Councillor shares hospital pressures

Councillor Aileen Orr recently underwent successful knee surgery at the hospital and her time spent there enabled her to see at first hand the challenges staff, and in particular nurses, had to overcome.

The SNP East Berwickshire representative shared her experiences at a recent meeting of Scottish Borders Council, saying: “I want to say that I had exemplary support. They really are amazing in that hospital and if you haven’t been there lately it is amazing, they work flat out.

“One of the problems, just observing from the bed, every single member of staff, from morning to night, worked flat out and it didn’t matter what happened they were still smiling and working away.

“One of the frustrations one of the staff members said was cancelled or ignored appointments and how much time that was taking up and beds being cancelled.

“People need to make sure that when they get an appointment that they actually fulfil that or cancel it before the time is due because when you are literally sitting for the likes of a knee op or a hip op, you are sitting in a line and that one cog clogs everything up.”

Councillor Orr added: “I walked away from there in a very positive way. I’m walking about and pain free but the point has to be is that if you have an appointment at the BGH or any other hospital please fulfil it.”

In response, recently-appointed NHS Borders chief executive Peter Moore, who made a presentation to councillors, thanked Mrs Orr for her comments and said he was “genuinely proud” of the work being carried out at the hospital. and noted that the organisation had recently received a prestigious award called the Golden Hip, in recognition of its exemplary orthopaedic work.

He added: “We need to get our waiting times down and develop a really clear way to do that.”