With only about 50 such establishments left, the National Health Service is left with a choice of three or four companies from which it can receive a service.
Because of the insistence of the Treasury that only the cheapest tender wins, the continued battle of price cutting will see the industry destroyed further.
It is surely time for the contenders to stop, step back and think about the level of service they are offering. Often it is not very good. It certainly does not do the industry any favours with the public. The image of the industry has not improved since the days of the joke about socks and shirt buttons.
Companies providing the service to hospitals may not be getting complaints, but have they thought about the people who are conducting the supposed regular meetings to assess the running of the contract? These meetings are held by the administrator who holds the purse strings and who is not interested in complaints that could see the contract altered or terminated. The ward sister is rarely, if ever, present and so the true picture is hidden.
I would like to see the industry sit down and work out a minimum standard and therefore a minimum price that would offer a decent level of service.
This would not be price fixing, it would be quality fixing to ensure that the patient (the actual customer) receives a reasonable service.
The laundry industry seems to go through the price-cutting exercise on a regular basis. It is only the industry and quality that suffers.
It is time to stop, think and think quality.
If wishes were horses.....!
