why should a person (i.e. the censors) assume the right of judging others? This is a question that the moralisers never ask - they rely on devil-conjuring assumptions. It is fantasy. If the fantasy is twisted, look to the reality endured by the fantasizer. That is where the evil lies. Thus pornography comes of age when, taken closer to its root, it becomes satirical, and then socially critical. The extraordinarily primitive minds of the righteous cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality. They are so fixated on pornography that its symbolism becomes a reality more concrete, to them, than reality itself. In focussing on fantasy sex and fantasy violence and speaking about them as if they were real, the righteous are parallel to the telly-viewer who protests about the showing of a Vietnamese prisoner being shot. The agitation is all about whether it should be shown, or in the case of The Standard whether it should be printed, and the consequent irrelevant debate is a Freudian dreamwork, its function being, by concentration on the symbol, to avoid consciousness of the reality to which the symbol refers with all the problems that would entail.

B. Nugent

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CHEST X-RAY

Female 2 Down

Tuesday 25th July, 1972

Monday 31st July, 1972

Tuesday 1st August, 1972

Monday 7th August, 1972

Male 4 Down

Tuesday 8th August, 1972

Monday 14th August, 1972

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Students from Moss Side will be visiting the Hospital on Tuesday, 18th July.

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Stockton Heath Council of Churches will taking thirty-five patients on a coach outing on Thursday 20th July.

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