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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/13665629610116854. When citing the article, please cite: Alun Jones, (1996), “Funeral for a friend (an existential view on hospital closure)”, Employee Councelling Today, Vol. 8 Iss: 3, pp. 12 - 14.

The forecast that average wages would rise by at least 10% by mid‐'77 and inflation would continue at 14% were two of the more depressing “prospects” put forward at a recent retailing seminar organised by stockbrokers, Philips and Drew. Speakers at the conference discussed share prospects in the retail sector for the benefit of an audience of potential investors—in the main representatives of insurance companies and pension funds. Financial analyst, Alun Jones, examined the outlook for the whole sector, while Kenneth Bishop, Finance Director, Debenhams; John Samuel, Director and Joint Secretary, Marks and Spencer; and Ian MacLaurin, Managing Director, Tesco Stores each looked at the prospects for their own companies. Below we summarise some of their conclusions.

Views the closure of a hospital in an unusual manner. Questions the role of health workers as “care in the community” comes to the fore. Raises questions about psychiatric hospitals, people with mental health problems and mental health workers.

As computers, the Internet, online digital resources, and eventually the National Information Infrastructure become increasingly important in our lives, the study of the use of these technologies has become one of the fastest growing areas in social science. This research is important, but, like any kind of social science involving the study of human subjects, it raises questions of ethics and human dignity. Most major research universities have guidelines for this kind of scholarship, based on the Nuremberg Code and/or the Belmont Principles. But research in cyberspace was clearly not on the minds of those drafting these guidelines. Some of the difficulties produced by this tension between traditional guidelines and new technologies are discussed.

For the last seven years we have been involved in feasibility studies, applying the economist's rigorous cost benefit analysis techniques to training investments and activities. The progress of the research has been well documented in various journals. Very early on it was demonstrated that although cost benefit techniques could be applied to certain forms of operator training, they only formed a part of the armoury of a training evaluator when more complicated skills and job organisations were encountered. In 1970 a progress summary was published in this journal. As a part of the current debate about the evaluation of training we have been asked to write a further progress summary. Rather than repeating parts of other articles we have attempted to do two things in this article: first to clarify some confusion we see developing in the terms used by trainers, and secondly to air some ideas which are being developed in the various research projects in which we are engaged. In this way we hope we can illustrate, by implication, the current thinking in the ITS about evaluation of training.

WITH A PICKET LINE on the front door of Islington Town Hall where the meeting of June 12 was being held, Council might have been denuded of its NALGO members, but there did not seem any numerical difference made to the attendance and the President assured everyone present that they were not really blacklegs!

Many engineering staff in the Health Service, from craftsmen to professional engineers, enter from outside the service at varying stages in their careers and from a variety of previous employments. Whilst more is now being done in the way of basic training via a substantial craft apprenticeship scheme and an honours degree studentship scheme, it is likely that substantial outside recruitment will continue for the foreseeable future. The Health Service is not primarily an engineering organisation, engineering staff total only 10 000 out of a total of 800 000 employees and the main training effort is of course in the medical, para medical, and nursing fields. Thus the engineering side of the Health Service contains numbers of staff trained in their basic trade or profession, but lacking knowledge of areas specialised to the Health Service. Because of their diversity of backgrounds and the breadth of knowledge required in the Health Service there are also gaps in more basic knowledge. Also, given the pace of change in some technologies, updating is necessary for all staff.

PRACTICALLY everyone engaged in work study concentrates on new methods and the measurement of work. We pause to wonder whether enough attention is paid to the unmeasurable factors because these outweigh those which can be observed. The unseen factors of boredom, social maladjustment, and other emotional facets create fatigue and stress—especially in female workers. Why are there not more female work study practitioners to operate in factories where female labour predominates? Such women, after being properly trained in time and motion study, should receive psychological training and, as a result, female operatives would rise to a greater level of co‐operation and ultimate working efficiency. The notion that only men should work study female operatives is a myth which should be exploded. Let there be more female work study practitioners. And the sooner the better.