By Dr Joseph Hawkins, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Clinical lead for end of life care, Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust.

A New Year Resolution.

Sparklers shine, smoke all around,
Fireworks leap as corridors fill
Manager’s myopically seeing only the bill,
Desperate searching, no solution to be found.

The hospital is burning down.
No-one knows who to blame,
Matrons look and frown.
But all around us leaps the flame.

Chief execs in ivory towers
Shout instructions like we are gardeners
Who forgot to tend the flowers,
How redundant we’ve become
At least for management, it’s all fun.

The gardens grow statues
Like metal mushrooms
Each one another fuse,
Whilst all around the corridors fill with fumes.

Doctors and nurses,
All armed with a bucket,
The buckets have holes, better for purses.
It’s almost enough to say F***-it.

This ditty is light
But the message is earnest
If we don’t start to fight
We will all lose our rights.