Stafford Hospital Enquiry

[Memphis]

The report of findings from the enquiry looking into failings at Stafford Hospital is due at 11.30 this morning.

 

As an NHS worker myself, sadly I don't think I'll be surprised at much of the report. I think the only surprise will be that it hadn't happened earlier, or probably did but has been well covered up.

[Caz or caz123]

The report of findings from the enquiry looking into failings at Stafford Hospital is due at 11.30 this morning.

 

As an NHS worker myself, sadly I don't think I'll be surprised at much of the report. I think the only surprise will be that it hadn't happened earlier, or probably did but has been well covered up.

 

We've been hearing some horrendous stuff re Stafford Hospital Lee and it really is very very worrying. I'm just surprised that not a lot seems to have been reported 'at the time' if you understand what i'm saying. Or, were wrong doings reported then swept under the carpet?

 

Which ever is the case how can we be sure that such things aren't happening in our other local hospitals. I'm just in the process of making a complaint to the North Staffs. I do know from experience thought that all that will happen is that i'll get stock reply to ensure me that it's being looked into and i'll be assured that everyone is aware etc etc etc. Anyway, sorry that's off topic . I'll look forward to seeing the findings. Will it be in public domain today?

[Memphis]

It's been read through now, and released about midday.

 

The problem with enquiries like this is the headlines that it makes for the NHS.

 

I'm a great believer in the values of the NHS and what it stands for and vehemently defend people's right to access it, but also receive the care that they both need and deserve.

 

Sadly I feel that this will be another reason for people, not least politicians, (who incidentally are as culpable as anybody in any failings), to put the boot in.

 

I feel genuine sadness that anybody feels the need to make complaints regarding the care, or not as the case may be, that they have received. I try to instil in student nurses the understanding that we are the face of the NHS, and that we need to be seen to be the people that the public believe we should be.

[For Us All]

A lot of work will need to be done to restore confidence.

[Caz or caz123]

OH, don't worry Lee. I know just how much politicians are to blame for more than we'd initially believe.

 

I only have praise for the care we've both received 'on the floor' as it were. The care that both myself and especially hubby have received from direct nursing has been second to none and long may that continue.. My complaint is regarding the passing on of information that could have made a huge difference to where we are right now. The non nursing side of things. Admin really I suppose.

 

Having said all that I'd still have huge problems with being admitted to Stafford Hospital and that's such a shame because i'm sure that there a lots of folk there who're doing a brilliant job. It's going to take a long time for people to have much confidence in that particular hospital.

[For Us All]

Apparently,Cameron is setting on a Chief Inspector of Hospitals?

[For Us All]

The report into the Mid-Staffordshire care scandal has said:-

 

"NHS staff are set for one of the biggest overhauls in the organisation with doctors and nurses facing prosecution if they do not reveal poor care in the future."

[Warren]

Under the last government they embraced what came to be known as strategic regulation not only in the NHS but in other sectors like financial services, social care, education etc. This was an unmitigated disaster and particularly in financial services. It was predicated on performance indicator monitoring instead of robust inspection and most of all on the principle that people will be good and self regulate. It reflects the infection of politics with people who have never worked or managed outside politics. This is true of all the political parties now.

 

In the NHS this problem leads to constant reorganisation by secretaries of state who don't have skills (e.g. Lansley) and no idea how to lead properly. I don't know what the solution is because this is locked in to our governmental arrangements now.

[melv]

A big THANK YOU should go to Julie Bailey for her hard work,determination,time and effort.

[Warren]

It is important that the public wake up to reality. Nurses are not angels and doctors are not super heroes. There is a mystique about healthcare that enables people in these professions to get away with emotional blackmail, laziness, misconduct and incompetence with relative impunity and then to transfer blame to administrators and middle management. This report is good, but it is off blaming the accountants when the real place of blame is all about organisational culture in senior management and in wards and clinics. Money doesn't make people abuse other people.

[davidatpreston]

It is important that the public wake up to reality. Nurses are not angels and doctors are not super heroes. There is a mystique about healthcare that enables people in these professions to get away with emotional blackmail, laziness, misconduct and incompetence with relative impunity and then to transfer blame to administrators and middle management. This report is good, but it is off blaming the accountants when the real place of blame is all about organisational culture in senior management and in wards and clinics. Money doesn't make people abuse other people.

 

It would have been better if you had said SOME nurses are not angels, and SOME doctors not super heroes. I won't go through my own health problems over the last 5 years, but hopefully having just come out of hospital after another op, a much improved prospect is around.

From my own experiences though, I will say that at the Lancashire hospitals where I have been a patient in recent times, the massive majority of the nurses and the often-forgotten support staff of various types were doing a magnificent job and as long as they were not treated as near-dirt, responded well under great pressure despite there just not being enough of them. This clearly was not the case at Stafford so perhaps I was lucky.

I can't come to terms with the fact that they are saying no individuals will be punished for hundreds of deaths but what you wrote above as a generalisation about blackmail, laziness etc is not fair or balanced.

That Chief Exec needs to go, there needs to be examples made where patients were denied basic care (it beggars belief that they had to drink water from vases) and show that Stafford and other rotten egg corners of the NHS can be cleaned up - Cameron is on trial to sort this, and quickly. But I don't think we should blacken the names of the huge number of good NHS staff.

[For Us All]

Imagine this scenario,eating a Findus lasagne,developing a handicap and waking up to find out you were in Stafford hospital,how would you feel?

[geosname]

Money doesn't make people abuse other people.

 

Are you serious?

[Warren]

It would have been better if you had said SOME nurses are not angels, and SOME doctors not super heroes. I won't go through my own health problems over the last 5 years, but hopefully having just come out of hospital after another op, a much improved prospect is around.

From my own experiences though, I will say that at the Lancashire hospitals where I have been a patient in recent times, the massive majority of the nurses and the often-forgotten support staff of various types were doing a magnificent job and as long as they were not treated as near-dirt, responded well under great pressure despite there just not being enough of them. This clearly was not the case at Stafford so perhaps I was lucky.

I can't come to terms with the fact that they are saying no individuals will be punished for hundreds of deaths but what you wrote above as a generalisation about blackmail, laziness etc is not fair or balanced.

That Chief Exec needs to go, there needs to be examples made where patients were denied basic care (it beggars belief that they had to drink water from vases) and show that Stafford and other rotten egg corners of the NHS can be cleaned up - Cameron is on trial to sort this, and quickly. But I don't think we should blacken the names of the huge number of good NHS staff.

 

I respect your view and when you are ill or a relative is ill all that is wanted is help and cure. A nurse is a professional paid a reasonable wage for the difficulty of job and training. A doctor who is a GP is likely to be paid £100k per year and a consultant can expect to earn - via the NHS or referred to private care - £200k per year. Therefore let us look at these people with objectivity.

 

Below is a post I put on Public Finance earlier.

There is mystique in the NHS and healthcare generally. The public have nurses aligned with angels and doctors as super heroes who are unduly revered to the point of being unchallengeable. This allows these professions in particular to engage in emotional blackmail, laziness, misconduct and incompetence with relative impunity.

 

Of course the members of the Trust Board and all those in senior clinical and managerial positions at Stafford are responsible. They should be held to account. Surely there is a case for prosecution for corporate manslaughter under the 2007 act and surely too where injury and death have been caused by neglect a case for personal prosecutions under the Health and Safety at Work Act which does embrace injury to the public as well as workers.

 

Culture is at the centre of this. We can come at the problems that arose from all angles but you end up back in two places – the culture in the board room and senior management and the culture in delivering patient treatment and care in wards and clinics. I don’t accept that accountants are responsible for this and it is a common ploy to blame administration and middle management in the NHS to deflect blame.

 

But let me be controversial here. If I found my wife or my children or elderly relative in the condition that patients have been found there would be a serious incident. I would call the police, I would refuse to leave and I would confront directly the staff involved. The confrontation may become violent. I do not understand how such a situation did not blow up on many occasions and bring down the people running the hospital.

[Andyregs]

Got to be a WUM