National Death Service

"I put my hand inside and felt an organ and I pulled it..."

2012-01-12T14:37:00.003Z

File that one under 'things you don't want to hear at an inquest'...

Dr Carter said as a result of the death operating procedure had been modified slightly and the new method communicated "worldwide".

The 'new method', presumably, being 'Don't let the trainee have a go, and if you do and they mess it up, don't then rummage around in there like you were looking in your cutlery drawer for that pickle-fork you know you had just a few weeks ago'....

Yes, They Really Should Have, Shouldn't They?

2011-12-30T09:30:00.002Z

"I can't believe they did what they did. Someone should have checked everything they needed was there before they got my mum into theatre.

"I just hope we don't experience anything like it again."

So much for the NHS being the wonder of the world...

Adam Brooks, clinical director for specialist support, which covers operating theatres at NUH, said: "We're sorry that Mrs Taylor's operation was delayed on 1 December.

"The specialist equipment (metal plates and screws) needed for her surgery had not returned from being sterilised – which is vital for the safety of such a procedure. We apologised to Mrs Taylor at the time and were able to reschedule her operation for the following week.

"All of our theatres equipment at NUH goes through a thorough checking process to ensure everything is of the highest quality and within sterilisation dates."

Look, Adam, no-one's suggesting that it doesn't, or that it should be any different. What they do expect is that your surgical staff should ensure they have everything they need to hand before they start searching for a place to stick the epidural.

It's only common sense, after all. Haven't your staff ever put together anything bought from MFI or IKEA?

Oh, Well, So Long As The Paperwork's In Place....

2011-12-12T11:24:00.001Z

A father has hit out after a York Hospital doctor failed to consult next of kin before filling in a “do not attempt resuscitation” form for his son.

Gosh, and they said this’d never happen!

… kidney patient Andrew Watson’s condition deteriorated one night while his parents, Peter and Sheila, were asleep at their home in Wigginton.

Peter Watson only found out the following afternoon about the decision not to attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation if his son went into cardio respiratory arrest.

Whoops! However, the hospital has an excuse ready.

Not a good one, admittedly:

However, hospital bosses said a DNACPR form was not a consent form, but was intended as a record that a discussion about the decision had taken place.

*BZZZZZT!*

Still wrong. Because no discussion had…

Mr Watson said he disputed some of the findings of an investigation into the incident.

He said: “I do not intend to let this lie, as I do not want any patient, partner or next of kin to be put through the same distress that we had to suffer, and I don’t believe the trust will do anything constructive if left to manage it themselves.”

Does anyone? Anyone at all? Bueller?

Sarah Lovell, directorate manager for acute and general medicine, who investigated the matter, said in a report that Andrew had not been well enough for the decision to have been discussed with him and the doctor concerned had intended to discuss it with his next of kin.

Well, that road to hell is just paved with intentions, eh, Sarah?

She acknowledged staff could have made more pro-active attempts to arrange for a discussion much earlier in the day.

And could have, say, not simply filled the form in regardless….

The Sinking Ship Suffers A Bit Of A Manpower Problem...

2011-12-03T09:00:00.003Z

A leading surgeon quit an NHS hospital in disgust, claiming that patients routinely suffered due to a lack of resources.

But I bet the hospital administrator's office doesn't suffer a lack of deep-pile carpet and personal coffee machines...

He is one of five surgeons to have quit the hospital in the last year.

And you'd think that would prompt questions in high places, wouldn't you?

“Something has happened but don’t worry, it is ok.”

2011-10-30T10:00:00.003Z

Really? Not the words I'd use to describe this, and maybe the hospital had a rethink, because later - incredibly - there was no mention of it:

‘She said she would tell me when I came in to visit in the afternoon but when I got there they didn’t even mention it.

‘All I know is that Anthony woke up and he said the man had his hands round his neck and that someone must have pulled him off, and then they took him off.

‘He wasn’t all that good. I wouldn’t say he was dangerously ill but he just said he didn’t feel all that right. They kept asking him to drink water.

‘But Anthony was one of those people who didn’t like to make a fuss. He’d just say, “Oh I’m all right.”

But wait, you say, how was this allowed to happen in the first place? Wasn't he under guard?

Well, incredibly, the answer appears to have been 'Yes':

The UK Border Agency confirmed it is in the process of attempting to remove the Iranian man. A spokesman said: ‘We are reviewing this incident and, if necessary, will take appropriate action.

‘The detainee was handcuffed and accompanied by three escorts when the incident occurred.’

What were they doing?

NHS – More Concerned About Punishing The Leaker…

2011-10-15T10:00:00.002+01:00

…than resolving questions about the competency of their staff:

NHS officials have called in police officers as part of an investigation to identify a hospital worker whose leak of confidential information highlighted serious allegations about the work of a doctor.

And no doubt that effort is 100% greater than that they expended on the actual allegations…

Now Staffordshire Police is applying for a court order to force an internet provider to name the mystery worker who revealed that some of the work of University Hospital of North Staffordshire (UHNS) radiologist Dr Changez Jadun was branded 'negligent'.

Branded by whom? Some troublemaker with a grudge?

No. His own colleagues:

The documents showed how two external and one internal inquiry had been carried out into the safety of Dr Jadun's work.

Fears over the safety of his work were raised by both a national expert and then three of his fellow consultants.

The paperwork contained the names of a number of Dr Jadun's patients; and hospital bosses say that broke the law.

And can they spare some time away from the international manhunt to deal with the allegations?

After a string of new reviews into dozens of patients Dr Jadun operated on, the radiologist is to be allowed back to work full-time.

Ah. Great. So we don't know why the allegations were made, nor whether there was any basis to them. But I think we can guess why the unknown leaker felt he/she had no option but to take this route...

NHS loses CD of 1.6 MILLION patients' records

2011-09-21T07:31:00.001+01:00

An NHS trust has told patients that it is acting to improve its data handling practices after a rebuke from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for losing a CD containing details on 1.6 million people.

Chief executive of NHS Kent and Medway Ann Sutton said that information is now more secure following the implementation of encryption systems to replace the use of floppy discs and CDs.

Last week the trust was handed an undertaking by the information watchdog after sending the personal information to a landfill during an office move in March. The ICO said the data contained the names, addresses, dates of birth, NHS numbers and GP details of those affected.

Source: The Register.

Are The Words ‘No, Love, It’s Supposed To Look Like That’ So Hard Then..?

2011-08-24T12:20:00.001+01:00

GPs should not refer women who are well but worried for female genital cosmetic surgery on the NHS, say experts.

Well, duh!

Specialists at a Central London teaching hospital say they received 30 such referrals, mainly from family doctors, over the past three years.

This included eight schoolgirls - one as young as 11 - the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology reports.

Experts say doctors need clear guidance on how best to care for women who mistakenly believe they need surgery.

Sorry, why? Don’t they do five years at medical school? How hard can it be?

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons says medics need to determine whether a problem exists or whether an alternative solution may be preferable, but offers no advice on how to judge the problem, say the researchers from University College London's Women's Health Institute.

If it’s not an actual clinical problem, what sort of advice should you need?

They say it may be simpler to ban the procedure in the NHS altogether, leaving it to private practices.

Well, I’m all for this on cost grounds, actually, but then what about those who do have a real, clinical problem? Where do they go?

I mean, good grief, why is it so bloody hard for supposed ‘professionals’ to just do the damned job they are paid for?

Dr Sarah Creighton and colleagues believe the future demand for so-called "designer vagina" operations or labial reductions is potentially infinite and is driven by society's wider and growing desire for cosmetic surgery in general and changing expectations about what is a desirable appearance for women.

Yes, you can certainly blame the media and women’s magazines and fads started by the permatanned chavs of Essex and Cheshire for the desire for such surgery.

But you can’t blame the GPs’ reluctance to address those issues with their patients, and to send them for unnecessary and costly surgery on the NHS, on that.

Can you?

The Fundamental Problem With Nursing...

2011-08-05T11:58:00.000+01:00

Sir Stephen Moss, chairman of Stafford Hospital and himself a nurse for 40 years, said that “too many patients and families” are being let down but that staff shortages are not to blame.

He suggested the problems lie in the training nurses receive as well as the way they work on hospital wards, and plans to lead a new campaign to improve standards.

I take it ‘the way they work on hospital wards’ is code for ‘they should put down ‘Heat’ magazine occasionally and check to see if elderly patients are starving to death’?

Unions and professional bodies have suggested that the problems are down to staff being over-worked or forced to focus on Government targets rather than providing personal care.

Because if it wasn’t for the government telling them how to do every tiny small task, they’d be completely unable to understand that patients need to be fed and floors need to be washed?

But other commentators have claimed that too much care is now provided by cheap healthcare assistants, who do not need to meet national training standards and who are not regulated by a professional body; or that nurses think they are “above” feeding and cleaning patients now that they have to be university-educated.

Surely not!

Sir Stephen is drawing together a group of seven “big hitters” in the health service to suggest ways that hospital care can be improved.

Their plans, to be disclosed in September, will focus on how nurses can be trained for “the real world of the NHS rather than the classroom” .

I can’t say this isn’t welcome, but I fear it’s too little, and far too late.

Nostalgia Alert! Rationing's Back In Fashion!

2011-07-29T09:00:00.001+01:00

Health service trusts are “imposing pain and inconvenience” by making patients wait longer than necessary, in some cases as long as four months, the study found.

Executives believe the delays mean some people will remove themselves from lists “either by dying or by paying for their own treatment” claims the report, by an independent watchdog that advises the NHS.

And this surprises people? It was always bound to happen…

But managers, who are already rationing surgery for cataracts, hips, knees and tonsils, say they must restrict treatment as the NHS is under orders to make £20 billion of efficiency savings by 2015.

Because, clearly, there are no other possible ways of making those efficiency savings, I suppose?

H/T: AC1

Those Selfless, Caring NHS Staff....

2011-06-30T11:25:00.000+01:00

An elderly hospital patient suffered severe brain damage and died after staff turned down the volume on an alarm system monitoring his heart.

Ahhh, those caring NHS staff…

An investigation found the volume of the heart-monitor alarm had been turned down to 40 per cent of its maximum on November 21, 2008.

The speakers had also been turned the wrong way and covered in paperwork.

An accident? Carelessness?

No…

An inquest sitting with a jury at Hanley Town Hall yesterday heard the volume could not have been reduced accidentally as someone has to change the settings on a computer system.

Under questioning, the staff adopt the sort of attitude you’d expect from state-run healthcare ‘professionals’:

Margaret Archer, a sister at the hospital at the time of the incident, said she had not heard the crisis alarm sound when Mr Bough’s condition worsened.

North Staffordshire coroner Ian Smith asked her: ‘Is this a case where someone on your shift has just turned the volume down, or has it been like this for some considerable time?’

She replied: ‘I don’t know. I wouldn’t have allowed anyone to do it.’

Are you sure?

Because clearly you didn’t notice the speakers or the paperwork, so we can only conclude you were quite happy to allow that…

After restarting Mr Bough’s heart, Dr Satchi checked the telemetry system that monitors the heart rates of up to ten patients on the ward.

‘I checked the monitor, which appeared to still be flashing red, but there was no audible alarm,’ he said.

‘I checked the screen to see if it had detected an abnormal heart rhythm and it had done so for between 15 and 17 minutes.’

Mr Smith told Dr Satchi: ‘Had he been treated promptly, the likelihood is you would have got his heart back earlier and he wouldn’t have suffered the significant brain damage he did.’

Dr Satchi replied: ‘Yes.’

And the verdict?

As Mr Bough’s relatives sobbed in the gallery, the coroner ruled that he died of natural causes ‘exacerbated by an act of omission causing alerts from the heart monitoring to not be seen or heard’

Why not call it what it was – criminal negligence?

Hospital pillows riddled with infection

2011-06-24T16:37:00.000+01:00

Hospital patients are at risk of catching infections such as MRSA and C. difficile from "biohazard" pillows which are ridden with 30 different bugs, according to a new study.

Nurses are required to regularly wash their hands and disinfect bed frames and mattresses, but underestimate the risk of infection from dirty pillows, a report said.

But dead skin, dandruff, dirty air and contaminated fluids found on pillows in hospital wards expose patients to the risk of diseases ranging from seasonal flu to chickenpox, hepatitis and even leprosy, it was claimed.

The study by The Barts and The London NHS Trust found 30 different types of infection in a sample of pillows taken from hospital wards, posing a significant risk of infection.

While used linen and bedding is changed and laundered between patients and is routinely cleaned, the study found a "very high and unacceptable percentage" of damaged pillows on three test wards.

Tears to the lining or stitching of pillows mean they cannot be effectively cleaned and patients could be exposed to infection through the mouth, nose, eyes and ears, the report said.

Germs are released through tears and the stitching of standard NHS pillows when pressure is applied – for example when a patient lays their head down, it added.

Source: Telegraph

Elderly told: Bang tambourine to call for nurses' help

2011-06-22T14:09:00.000+01:00

HOSPITAL chiefs have apologised after giving elderly patients a TAMBOURINE to call for nurses in an emergency.

The musical instrument was left in a day room after older patients feared they were too far away for nurses to hear any cries for help.

A pair of maracas were also handed out as a back-up — in case the tambourine failed.

But an NHS watchdog complained and bosses are now providing a hand bell - and making sure patients are accompanied.

Cardiff Royal Infirmary is well known for its long corridors and has been used to film episodes of TV's Dr Who.

Staff put the tambourine in the West Wing day room following complaints from frail patients that they struggled to get the attention of staff.

Source: The Sun

Accountability? What Accountability..?

2011-06-16T09:10:00.002+01:00

A GP who sent a four-year-old girl home with a fatal pneumonia infection can continue practicing medicine after a hearing found he had “learned his lesson”.

Oh, really?

Dr Shoab Ibrahim failed to listen to the concerns of the girl’s parents and did not carry out “simple but important” tests that would have shown she was seriously ill.

Yes, clearly a very easy mistake to make for someone whose job consists mostly of listening to patients and then ordering tests….

/facepalm

Ibrahim, who practices at the Robert Frew Medical Centre, in Silva Island Way, Wickford, was told by the General Medical Council he was guilty of misconduct in his treatment of the girl, but that his failings were “highly unlikely to be repeated”.

Panel chairman Sheleen McCormack told him: “You have shown insight into your misconduct and you have remedied the deficiencies in this case.

“The panel does not consider your fitness to practice is impaired.”

That doesn’t seem to jibe with this part of the summing up, though:

Ms McCormack said the girl’s parents had been “clear, consistent and reliable” in their evidence, whereas the doctor was “inconsistent in several material respects”.

That sounds very, very close to ‘We caught you out in a lie several times’. Doesn’t it?

Ibrahim, who qualified in Pakistan in 1988, can now continue practicing without restrictions as a result of the decision.

Great. Glad he isn’t my GP.

Bullied by the NHS, cancer patient who complained about his treatment online

2011-06-11T13:32:00.000+01:00

A cancer patient who wrote an online diary highlighting failings in his hospital care has been threatened with legal action by a ‘bullying’ NHS trust.

Retired publican Daniel Sencier, 59, was so worried about delays and damaging administrative problems at his local hospital that he arranged to have surgery for his prostate cancer in another part of the country.

Following his successful operation Mr Sencier campaigned for improvements at Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle because he wanted to help other patients. He lodged a formal complaint and an internal inquiry resulted in an eight-point ‘action plan’ to improve procedures.

But instead of apologising to Mr Sencier, NHS bosses have hired lawyers with orders to clamp down on his blog.

A letter sent by solicitors Ward Hadaway, acting for North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, warned him: ‘The Trust will monitor the content of your blog and if it contains information that is not factually correct or which contains unsubstantiated criticism of the care you received at the Trust, the Trust will have no hesitation in considering taking legal action against you.’

Mr Sencier and his supporters were planning a demonstration outside the hospital, but legal action has been threatened over that too.

The father of five said he was appalled that health service managers would rather spend ‘thousands of pounds’ to pursue him than put into effect the low-cost measures to improve patient-doctor communication he has called for.

Source: Daily Mail

Ice, Ice Baby...

2011-06-09T11:50:00.002+01:00

Debra Sanderson said her son was told by doctors at Royal Blackburn Hospital his leg needed to be packed with ice to reduce heavy swelling so he could undergo an operation.

But when she asked nurses for ice, Mrs Sanderson said she was told they had run out.

Run out of ice? Isn’t it just frozen water?

Can’t they make some, or has the NHS lost the recipe?

She said she was forced to visit a supermarket twice a day to buy ice cubes herself for her son, who spent 10 days in hospital after injuring his ankle while playing football.

I’d be damned if I’d do that!

Especially as it turned out there was no need – there was ice available, it was just that the useless, lazy, incompetent staff couldn’t be bothered to go get some, recommended by the doctor or not:

Hospital bosses said ice had been available elsewhere in the hospital, but the trust admitted this had not been made clear to the family.

Well, no. I bet it wasn’t:

Mrs Sanderson, 45, of Sutton Avenue, Burnley, said her son was taken to Blackburn by ambulance and was visited by a consultant the following day.

She said she was told her son’s leg would need to be kept elevated and packed with ice.

“When we went in to see him on the Sunday he was in some discomfort,” she said.

“I asked the nurses if he could have his ice replaced because it had begun to melt.

“When we went back that evening it still hadn’t been done.

“I asked a nurse again because nearly five hours had elapsed. She said ‘unfortunately we’ve no ice’.

“I said, ‘I’m sure in a hospital this size there is somewhere you can get some ice’, and she said ‘we can’t, the machines are all broken’.

Translation: ‘The ones nearest our station are broken and we can’t be arsed to put our copies of ‘Heat’ and ‘Hello!’ down for the five minutes it’d take to go get it.’

Mrs Sanderson said: “It’s not so much the money, because the ice cost about £3 a day.

"It’s that I don’t want it to happen to anybody else.

“We’ve had an email saying it was a lack of communication, but it wasn’t a lack of communication in my opinion, it was neglect.”

Yes. Yes, it was…

Lynn Wissett, deputy chief executive of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said it had contacted the family within four hours of receiving Mr Birtwistle’s email and met with them the next day.

She said: “The patient’s leg needed a very large amount of ice to reduce the swelling, meaning ice flowing through the ward’s machine was not quite enough.

“There are a number of machines across the hospital and the trust has always had enough ice to meet the needs of patients.

“Unfortunately, the availability of ice elsewhere in the hospital had not been made clear to the patient and his family.

“At our meeting, we explained that enough ice was always available to meet all of our patients’ needs, and further explained this patient’s treatment plan.

“We are, as with any patient, happy to meet with this patient and his family again.”

I’m not generally in favour of the compensation culture, but in this case, maybe if it came directly out of the lackadaisical staff’s wage packet, it’d actually make a difference?

Third World Healthcare...

2011-06-08T13:20:00.001+01:00

41-year-old Mr Thompson had taken a cocktail of drink and drugs but instead of taking him to accident and emergency, staff at the Edale House unit at the Manchester Royal Infirmary left him sprawled on the floor, where he eventually died.

And before they discovered that he was dead….

CCTV captured staff pulling the lifeless body of Peter Thompson along the floor like they were 'dragging the body of a dead animal'.

The family are appalled at the CCTV footage. And at the attitude of the staff.

Senior nurse Helen De Lacy-Leacey said she alerted night staff that the patient was outside the doors of the ward and asked them to: 'keep an eye on him and make sure he is okay'.

And did they?

Well….

… night manager Steve Soobhug said leaving him to sleep outside was 'the appropriate method of handling the situation at the time'.

If he’d just been drunk rather than dying (in some Third World-standard hospital), you might - might - have had a point. But he wasn’t.

Fellow senior staff nurse Miss Dini Oyebadejo said she checked on the patient several more times overnight but discovered him 'stiff' at 6.15am and raised the alarm.

Eh? Rigor mortis had set in? So all those ‘checks’ you claimed to have done failed to pick up the absence of life?

No wonder the coroner’s asking questions…

I Think I Preferred You When You Were Denying People Cancer Drugs, Frankly…

2011-06-07T08:50:00.001+01:00

Fast-food chains could be told to cut the size of portions of chips, the chairman of the NHS watchdog says.

Shouldn’t the NHS watchdog have far more important things to concern itself with, given the poor performance of so many of its hospitals?

Sir Michael Rawlins said the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) may produce guidelines to recommend smaller servings to help combat obesity.

Well, that’s fine, then. Guidelines can be ignored, can’t they?

Sir Michael, who leaves Nice next year to become president of the Royal Society of Medicine, said: ‘Someone had actually reduced the number of chips in a standard portion.

‘Nobody noticed, which is quite interesting. Nice could suggest it.

‘It could be a recommendation. When it comes to obesity we have to do more to help people reduce their intake of food.

'It is not a single bullet but a whole variety of things that we need to do to help people and help communities.’

I really don’t think we need that kind of ‘help’. I’m pretty sure we don’t need to pay you to come up with it, either…

The watchdog is drawing up guidelines to help councils and health trusts tackle obesity.

This is expected to be published in November 2012 following public consultation.

What sort of public consultation?

The sort where the public point out what useless, counter-productive nannying claptrap you’ve come up with, and you then go ahead regardless?

The details are unlikely to include specific advice telling fast-food chains and restaurants to cut chip portions.

However, Sir Michael indicated that in future the watchdog could suggest such measures.

Suggest away. I’m sure everyone will feel free to treat your suggestions with all the attention they really deserve.

None.

Fifth mother dies at 'worst maternity unit in the country' as sister blasts doctors for 'delaying treatment'

2011-06-04T10:13:00.001+01:00

Violet Stephens, 35, died just days after the Care Quality Commission delivered another damning report on Queen's Hospital in Romford, Essex. Last year the hospital had three maternal deaths which makes its death rate three times higher than the national average for maternity units.

Ms Stephens, a care worker, from Brentwood, Essex, was rushed to hospital at the beginning of April when she was 32 weeks pregnant. She had raised blood pressure a warning sign that she might have the potentially fatal condition pre eclampsia. It was her third pregnancy and she had suffered from the condition at the same stage of her first pregnancy.

But staff delayed giving her a caesarean operation for four days and she died soon after surgery from HELLP Syndrome an advanced form of pre-eclampsia...

Source: Daily Mail.

Mother-of-two dies after doctors give her 16 times correct dose of labour-inducing drug

2011-06-04T10:11:00.001+01:00

Suzanne Ballantyne, 47, a partner at Capsticks Solicitors, was being treated at St George's Hospital in London, after her unborn child died in the womb 39 weeks into her pregnancy.

Doctors gave her an 800-microgramme dose of misoprostol, as recommended by the Trust's in-house protocol, in an attempt to induce labour and retrieve the foetus. However, the drug is known to put patients at increased risk of tears to the uterus.

Guidelines from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists - published just four days before Mrs Ballantyne's death last November - recommend doses of no higher than 50mcg...

Source: Daily Mail.

Up to 400 women are suing Liverpool Women's NHS Trust, claiming their incontinence was made worse by surgeon George Rowland.

2011-05-30T20:49:00.000+01:00

A hospital is to pay compensation to hundreds of women who were given the wrong treatment for incontinence.

Up to 400 women are suing Liverpool Women's NHS Trust, claiming their incontinence was made worse by surgeon George Rowland.

Mr Rowland, a former consultant urogynaecologist at the hospital, is accused of performing inappropriate operations and giving poor post-operative care.

Of the 400 women suing the Trust, around 70 cases have been processed and, in 50% of these cases the hospital has admitted negligence and offered compensation.

That is according to Ian Cohen from Liverpool law firm Goodmans Law, which is handling most of the claims.

The women, who had pre-existing incontinence problems, all went to Mr Rowland between the mid-1990s and 2007.

Some then underwent unnecessary procedures, some of which were badly done, according to Mr Cohen.

The outcomes of some of the operations had been "life changing" for some patients, he said.

"Some women have gone in with minor symptoms and have been left double incontinent and have come away with very significant problems. It is horrendous."

It is believed to be one of the largest group actions ever taken against an NHS trust and the eventual cost could run up to £10m.

The General Medical Council has now imposed conditions on Mr Rowland's licence to practise and ruled he must not carry out any urogynaecological surgical procedures.

A spokeswoman for Liverpool Women's NHS Trust said that Mr Rowland no longer worked at the hospital.

Source: Sky News

Travel Broadens The Mind, But Doesn't Do Much For Kidney Disease...

2011-05-27T10:59:00.001+01:00

A woman has to endure 12 hours of travel a week to get lifesaving dialysis because no nearby hospital has room for her.

But…but….but all that money Labour poured into the NHS! Where’s it all gone?

Mrs Rusack was hoping to be able to use new renal dialysis facilities at Clacton. The introduction of a unit offering dialysis treatment at Kennedy House, in Kennedy Way, was announced in 2009 and the new unit was supposed to open in spring 2010.

Complications with building work delayed the project and it is still not operational.

Oh, blame the builders?

Janice Rowe spearheaded the campaign to get the unit.

She said: “I’m appalled at the delay.

“As far as I know all the equipment is in there waiting but not being used.”

Ah. Maybe not, then.

A spokesman for NHS north east Essex said the delays were mainly due to changes in NHS policy and legislation.

He said: “We are optimistic this situation can be resolved in the near future and it is hoped we will be able to open the Clacton unit in the next 12 months.”

‘It is hoped…’ ‘In the next 12 months’. Not exactly rushing, are they?

In the comments, it turns out this isn’t even news:

janiscurtis, Holland on Sea says...

In 2002 my father had to do the same journey, leaving Clacton sometimes as early as 4am & returning late evening. He fell and broke his hip whilst in the London Hospital and contracted MRSA while staying there. This was no surprise as the conditions were less than ideal.

Someone else, at least, is asking the right questions:

allanledwith, Colchester says...

janiscurtis you email your father had to make the same journey in 2002 and here we are in 2011 and nothing has changed! Its really disgraceful all the money pumped into the NHS by Labour in 13 years and no improvement. I challenged Cllr Julie Young about the new Turner Road Walk in Centre and the palatial offices on the first floor for the bureaucrats. Cllr Young defended that as a benefit. Here we are in 2011 and people are still having to travel to London for dialysis. Its diabolical! This is how Labour wasted NHS money plush offices and big salaries leaving patients in this situation! An answer for these people Councillor Young especially after Labour's prediction how well you will do in the coming election! Justify this - no change for these patients since 2002!

Hard to disagree.

Mother killed by a blood clot weeks after GP told her 'Don't worry, you won't drop dead'

2011-05-26T14:35:00.000+01:00

A woman who feared her continual migraines were life-threatening died weeks after a GP allegedly told her: ‘Don’t worry, you won’t drop dead.’

Lucy Rudol visited her doctor up to 50 times to voice her worries at the headaches which were leaving her in pain and confused, an inquest heard. After four years she was eventually given a scan which revealed blood clots on her brain and showed that Miss Rudol, of Reddish, Stockport, had suffered a series of minor strokes.

Her mother, Julie Harrison, a nurse, said: ‘Lucy started feeling numbness down her left side and she developed terrible headaches. Initially we believed the diagnoses of migraines and Lucy was relieved it was nothing serious. But the symptoms didn’t get any better and the medication they gave her didn’t work. She kept going back because she was so worried.

'I would estimate she went at least 50 times and I started to think it might be a bleed on the brain because I recognised the symptoms. But they just dismissed us. This went on for years and the symptoms started to get worse. She would get confused and one day she said she couldn’t understand the words in her book. One week, Lucy was so ill that went to see the GP three times, but it wasn’t until we insisted on a brain scan that they agreed. That was four years later.’

The scan was carried out in March last year and revealed blood clots on her brain which showed she had suffered a series of minor strokes...

Source: Daily Mail.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1390849/Mother-killed-blood-clot-weeks-GP-told-Dont-worry-wont-drop-dead.html#ixzz1NSup3Ooy

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

2011-05-22T09:10:00.001+01:00

The family of an elderly patient who died from dehydration said they were forced to give him water through a damp flannel - after hospital staff refused to put him on a drip.

One nurse allegedly told the man's daughter: 'You can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink' just days before he died.

If you treated a horse the way you treated that man, the RSPCA would want a word...

Another blundering doctor even said Kenneth was ready to be discharged only hours before he passed away - and told coroners his family were happy with his treatment.

Can you be done for perjury in a coroner's court?

Bosses at Royal Derby Hospital, where Kenneth had undergone a routine hip operation, have admitted a string of failures at an inquest into his death.

The hearing even discussed whether Mahya Mirfattiahi should face a police investigation for initially telling a coroner's officer the family were happy with his treatment.

No surprises what conclusion they eventually came to...

But Coroner for Derby and South Derbyshire, Robert Hunter eventually decided not to refer the doctor's actions to police.

Shocker, eh?

Dr Hunter was due to record a verdict last night - telling the family it could be one of accidental death, with a rider of neglect.

And it came to pass that this was, indeed, the verdict.

Brigid Stacey, director of nursing and midwifery, told his inquest: 'I offer sincere condolences to the family of Mr Walters and formally apologise for the insufficiencies.'

That's nice, dear. Who's losing their job, then?

Oh, no-one? How surprising...

Cuts? What Cuts?

2011-05-01T09:15:00.002+01:00

The coalition hasn't really got to grips with waste in the NHS. They've merely shifted it:

A healthcare watchdog plans to spend nearly a quarter of a million pounds on new communications staff – as hospitals prepare to shed thousands of jobs.

The Care Quality Commission, which regulates health and social care in England, is advertising for seven roles, including a digital communications content manager and technical web developer.

*sigh*

Mother dies of brain haemorrhage after hospital sent her home with painkillers

2011-04-22T14:58:00.002+01:00

Hospital chiefs have been forced to apologise after a mother with a brain haemorrhage died when she was sent home with painkillers.

York Hospitals NHS Trust has paid 'significant' compensation to the family of Dawn Liddell, 42, who collapsed and died four days after the consultation. Dawn would have had an 80-85 per cent chance of survival if she had been sent for a CT scan and then gone into a neurological unit for treatment.

Instead, she was sent home and told to contact her GP if her symptoms continued. Days later, she collapsed and died from a second haemorrhage after going back into hospital. Her mother Beryl says the treatment today is worse than in the 60s, when she had a haomorrhage and was rushed to hospital immediately where it was diagnosed.

Source: Daily Mail

Boy, 6, dies of meningitis after doctors tell him to 'go home and sleep off sore throat'

2011-04-13T13:12:00.000+01:00

A six-year-old boy died from meningitis just hours after he was sent home with antibiotics by hospital staff.

Mohammed Akheel Khan was rushed to Rochdale Infirmary Urgent Care Centre by his mother Safina, after he started vomiting at school. He was discharged by a doctor, who Mohammed's family say told them the little boy had tonsillitis and that they should let him 'sleep it off'.

But less than five hours later Mohammed was taken back to the hospital after his condition deteriorated. He was diagnosed with meningitis and died two hours later...

Source: Daily Mail.

Who Is The 'Customer'? Not You, That's For Sure...

2011-04-12T08:40:00.002+01:00

A nurse is under investigation after she allegedly gave a child the MMR jab without his mother’s consent.

Practice nurse Rashiela Parekh failed to ask permission before injecting the three-year-old and did not inform his parents that he had been given the jab until it was too late, his mother claims.

Robina Siddique has accused the nurse of giving her son the injection simply to meet Government targets.

Would anyone be surprised if this turned out to be the reason, rather than simple arrogance or incompetence?

Hospital bosses apologise after woman patient was left on trolley for SEVENTEEN HOURS

2011-04-07T13:56:00.001+01:00

Hospital chiefs have been forced to apologise after a patient was left on a trolley for 17 hours.

Mother-of-two Kathy Ollis-Brown, 47, was rushed to East Surrey Hospital in Redhill on Sunday after suffering an epileptic fit. She was still waiting on the trolley at 3.30pm on the following day before she was finally moved into a ward...

Source: Daily Mail

Woman is left brain damaged after waiting two hours for an ambulance... that was sitting only 100 YARDS away

2011-04-06T12:28:00.001+01:00

A woman suffered serious brain injuries and a heart attack after she was forced to wait two hours for an ambulance - which was sitting 100 yards away.

Caren Paterson, 33, collapsed in her flat in Islington, North London, before her boyfriend made three frantic 999 calls pleading for an ambulance to arrive.
Her brain was starved of oxygen.

Ms Paterson's family have now started legal proceedings against the London Ambulance Service after it emerged that staff were told not to enter the flat.

Paramedics were required to have a police escort, which was not available at the time, because officers had previously attended the address and deemed it 'high risk'.

But the Paterson's legal team believe the grading might have related to a different flat or was placed on the property several years before Ms Paterson, a medical researcher at King's College Hospital, moved in...

Source: Daily Mail

Former NHS director dies after operation is cancelled four times at her own hospital

2011-04-03T00:56:00.000+01:00

A former NHS director died after waiting for nine months for an operation - at her own hospital.

Margaret Hutchon, a former mayor, had been waiting since last June for a follow-up stomach operation at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex.

But her appointments to go under the knife were cancelled four times and she barely regained consciousness after finally having surgery.

Her devastated husband, Jim, is now demanding answers from Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust - the organisation where his wife had served as a non-executive member of the board of directors.

He said: 'I don't really know why she died. I did not get a reason from the hospital. We all want to know for closure. She got weaker and weaker as she waited and operations were put off.'

Mr Hutchon, of Great Baddow, Essex, said his wife, 72, had initially undergone major stomach surgery last June but the follow up procedures were repeatedly abandoned.

The former mayor remained at the hospital for months but her family feared she was becoming institutionalised and decided to bring her home until an operation was a certainty.

Source: Daily Mail

Foreign doctors work in Britain without speaking English

2011-03-30T11:13:00.000+01:00

Foreign doctors whose English is so poor that they need interpreters are being allowed to operate on patients in Britain, the medical regulator has warned.

The General Medical Council said current European rules represent a “serious cause of concern” and risk to patient safety by banning it from testing GPs’ language skills before they can start working here.
The regulator said it has some doctors on its books who "are not able to communicate in English" but could not prevent them seeking work here under European law.

It warned that bogus doctors from other countries may find their way into the NHS by presenting fake certificates or ID, because of a lack of security checks, or could hide the fact that they had been suspended from practising in their homeland.

Even genuine doctors from abroad may have little idea of how to carry out procedures that are standard in Britain, because there is no standard training, education or healthcare system.

The GMC’s strongly worded submission to the European Commission, which is reviewing the laws that allow free movement of medics across the continent, comes after the scandal of Daniel Ubani.

The German doctor, who worked mainly as a cosmetic surgeon, gave a lethal dose of painkillers to a 70 year-old English man on his first shift as a locum GP in Cambridgeshire, but the GMC had been unable to check if he had any experience in general practice.

Diane Abbott, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, said “inherent weaknesses in the vetting system” allowed the Ubani case to happen.

“To suggest that workers can operate in our healthcare system without proper training, assessments or being able to communicate with patients seems to me to be absurd."
Under the current system, doctors from the European Economic Area - the 27 European Union members states, along with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway - are allowed to work in Britain and 23,033 are registered to do so.

Unlike doctors who come to Britain from other parts of the world, the European single market means that the GMC has to accept their qualifications and is not allowed to test their competency or their English language skills. Potential NHS employers are allowed to carry out such assessments, however.
The regulator, which keeps a register of qualified doctors and holds disciplinary hearings that can result in them being struck off, has said that a handful of foreign doctors are on its books even though they cannot speak English.
Its submission to the EC states: “Currently, EEA applicants to the GMC register do not need to pass a language assessment even in cases where there is doubt.
“We have recent examples of EEA doctors seeking recognition and registration with the GMC who are not able to communicate in English and were assisted by an interpreter. This is a serious cause of concern to us.”
In such cases, all the watchdog can do is remind doctors they have a duty to understand the language of the country in which they are seeking to work, but it cannot prevent them from registering.

The GMC said it has already carried out fitness to practise cases in which doctors have been struck off or suspended partly as a result of their poor English.
In one case, a doctor was found “apparently speaking in a foreign language” in an operating theatre, leaving the assistant surgeon “unsure what assistance was required”.
The GMC said: “It remains our view that the ability of the professional to communicate effectively in the language of the host member state should be a prerequisite for registration and that we should be able to assess the knowledge of language where appropriate.”
In an apparent reference to the Ubani case, the GMC told the EC: “Recent events in the UK have highlighted some of the regulatory gaps that have the potential to harm patients and undermine confidence in both the single market in general and healthcare in particular.”
It warned the EC not to simplify the system of mutual recognition of doctors across Europe “at the expense of patient safety”.

The submission raised “serious concerns” about a code of conduct that prevents it from getting hold of translated copies of migrant doctors’ diplomas and proof of their identity, and said that a proposed “professional passport” also brings “significant risks” of fraud and forgery.
The GMC said that it and other regulators across Europe “cannot have full confidence in each other’s medical training and education” because there is so little knowledge about standards in different countries.
In addition, European states operate widely differing healthcare systems so that there is “patient safety risk” when foreign GPs are asked to carry out procedures they were unused to in their home countries.
It said doctors should only be registered to work elsewhere “when they are known to be fit and safe to practise and have no conditions or limitations on their registration”.

The Strange Case Of Abiola Abara

2011-03-30T09:10:00.001+01:00

Abiola Apara, 58, was sacked after a string of concerns were raised over her management of the hospital’s Lionel Cosins elderly people’s ward.

But it took a while:

Apara was initially suspended following complaints from staff and patients in spring 2007. Then, in September 2007, the entire ward was re-staffed. The hospital has refused to release details of its probe or comment on any irregular activities, but a source confirmed the investigation into Apara had looked into her recruitment of nurses.

And what was wrong with her recruitment of nurses?

The concerns came to light after Eileen Curry made an official complaint about conditions on the ward. Mrs Curry, 66, of Weathersfield Way, Wickford, complained following the death of her mother Catherine Talbot, 89. She was admitted to the hospital in April 2007 with shingles, and died the following month from blood poisoning caused by an infection she received in hospital. Mrs Talbot also caught superbug Clostridium Difficile while in the hospital. Mrs Curry told the Echo: “I was shocked when the hospital explained to me why conditions on the ward were so bad, partly because of the manager’s involvement in recruitment. “My mother was partially-sighted and deaf. She would have struggled to hear anyway, but the strong accents made it even harder for her to know what was happening. Many of the nurses failed to have any empathy with the patients, and were also rough with my mother. “It is nearly four years since my mother died, and the tribunal is only just happening.”

Ah. There’s a lot of clues here, isn't there?

Alan Whittle, hospital chief executive, wrote to Mrs Curry about her original complaint and stressed staff should look after patients regardless of any cultural differences.

Hmmm, that sounds awfully familiar….

Rationed osteoporosis drug is 17 times more effective

2011-03-27T22:04:00.000+01:00

Millions of women are being denied the benefits of an osteoporosis drug that is far more effective than the standard treatment, new research suggests.

An in-depth study found that strontium ranelate is 17 times better at boosting bone formation than the medication usually given to sufferers of the crippling condition.

It is also far easier to take than the recommended drug, which requires patients to stand or sit for half an hour after taking it and can cause stomach pains.

But strontium ranelate, which costs more than six times as much as the standard medication, is strictly rationed in England to older women at high risk of suffering fractures or who cannot take the usual drug, called alendronate.

Professor Roger Frances, from the Institute for Ageing and Health at the University of Newcastle, said: “These results are so important for patients as strontium ranelate is a proven drug that is already available on the NHS. This study clearly suggests that strontium ranelate helps patients to build new bone to a far greater extent than alendronate, the current standard of care.”

Source: Telegraph

"Show us yer dirty knickers, love!"

2011-03-26T08:25:00.001Z

For the last few years, she has counted on the health service to afford her dignity and security in her old age.

But now a blind 77-year-old widow has been left feeling dehumanised and humiliated by those who were supposed to be looking after her.

Edith Braddow, who was prescribed incontinence pads by a local clinic after being referred by her GP, says she was told to bring in three soiled pads if she wanted to continue to receive them.

This doesn't even make sense. It's not like she couldn't fake it if she wanted to, is it?

And just what do they think she's doing with them if she doesn't need them? Is there a black market in incontinence pads?

Even worse is the fact that she and her son meekly complied with this request:

'I was incensed, but we put three pads in a carrier bag.

When we got there the nurses actually weighed each pad in front of us and referred to some kind of scale...'.

And believe it or not, the health authority actually defended this:

A spokesman for Nottinghamshire Community Health insisted that testing incontinence pads for absorbency was standard practice.

‘A review of the continence service took place during 2010 and changes have been made to ensure patients receive optimum care,’ she said. ‘The aim of the service is always to return patients to continence wherever possible. Pads are only prescribed for those patients with moderate to severe incontinence.

‘All patients are offered a comprehensive clinical assessment, which includes reviewing existing pads to ensure adequate absorbency and comfort to the patient, as defined by National Good Practice, followed by a clear treatment plan.’

I don't know which I'd prefer to believe - that they are so dehumanised themselves that they believe that this is acceptable behaviour, or that they are just secret perverts who are turned on by soiled underwear.

If the latter, I suggest they go to Japan, where such tastes are catered for with vending machines...

'The staff didn’t seem to think it was that unusual, they said it happens a lot.'

2011-02-26T08:25:00.003Z

Frances Randall, 21, had been waiting for three hours to be moved to a maternity ward when her baby arrived as her partner and mother desperately looked for help.

He was delivered by a stranger in the room, but fell to the floor and hit his head.

I know the hospital well - it's a £238 million disaster area.

The woman who came to her aid, Kiran Deep Virdee, 52, added: ‘It is disgusting that in this country she had to give birth on a chair. She was given no dignity.’

You thought you were in a First World country, didn't you? You were wrong, at least when it comes to Queen's Hospital...

This isn't their first maternity-related screw-up, after all:

Queen’s Hospital’s head of midwifery, Sue Lovell, apologised for the latest incident and said a new triage system was being introduced.

‘When labouring women arrive they will be seen immediately by a midwife and moved straight to the most appropriate area, whether that be the labour ward or ante-natal,’ she said.

‘This will eliminate the need for women to stay in waiting areas.’

It didn't occur to you to do this before..?

Patient Opinion report released today.

2011-02-23T06:51:00.004Z

New report released today

In their own words: What patients have been saying about health services over the past 5 years

Read or download the report here (PDF)

Foreign nurses will be able to work here with just TWO days' testing in EU shake-up

2011-02-20T00:48:00.001Z

Poorly-trained foreign nurses will be allowed to work in Britain after completing only two days of role playing and multiple choice tests. The short course replaces the rigorous assessments and exams currently undertaken by those failing to meet NHS standards. To work on wards, nurses are likely to need to show only their skills on dummies, with no requirement to speak good English.

The shake-up is being imposed by the European Union, which says tests on foreign workers go against its freedom of movement laws. Senior health officials fear the multiple choice assessments, which will begin in April, will be unrealistic and too easy.

Under the existing rules, any EU nurse whose training is deemed substandard must go on an intensive adaptation programme lasting up to six months before they can work in UK hospitals. The courses, which can cost up to £1,500, are run by universities and consist of theory tests, written coursework and practical exams in wards or nursing homes. Although not directly assessed on their English, candidates would struggle to pass without good language skills. The regime is so strict that only a quarter of the 8,000 EU nurses who apply to work in the UK every year see the process through. Most are put off by the cost and difficulty of making the grade.

Those not up to scratch largely come from states relatively new to the EU such as Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Estonia and Latvia. The new tests are being drawn up by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. It is understood they will involve multiple choice, role plays and demonstrations on dummy patients – and may last just two days.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: ‘These multiple choice tests will be far too simple.

‘This is giving patient safety no priority. How can nurses’ ability to carry out drug calculations and all the other skills required on the ward be assessed in a multiple choice test? It’s disgraceful that this is allowed to happen.’

John Lister, director of campaign group London Health Emergency, said: ‘This is a retrograde step and this is something the NMC should be challenging in court.’ The council is being forced to take action after being threatened with lawsuits by Bulgarian nurses who claimed it was too difficult to register to work in Britain.

The EU has also blocked rigorous checks on foreign GPs who want to work here. This had disastrous results in 2008 when engineer David Gray died at the hands of German locum Daniel Ubani, who gave him ten times the normal dose of diamorphine.

Mr Gray’s son Stuart, who is a GP in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, said: ‘It’s a ludicrous system. The NHS is a very different to other countries’ health systems and people need training before they can practise here.’

Nurses from countries outside the EU will still face stringent tests.

The NHS relies on foreign nurses and in the past decade more than 90,000 have registered to work in the UK, mainly from the Philippines, Australia, India and South Africa.

Relaxing the entry requirements for EU nurses is likely to see an influx of nurses who had felt it too much trouble to work in Britain.

A spokesman for the Nursing and Midwifery Council said: ‘The test will ensure that EU-trained nurses are able to meet the same standards that we require of nurses who trained in the UK.’ A Department of Health spokesman said foreign healthcare professionals would need to pass robust language and competency tests.

Student lay dying yards from hospital gates after receptionist told friend 'ring an ambulance'

2011-02-14T15:25:00.000Z

Melody Davis, 20, was driven to the Royal Liverpool Hospital but the car got stuck in a car park on nearby Mount Vernon Street because a barrier was blocking the way.

Her friend rushed into the reception area on foot for help as Miss Davis's asthma attack worsened, but was told to call an ambulance. By the time she returned to the car, the Liverpool University student had collapsed. She later died at the Royal.

Liverpool's coroner, Andre Rebello, asked Merseyside Police to investigate the incident because of the chance more prompt treatment may have saved her...

Source: Daily Mail.

Healthy baby boy dies of pneumonia after 'being placed in broken incubator with Do Not Use sticker'

2011-02-11T16:11:00.001Z

The 15-day-old boy was allegedly put in an incubator which had a "Do Not Use" sticker on it in the busy ward.

Health watchdogs revealed the boy was born 'perfect in every way' in the hospital before being sent home with his mother. But the mother and baby were readmitted more than a week later because she was suffering from a chest infection.

The mother, who hasn't been named, was being treated by doctors while the baby was put in the incubator which allegedly failed to keep him warm enough. The baby died from a chronic case of pneumonia at the giant 550-bed Singleton Hospital in Swansea, South Wales.

Patients watchdogs at the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg Community Health Council in Swansea confirmed the complaint had been received from the heartbroken mother about her baby's death.

A report from the health council said: 'The post mortem revealed the baby was perfect in every way but died from massive bilateral bronchopneumonia.'

Source: Daily Mail

Colchester Hospital vs Military Hospital

2011-02-09T10:15:00.001Z

Sapper Ashley-James Hall, 20, whose legs were blown off in a bomb blast in Afghanistan, was being treated in Colchester General Hospital for suspected meningitis.

He is now being treated in isolation at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where injured troops are cared for.

He still has open wounds from the explosion and has contracted a bacterial infection in his legs.

According to the family, the infection is similar to MRSA and means he must be kept in isolation. However, staff at Colchester General Hospital wanted to put him back on a general ward.

/facepalm

Dad Stephen said: “He has got an infection in his legs and it was felt by us the hospital could not deal with his injuries. So he discharged himself.

“Military care is better than the NHS. You ask for something to be done on the NHS and it takes hours.”

If it happens at all, that is.

Mr Hall said: “At Colchester one set of doctors tells you one thing, then another set say something different.

“Ashley was not happy with his care.

“Ashley has an Afghan bug similar to MRSA, but they were trying to put him in with the general public on a general ward.

“We were having to shout and scream at them.

“He is in an infection control ward in Birmingham.

“Colchester doesn’t have the same medical facilities. We were dealing with new doctors all the time. It was just appalling.”

The family have angered the hospital by going to the media.

A hospital trust spokescreature whines:

Mark Prentice, a spokesman for Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are disappointed that Mr Stephen Hall has concerns about the care given to his son Ashley-James but also that he has chosen to raise them directly with the media and not with us.

“We would urge him to contact the trust as soon as possible so that we can thoroughly investigate and report back to him.”

And will you find that their concerns are well-founded in that investigation?

“As a result of Mr Hall contacting the Gazette, we have carried out a brief, preliminary investigation which indicates that the care given to Ashley-James was entirely appropriate at all times during his recent stay on the emergency assessment unit at Colchester General Hospital.”

That’ll probably be a ‘no’ then…

This Is What Happens When You Introduce Choice To The NHS…

2011-02-04T11:22:00.000Z

Patients losing faith in Basildon Hospital and opting to go elsewhere for treatment has partly caused a NHS £43million overspend.

It seems the patients are opting out because, well, read for yourself:

It has emerged that part of the reason for NHS South West Essex’s colossal cash woes are because more patients last year refused treatment at Basildon, due to concerns over the standard of treatment they would receive.

A bit of an awkward PR situation for the trust?

Barbara Stuttle, director of quality and nursing for the trust, admitted this was a reason, as under Government rules a trust has to pay a penalty tariff if a patient wants to go to a hospital further away.

Mrs Stuttle said: “Yes, that was a factor in the sense that a lot people opted to go to Southend instead of Basildon, and in particular London hospitals, which has a much higher tariff. But Basildon is improving. Let’s put that straight.”

It’ll have to improve quite a lot…

A former nurse who died on Basildon Hospital’s diabetic ward was deprived of insulin for nine hours because her syringe driver was not connected.

D’oh!

Staff on the Mary Seacole ward (Ed: that’s the priority, in the modern NHS – not patients, of course, but ‘diversity’ and political correctness) did not realise the syringe, supposed to be administering insulin to diabetes sufferer Luz Tacon, 61, wasn’t connected until an hour after her death, because it was under her blanket.

In fact, it was a catalogue of errors from start to finish:

Commenting on the breakdown of communication between staff in intensive care and the ward, the report said: “The handover to the late staff was very sparse – no clinical/nursing information was given to the night staff, they only knew a patient was coming later.

“Allegedly, the night nurse was told to look in the handover book that is kept on the ward. This stated that patient Luz Tacon had a sliding scale of insulin.

“On questioning the night nurse, she confirmed she does not generally look in the handover book.”

And that’s why choice is the most important thing to bring to the NHS.

Because when patients can vote with their feet, these actions have consequences.

Doctor 'failed three times to spot baby's swine flu'

2011-01-14T10:19:00.002Z

A girl aged 12 months has become one of the youngest people in the country to contract swine flu.

Jessica Davies was diagnosed with the virus only after being taken three times to a GP, say her parents. A hospital doctor spotted that Jessica had the illness and she was prescribed the Tamiflu drug, according to Athol and Lindsay Davies.

‘I would like to warn other parents to keep going back to their doctors if they think their child has swine flu,’ said Mrs Davies, from Hartlepool, ‘If it wasn’t for a doctor at the hospital suggesting Jessica was tested then she wouldn’t have been diagnosed. To me, that is very worrying.’

Source: The Metro.

'Rest break' death ambulance technician keeps job

2011-01-04T12:22:00.000Z

An ambulance technician who chose not to respond to what proved to be a fatal heart attack when he was on a tea break has been told he can keep his job.

The technician was 800 yards away when 33-year-old Mandy Mathieson had a cardiac arrest in Tomintoul, Moray.

However, the call was instead answered by paramedics based 15 miles away in Grantown-on-Spey.

Source: BBC

Mothers giving birth at night are being put at risk because of poor staffing at NHS hospitals

2011-01-04T09:49:00.000Z

Dr Tony Falconer, the new president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), claimed many inexperienced doctors working night shift on labour wards lacked necessary skills to ensure a safe child delivery.

Dr Falconer, a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, said medical staff often undertook unnecessary caesarean sections on women, leading to some babies suffering catastrophic harm during their birth.

A disproportionate numbers of NHS payouts over alleged medical negligence in childbirth involve babies born overnight, he said.

Trainee doctors working overnight were sometimes too slow to realise that a new mother was still bleeding after a caesarean or to spot post-operative complications.

Other staff who train during the night, such as obstetricians and anaesthetists, are also less experienced than teams working during the day, with many junior obstetric doctors lacking technical skills to use forceps or vacuum to ease a baby's birth, he added.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Well, I Can't See THIS Going Wrong, Can You..?

2011-01-04T09:00:00.001Z

An NHS efficiency drive may result in hospital appointments being outsourced to call centres in India.

Not when it's worked so well and proven so stunningly popular with customers in all other industries!

I mean, it's not as if anything bad has ever happened befo...

Oh:

The proposal comes despite a scandal two years ago when the confidential medical records of patients at one of London’s top private hospitals were sold on by Indian IT staff.

/facepalm

Gagging Nanny...

2010-12-23T09:10:00.002Z

Well, it looks like at least one good deed is being done by the coalition:

The ‘nannying’ health advice dished out by the NHS rationing body is being dramatically scaled back by ministers.

The Government has asked the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to stop working on guidance on six public health topics and ‘to put on hold’ work on a further 13.

Fantastic news!

And the vital health advice they were preparing to dish out was..?

Guidance from NICE that is still in the pipeline covering smoking, obesity, contraception and road safety is being axed or left in limbo amid questions about whether it constitutes value for money.

Road safety...?!?

GP warns against delaying surgery for smokers and the obese

2010-12-13T11:38:00.000Z

A leading doctor has slammed proposals to delay surgery for smokers and the obese, saying any such move is likely to lead to a great strain on the NHS.

The plans are among NHS West Kent’s initiatives to drive down costs and avoid a budget deficit at the end of this financial year that is currently predicted to run into the millions.

Dr Robert Blundell, the vice chair of the Kent Local Medical Committee (LMC), said: "The PCT is effectively asking GPs to seek to ration health care in a fashion that will sit ethically most uncomfortably with most of them."

He warned that consequences would put strain on GP resources and other health and social care services.

Source: Kent News

Complaints to NHS top 100,000 for the first time

2010-12-02T11:58:00.000Z

The figures for 2009/2010 show a 13 per cent increase on the previous year - the largest ever increase .

The rise has been fuelled by growing dissatisfaction over the treatment of the elderly in hospitals, according to The Patients’ Association, which today launches a campign to improve NHS care for older people.

The charity wants matrons appointed within hospitals whose sole role is to look after elderly patients and ensure they are treated with dignity.

It is calling for fundamental change to the complaints system and the creation of an independent complaints body.

At present people must complain to the hospitals they feel have failed them.

The campaign would have met with the approval of their former president Claire Rayner who died in October.

She promised to haunt David Cameron if he failed to improve the NHS.

Her widower Des said: “Let the haunting begin.”

The charity campaign also aims to raise £100,000 to boost its dedicated helpline which helps NHS patients to submit complaints.

According to the NHS Information Centre 101,077 people made written complaints to hospitals compared with 89,139 in 2008/09.

Source: Telegraph

Patients get worse care out of hours due to staff shortages, report claims

2010-12-02T11:56:00.000Z

Patients being admitted to hospitals outside office hours and at weekends receive poorer care due to a lack of consultants, the Royal College of Physicians has warned.

An audit conducted by the College has found that many hospitals do not have senior specialist doctors looking after patients admitted with serious illnesses outside normal working hours.

Consultants are already working 50 hours a week, more than they are contracted for, so the solution can only be to increase their numbers and work their rotas more effectively, the report said.

Studies by the College have already found that junior doctors look after an average of 61 patients in hospital overnight and one doctor was looking after 400 people.

Others have found babies born outside working hours are 70 per cent more likely to die and patients attending A&E departments at the weekend have higher death rates.

The College is asking for an urgent meeting with Andrew Lansley, Health Secretary, to discuss the problem.

Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians said: “Despite major improvements in the care of acutely ill patients which were led by the RCP following our major report in 2007, patients are still not getting the care they deserve at night and at weekends. “Too many junior doctors are covering too many very ill patients, and this has to change.

“Our evidence shows that a predominantly consultant-delivered medical service is the best way to improve patient care.”

A representative survey of 126 hospitals from around the country examined working patterns and patient care in acute admissions units, which are used to care for patients who need to be admitted urgently either from A&E or who have been sent by their GP.

Few hospitals had sufficient cover from consultants specialising in acute medicine staffing these units round the clock.

The report found:

– Almost three quarters of acute physicians do not work at weekends and only two thirds contribute to the on-call rota.

– All patients are not routinely seen by a consultant twice per day throughout the seven day week.

– Almost half of hospitals do not have the recommended three consultants specialising in acute medicine.

– In just under half of hospitals the on-call consultant has other routine clinics and tasks to complete while on call and do not cancel them in line with recommendations.

– Many patients are only seen once per day in a formal ward round in the acute phase of their illness.

– A small number of units appear to a have poor monitoring or staffing facilities to manage acutely unwell medical patients.

– In three quarters of the acute medical admissions units accepting patients directly from GPs, the unit runs out of beds.

– Nearly three-quarters of hospitals in the survey had no cover from consultant physicians specialising in acute medicine over the weekend.

Dr Jonathan Potter, Clinical Director of the RCP’s Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit, said: “Despite improvements in facilities and staffing, hospitals still need to address working arrangements to ensure that senior doctors are readily available to provide a consultant led service in acute medical admissions units seven days a week.”

Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley said: "Sir Richard Thompson is right, patients do deserve better care at night and weekends and senior doctors should be available to provide acute medical care as needed.

“I have already asked Medical Education England to consider with the profession, the service and medical Royal Colleges, how best to secure better patient outcomes and the right level of supervision for trainees through greater consultant involvement in direct clinical care at night and at weekends."

Source : Telegraph

'Alarmingly high death rates' at two London hospital trusts

2010-11-30T00:14:00.000Z

Patients are dying in higher numbers than expected at two London hospital trusts, a report reveals.

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS trust and South London Healthcare NHS trust are shown to have alarmingly high death rates.

They are among 19 hospital trusts out of 147 in England which have been singled out for worrying mortality levels.

The influential Dr Foster Hospital Guide, which Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has applauded for allowing patients to make better choices about their treatment, said Barking, Havering and Redbridge was one of the poorest performing, with only three trusts having higher death rates. It also fares badly for care of stroke patients.

Source:Evening Standard

Inquiry Hears Of 'Utter Neglect' At Hospital

2010-11-22T16:23:00.000Z

A woman has told how a "callous" doctor said her sick mother would not be resuscitated and suffer a painful death at Stafford Hospital.

The families of people who died at the hospital have started giving evidence at the public inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire Trust.

The inquiry is looking into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of up to 1,200 people.

An earlier independent inquiry accused management of putting cost-cutting above patient care.

Julie Bailey described conditions on her mother's ward as "bedlam" and "utter chaos".

"People were screaming in pain: 'Nurse, nurse'," she said.

"It was just total and utter neglect of vulnerable people, night after night people crying out.

"Some with eyes crusted up, mouths bleeding. My mum asked me to call the police."

Ms Bailey's mother Bella died at the hospital in 2007 at the age of 86.

At one stage, Ms Bailey was taken aside by a doctor and told: "It is likely she will die over the weekend.

"He said, 'It will be a painful death and she will die just like that', and snapped his fingers. There would be no resuscitation."

Ms Bailey went on: "I couldn't believe how callous he was and how he was speaking.

"It was such chaos that I feared for my own life as well as my mother's. There was no control."

It was just total and utter neglect of vulnerable people, night after night people crying out.

Ms Bailey described how conditions were worse at weekends and on several occasions she saw people drinking out of flower vases.

She complained about it and was told that water jugs had to be taken away and washed overnight for health and safety reasons.

Ms Bailey was one of the leading campaigners in bringing about the public inquiry, which could sit well into the middle of next year.

A previous report concluded that between 2005 and 2008 at least 400 patients died unnecessarily - but it could have been as many as 1,200.

The main aim of the inquiry is to examine why regulatory and supervisory agencies allowed "appalling" care to go on for so long.

Source: Sky News

Stafford Hospital: Investigation Launched As Twin Babies Die After Treatment At Scandal-Hit Hospital

2010-11-12T09:10:00.000Z

An investigation has been launched after newborn twins died following an apparent mistake involving a drug at a scandal-hit NHS hospital.

The baby boys died 11 days ago at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust.

They had been transferred from Stafford Hospital, which is run by the separate Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.

Bosses there told The Guardian newspaper a report into the incident concluded it involved "wrong rate of infusion".

The trust said a member of staff had been suspended following the deaths.

It is impossible to say whether it has got anything to do with systemic problems at the trust or whether it is a tragic one-off

Chief executive Antony Sumara added: "We have commissioned a full external investigation into the events while the twins were at our hospital.

"This is under way and is being led by an independent paediatric doctor.

"At present we have suspended one member of staff."

A spokeswoman for the hospital would not comment on the exact circumstances surrounding the boys' deaths.

Campaigners had fought a lengthy battle for a public inquiry into Stafford Hospital

Stafford Hospital is at the centre of a public inquiry into substandard care and practices that led to hundreds of deaths.

There is no suggestion the latest tragedy is linked to previous failings at the hospital.

Peter Walsh, chief executive of patient safety charity Action Against Medical Accidents, said of the babies' deaths: "It is impossible to say whether it has got anything to do with systemic problems at the trust or whether it is a tragic one-off."

The public inquiry into care provided by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust between 2005 and 2009 was opened in Stafford on Monday.

Chaired by Robert Francis QC, it follows an earlier independent investigation which disclosed a catalogue of failings at the trust, which also runs Cannock Chase Hospital.

Source: Sky News

Spending Other People’s Money On Other People….

2010-11-02T12:23:00.001Z

The Fryatt Hospital and Mayflower Medical Centre in Harwich, Essex, opened in December 2005, having been built using a scheme similar to the private finance initiative (PFI).

Yay!

Oh:

But since its opening, the hospital has been dogged by problems.

There was a three-year delay in getting GPs to move into the centre, half the floor had to be replaced, people were unhappy with the fact that its minor injuries unit was not open at night, and its x-ray department was cut to three days a week.

However, most complaints centred on the fact that its operating theatre was not being used. It was intended for minor procedures including foot operations.

Now North East Essex Primary Care Trust, which runs the hospital, has admitted it never will be.

Don’t panic, though! No-one’s been sacked or demoted for this. You see, it’s all the fault of…unforeseen changes.

Well, the lack of use of the theatre part, anyway. The report doesn’t say what amazing, innovative excuse the Trust came up with for all the other complaints…

Matt Bushell, acting chief executive, said changes in patient safety regulations regarding anaesthetics since its opening meant the operating theatre was now no longer "viable".

It’s impossible to renovate it, then?

A spokesman for the trust added that it had been "the victim of unfortunate timing" regarding changes in legislation.

Or the victim of utterly incompetent management…

Mr Bushell stressed that the theatre only took up about five per cent of the space of the hospital, which offered more than 60 health services.

John Brown from Harwich Town Council described the new hospital as a "white elephant" and said: "It has been a waste of money."

"For the millions it cost to build the new hospital they should have spent a fraction of that renovating the old hospital," he said.

Quite…

"Ah, my children of the NHS. What beautiful music they make..."

2010-10-16T09:15:00.002+01:00

A pensioner died after his chest was bled 'empty' when he was wrongly connected to a blood pumping machine and a hospital worker left the room.

NHS staff failed to use enough clamps to disconnect 76-year-old Dr John Baines from the device after a gruelling six-hour bypass operation, on January 29.

This meant his blood was pumped into the machine, which was filling in for his heart and lungs during the surgery, but not pumped back into his body.

Someone will swing for this, surely?

Deputy Assistant Coroner Mairin Casey ruled that no one member of staff was to blame and his death was caused by a 'series of collective errors'.

Wha..?

In a bypass operation, the pumps are operated by specially trained health professionals known as 'perfusionists', who work with the surgical team in connecting and disconnecting the machine to the patient.

However, the perfusionist who had been involved in the discussions about the complex operation was replaced before it began by two others, who oversaw the machine during the surgery.

One of them, Andrew Sutcliffe, said they clamped the line from the patient's neck and assumed two other clamps required had been attached by other members of the team.

He said: 'I think the issue is that we had clamped the common line. But clamps hadn't been applied where we would have expected them to.'

And you didn't think to check? Somehow, 'professional' isn't the word I'd have used...

Miss Casey recorded a narrative verdict and said the mistake was the result of collective rather than individual error.

She said: 'I'm confident that from the earliest point the human error was acknowledged to the family and to all who needed to subsequently investigate this matter.

'I'm also satisfied that there's no culpability in respect of an individual in this case.'

Nice! In effect, so many of you screwed up it'd be 'unfair' to hold any one of you responsible, so you get off with a massive fine (paid for by us taxpayers, of course) and a 'lessons have been learned' statement.

Pass The Parcel With Real Lives…

2010-10-07T12:28:00.000+01:00

A dying teenager was "lost" for an hour in an NHS hospital after a bed manager asked nursing staff to move her to an inappropriate ward, an inquest heard today.
Doctors caring for 17-year-old Clementine Nicholson were "astonished" that she had been taken from a resuscitation unit without their consent, Coventry Coroner's Court heard.

And how did this happen?

Computer said ‘Yes’, innit?

Dr Mair Edmunds, associate director for clinical performance at the hospital, expressed her regret that Clementine had been moved by an electronic bed management system.

Well, no.

She might have been incorrectly marked for movement by a computer system, but real live people – supposedly, professional NHS staff – would have done the actual moving.

I mean, surely they check that someone’s well enough to be moved before they…

Oh:

Dr Edmunds said the hospital now had a nurse controller to oversee such moves and that more robust procedures were now in place to ensure patients were well enough to be transferred.

Before, no one checked?

/facepalm

Take Your Medicine Like Good Boys And Girls!

2010-09-30T08:19:00.002+01:00

The government has more than 30 million swine flu vaccines left over after responding to the outbreak of the swine flu pandemic last year.

Hmmm, what to do, what to do....

I know! *snaps fingers*

Combining immunisation against the flu with the swine flu vaccine would prevent people from being able to turn down the swine flu jab without also missing out on the usual protection against winter flu viruses.

Capital idea! If they won't take their medicine, Nanny NHS will hold their nose until they do!

She said: "By March this year, that vaccine had been given out 5.5million times and there have been no reported cases of narcolepsy in Britain. There is very little change to the seasonal flu vaccination which will still protect against a large number of flu viruses. It is simply that the swine flu vaccine has been added. People will be notified of this when they receive their invitation letters to get the jab so it won't be a surprise."

This sort of breathtaking audacity still comes as a surprise, love, even to me....

Bogus NHS dentist with fake qualifications earned £230,000 over nine years

2010-09-29T22:56:00.000+01:00

A bogus dentist with no qualifications managed to fool her employers at NHS hospitals for nine years before being discovered.

Vinisha Sharma used a fake degree certificate to register with the General Dental Council (GDC) and was employed by seven different hospitals where she operated on patients under supervision.

Despite having been investigated by the GDC in 2003, her deception was only discovered after a colleague raised concerns about her skills and knowledge of the job, prompting the Council to take another look at the case.

Sharma, who claimed she had a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree in India, earned roughly £230,000 as a senior house officer on annual contracts over the period.

The 37-year-old said that she had studied at the Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in Amritsar, but the university had no record of her ever attending or graduating.

Such was her self-delusion that she even had the letters BDS – Bachelor of Dental Surgery – as part of her personalised Mercedes numberplate.

Source: DailyMail

.Doctors ‘ping-ponged’ Clementine Nicholson, 17, dying of meningitis

2010-09-22T13:31:00.000+01:00

A student at one of Britain’s top independent schools was ‘lost’ for hours by hospital doctors as she lay dying of meningitis-related blood poisoning, an inquest heard.

Clementine Nicholson collapsed in agony at £24,000-a-year Rugby School in Warwickshire. The 17-year-old eventually died of meningococcal septicaemia, blood poisoning caused by the same type of bacteria that causes meningitis, on May 6, 2009.

An inquest heard the condition, which causes severe joint pain and fever, needs to be treated within six hours. But Dr Patodi, who was treating her at Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry, sent Miss Nicholson for an unnecessary CT scan and then took a 30-minute break.

She was then ‘ping-ponged’ between two wards before eventually being sent to intensive care...

Source: The Metro.

Mum left with surgical pin sticking out of her elbow

2010-09-20T14:08:00.001+01:00

Mum Mary Goodswen has been left in agony after a two-inch surgical pin slid out of her elbow following an operation.

To make matters worse for the 59-year-old mum of four, medics have told her she’ll have to wait a whole month before the problem is put right. In the meantime, doctors suggested that a cork is placed over the spike to stop it injuring someone.

Doctors inserted metal pins in Mrs Goodswen’s arm after it was left badly broken by a brutal street attack close to her home in Bromford, Birmingham. The operation at Heartlands Hospital to correct the broken bone seemed to have been a success – but two days later, one of the pins burst through the skin, to Mrs Goodswen’s horror.

She told the Sunday Mercury: ‘This has made my life hell. I can’t sleep at night and I’m in constant pain. With the pole jutting out of my elbow, I could be a danger to my boyfriend or other people. The pain was indescribable when it ripped through my flesh.’

Source; The Metro

Girl’s fatal tumour mistaken for ‘growing pains’

2010-09-20T12:03:00.001+01:00

Courtney Runciman, 11, died on her first day of secondary school after waking up paralysed and doctors discovering a tumour running up her spine.

Tragic Courtney had complained of back and neck ache over the summer holidays, but a doctor was convinced they were merely the result of growing pains. Courtney enjoyed her first day at Blatchington Mill School in Hove and took part in activities with all the other children

The following morning, though, she woke up unable to move her legs. She was rushed to London's King's College Hospital where scans revealed a tumour running from the base of her spine to just below the neck. Her condition worsened considerably after emergency surgery and her parents took the heartbreaking decision to turn off her life support machine...

Source: The Metro

Mother-of-three given just months to live after bungling doctors missed her cancer 20 times

2010-09-13T17:12:00.001+01:00

A mother-of-three has been given just months to live after doctors failed to diagnose her cancer during 20 examinations. Catherine Watkins was failed repeatedly by medical staff in Southend, Essex, despite losing two stone and being in so much pain she could barely move.

The 55-year-old started suffering severe abdominal pain in December and has been rushed to the A&E department of Southend Hospital four times in the past nine months. Doctors insisted Mrs Watkins, who also suffers from diabetes, simply had gallstones and refused to give her a CT scan.

Last month the foster carer was finally given a scan after her daughter forcefully argued her case. Medical staff then discovered Catherine had advanced liver and pancreatic cancer...

Source: Daily Mail.

Father-of-four left disabled after blundering NHS fails to remove brain tumour which grew to the size of a lemon for four years

2010-09-09T21:20:00.000+01:00

A father-of-four was left permanently disabled after doctors failed to diagnose a brain tumour which grew to the size of a large lemon for four years.

Former church minister Adrian Underwood was told he was suffering from migraines when he first complained of severe headaches and weakness on his left side.

But though a CT brain scan later revealed a tumour on the right-hand side of his brain, it was left untreated because a senior consultant failed to check the results.

Today the 42-year-old received a substantial out of court settlement after Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust admitted liability - nearly a decade later.

Read more: Daily Wail

NHS fails to remove brain tumour which grew to the size of a lemon for four years

2010-09-09T21:18:00.003+01:00

A father-of-four was left permanently disabled after doctors failed to diagnose a brain tumour which grew to the size of a large lemon for four years.

Former church minister Adrian Underwood was told he was suffering from migraines when he first complained of severe headaches and weakness on his left side. But though a CT brain scan later revealed a tumour on the right-hand side of his brain, it was left untreated because a senior consultant failed to check the results.
Today the 42-year-old received a substantial out of court settlement after Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust admitted liability - nearly a decade later...

Source: Daily Mail.

Eleven Doctors missed cancer diagnosis Now 43 year has only weeks to live

2010-09-09T21:17:00.001+01:00

A mother-of-three has been given weeks to live after ten hospital doctors and her own GP allegedly missed tell-tale signs of cancer.

Distraught Angela Skeffington said blundering medics continually misdiagnosed her stomach cancer as period pains, depression and even indigestion.

She also claims one A&E doctor told her to 'eat more bananas' during her continued cries for help, which went on for five months.

The 43-year-old has now been told her cancer is so advanced that doctors cannot operate - meaning she is likely to miss the birth of her sixth grandchild.

The terminally-ill grandmother of five said she was treated like a 'nuisance' after making cries for help with medics at Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham and her own GP since April.

Editorial comment Im 40 and I feel like a teenager, This woman is 43 and has 5 grandchildren? The mind boggles at how fecund the population is.

Source Daily Wail

Mother of three given weeks to live after cancer was missed by ELEVEN doctors

2010-09-09T21:15:00.001+01:00

Distraught Angela Skeffington said blundering medics continually misdiagnosed her stomach cancer as period pains, depression and even indigestion.

She also claims one A&E doctor told her to 'eat more bananas' during her continued cries for help, which went on for five months. The 43-year-old has now been told her cancer is so advanced that doctors cannot operate - meaning she is likely to miss the birth of her sixth grandchild.

The terminally-ill grandmother of five said she was treated like a 'nuisance' after making cries for help with medics at Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham and her own GP since April. She said was suffering with severe stabbing pains to the stomach, blood in her vomit and stools, plus a loss of appetite. Mrs Skeffington claimed she was not given a specialist CT scan until a week ago, when the killer disease was finally discovered.

Her stomach cancer has now spread to her liver and lymph nodes, and she has been told there was little hope of recovery.
Medical records show she was seen by ten doctors during 12 visits to Heartlands Hospital A&E, but suffered repeated misdiagnoses including anorexia, depression and indigestion.

Source: Daily Mail

Busy A&E doctors fail to spot broken bones in children

2010-09-09T21:12:00.001+01:00

Children and babies are at risk because overstretched hospital doctors are failing to spot breaks and fractures, it was claimed today.

The number of cases where there has been a delay in diagnosing children's bone injuries, or where breaks have been missed altogether, has risen by nearly a third in two years, according to new figures. The findings raise serious concerns about how under-fives are dealt with in understaffed casualty departments. Patient groups claim NHS cutbacks are partly to blame, along with a national shortage of paediatricians.

The Patients Association said: “It's really important that when children are admitted to A&E they are seen by the most appropriate and skilled individuals. If there is a shortage of specialist paediatricians, then clinical need must outweigh cost.”

The National Patient Safety Agency health watchdog received 19 reports from NHS trusts last year of missed fractures in young children, compared with 14 from 2008 to 2009.

In London, a total of nine blunders at seven hospitals was recorded in the past two years. But the agency says this is likely to be an underestimate as it is not compulsory for trusts to report such incidents...

Source: The Evening Standard

NWA*

2010-09-04T12:19:00.002+01:00

Wearing hoodies and baseball caps, and festooned with 'bling' jewellery, they are doing their best to look like American rappers.

Sadly, the fact that they are middle-aged British nurses is all too apparent.

Well, it's crazy, sure, but what they get up to in their own time is no business of...

Oh:

This is how one health care trust has decided to spend public money - by producing an £1,800 rap video about how to clean your hands.

It is available to watch on NHS Milton Keynes Primary Care Trust's own channel on the YouTube website. It can also be bought in DVD form for £25.

Must be selling like hot cakes, I bet?

Yet in the month the DVD has been available, not a single copy has been sold.

Shocker...

* Nurses With Attitude

Superbug hits baby ward at University College Hospital

2010-08-30T14:33:00.001+01:00

One of four premature babies infected with a bacteria at a London hospital died from the bug, it has been revealed.

The babies were infected at the University College London Hospital neonatal unit with the so-called "gram-negative" bacteria.
The infection killed one of the babies while two of the others died of other causes. One baby has survived.

The hospital has not said when the baby died, but the bug hit the ward in July. The babies were among 15 at the unit found to be carrying several types of bacteria, of whom 13 had bacteria resistant to treatment. Of those, nine were carrying the bacteria on their skin and four were found to have it in their blood streams...

Source: BBC.

"Hospital put plaster cast on child's wrong arm"

2010-08-27T15:42:00.001+01:00

Hospital staff at Southampton General have issued an apology after medics plastered the wrong arm of a two-year old. Toddler, Honey Wight, chipped a bone in her left elbow after she jumped off a slide. However, for reasons unknown, medical staff in A and E plastered Honey's right arm.

The youngster's mum, Ms Wight, told the Southern Daily Echo; "I was so angry. I just couldn't believe it." The twenty-nine year old continued; "The nurse was there and it said 'left elbow' but she put it on the right arm. It is just crazy."

Ms Wight, who realised the medical mishap the next day, having put her daughter straight to bed after her eventful time, returned to Southampton hospital the next day where the mistake was rectified.

Dr Michael Marsh, medical director at the hospital, said: "We are deeply sorry to Honey and her family. Incidents like this are extremely rare and we will be carrying out a full investigation into how it happened."

Source: The Metro

Doctors missed Francis McConville's broken back

2010-08-13T12:05:00.001+01:00

Francis McConville was released after doctors failed to see he had broken his back in three places, his family claim. Francis McConville's shoulder was X-rayed after he had a fit and he was given a sling.

Three broken vertebrae were apparently spotted nearly three weeks later after the 39-year-old of South Ockendon, Essex, had another scan. Basildon Hospital's care was 'horrendous', said mother Frances.

The patient's concerns would be addressed at his next appointment, said the hospital.

Source: The Metro

‘Superdad’ Dave Brown delivers baby after hospital rejects mum in labour

2010-08-13T12:03:00.001+01:00

A 'superdad' delivered his baby after his partner was turned away from hospital twice in 24 hours. Dave Brown also gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to his newborn girl after girlfriend Emma Habens had been told she was not about to give birth. Mr Brown, 42, said he followed tips he had seen on television programmes to help deliver Maisie safely.

Miss Habens says hospital staff told her the day before her daughter was born that a birth was not imminent, even though her waters had broken. The 30-year-old went into labour the next morning and returned to the maternity unit. 'They said to me, "Go home, take two paracetemol and have a lie down",' said Miss Habens. 'We went home and, a few hours later, I was lying down when it just happened.'

Mr Brown then called an ambulance and said his adrenalin kicked in when the birth was about to begin. 'I kept telling Emma, "Keep breathing," but I didn't know that's what I was supposed to say – I'd just seen them say it on telly*,' he added, 'When she [Maisie] came out she was blue. I blew into her mouth and she started coughing and screaming.' The ambulance then took the family, of Newbury, Berkshire, to hospital.

'Dave was amazing. He was a superdad,' said Miss Habens.

Sandra Housten, head of midwifery at North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke, said: 'Every effort is made to ensure women are assessed and able to spend the early part of labour at home and then deliver safely in hospital. 'But some babies do arrive quickly once labour starts.'

Source: The Metro

* Call me a sentimental old fool, but I find that bit very touching.

Cumbria cancer cases detected by review

2010-08-13T11:53:00.001+01:00

Eight women who were given the all-clear for breast cancer are now being treated for the disease after a review of the screening service in Cumbria.

In July, North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust announced breast screening was being temporarily halted for a major review to be carried out. It involved 1,600 women who had had further tests following routine mammograms since April 2007.

The trust has apologised for any distress caused. It decided to have the review when data showed that among women who were called for a second screening, cancer was detected in fewer cases than would be expected...

Source: BBC

Damages for boy who lost right eye

2010-08-12T11:48:00.001+01:00

The parents of a boy whose right eye had to be surgically removed after a two-month delay in diagnosing his cancer have received a substantial damages settlement.

The undisclosed five-figure sum, which will be put into a trust to meet the future needs of three-year-old Harvey Dellar, was approved by a judge at Birmingham County Court. In a statement issued after the brief hearing, Harvey's mother, Caroline Haywood, said she believed her son may not have lost his eye if he had been diagnosed sooner...

Source: Press Association/Yahoo

‘It's like they thought, she's got dementia, she's dying, why do we need to do anything?’

2010-08-12T09:20:00.000+01:00

Dora Duggan, 81, who was terminally ill and suffering from dementia, was moved from her ward to a room which was full of boxes and was being used for storage at the time.

The hospital also left a bag full of tablets within her grasp, prevented more than two members of her family visiting her bedside at the same time and did not put a wristband on her during her four day stay in hospital.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…the caring profession.

Nottingham University Hospitals Trust has now apologised ‘unreservedly’ for the great-grandmother’s treatment which they admit was ‘not acceptable’.

No s***, Sherlock.

Mrs Young, 46, a civil servant, said: ‘They treated her like an animal and shut her in a room that wasn’t even sterile.

‘I don’t believe they wheeled the bed in along with all her other stuff – there wasn’t room and there were only three nurses on that night.

‘She was supposed to be on oxygen, so I’ve no idea how they’d have got that in.’

She added: ‘The nurses hadn’t even written on the notes that night that she’d been moved into the cupboard. They added that later on - after I’d made a complaint.’

Millions spent on doctor 'gagging orders' by NHS, investigation finds

2010-08-05T23:23:00.000+01:00

A combination of pay-offs and fear is preventing whistleblowers going public with criticisms over care, reports Nigel Morris

Hospital doctors who quit their jobs are being routinely forced to sign "gagging orders" despite legislation designed to protect NHS whistleblowers, it is revealed today.

Millions of pounds of taxpayers' money are being spent on contracts that deter doctors from speaking out about incompetence and mistakes in patient care.

Nearly 90 per cent of severance agreements hammered out between NHS trusts and departing doctors contain confidentiality clauses.

A joint investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Channel 4 News has discovered that at least 170 doctors in England and Wales agreed such a settlement with the trust employing them – backed up by pay-offs totalling more than £3m.

Fifty-five of the 64 contracts supplied by the trusts to the investigation team contained gagging clauses. The agreements have to be approved by the Treasury. The bureau discovered that a further 19 NHS staff who decided to go to employment tribunals after blowing the whistle on hospital standards eventually settled before their allegations were made public.

The widespread use of "gagging orders" against senior NHS staff who could raise patient safety concerns will intensify the doubts over the protection given to whistleblowers.

Campaign groups claim that NHS managers sometimes resort to intimidatory tactics to deter medics from coming forward, while others that break cover can face years of expense and uncertainty before their cases reach court. The result, they say, is that doctors accept the gagging clauses in order to protect their careers and avoid legal wrangling.

Mike Parker, of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: "The trusts find something upon which they can influence this individual and hold them virtually to ransom, and say: 'You speak up and this will happen.' It's effectively a form of bullying, if you like, but we do hear about this sort of thing happening."

Using Freedom of Information (FoI) requests, it emerged that 71 NHS trusts had entered into these agreements with a total of 170 doctors, although the true figure could be higher, as many failed to respond.

Twenty-two of the agreements were signed at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

Forty spent a total of just over £3m on the agreements. However, a further 31 trusts simply refused to disclose the size of the payments. Further FoI requests discovered that another 19 health whistleblowers decided to take their cases to court, but abandoned them after signing so-called compromise agreements with employers.

David Bowles, the former chairman of an NHS Trust, told Channel 4 that he believed their use was "endemic". "You shouldn't be at a position of needing a compromise agreement with a whistleblower. You should never get to that point in the first place. You should have listened to the concerns and you should have managed them in accordance with legislation and indeed the NHS's own published code."

Worries over gagging orders in the NHS were underlined by the recent disclosure that Kim Holt, a paediatrician, repeatedly raised the alarm about children's services at St Ann's Hospital in Haringey, north London, more than year before the death of Baby Peter in 2007. Her employer, Great Ormond Street Hospital, reportedly offered her £120,000 to stay silent but she refused. The hospital denied it was an attempt to gag her.

Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, has acknowledged that a scandal of care at Mid-Staffordshire hospital went undetected because whistleblowers' warnings went unheeded.

Whistleblowers gained full protection from dismissal or victimisation under the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) of 1999, which was supported by unions and all political parties. It covers employees in both the public and private sectors.

It followed a succession of cases where whistleblowers had been ignored, including the problems at Bristol Royal Infirmary, where 29 babies and children died after heart surgery. In opposition, the Conservatives said they would give NHS staff the contractual right to report errors and failings to the health regulator without fear of reprisal.

Shonali Routray, a lawyer at the charity Public Concern at Work, stressed last night that the law protected whistleblowers even if they had signed confidentiality clauses.

But she added: "They have a real fear factor and discourage people from raising concerns. The worry is the person who has signed the agreement feels under pressure, or vulnerable, or do not understand their options."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said last night: "The Health Secretary has made it clear that patient safety should be at the heart of the NHS and that the improvement of whistleblowing policies is a key part of this ... organisations across the NHS will also need to be clear that whistleblowing is not something that should be regarded as letting down your organisation."

Source: The Independant

NHS pays £250k for mistaken amputation

2010-07-27T19:31:00.002+01:00

Crikey! Perhaps this poor guy would have been better served getting a neighbour to cut his toe off with a rusty saw.

A series of medical failures has lad to an NHS Trust paying £250,000 in damages after a patient was admitted to hospital with a toe infection and ended up having his leg amputated.

Former butcher Ian Watts said the Medway hospital’s failure to control his diabetes led to him losing half of his left leg after he was taken into hospital with pain in his toe in July 2004.

The hospital first decided to amputate his toe, but the pain in Watt’s left foot worsened and doctors said they would need to remove the leg below the knee.

Watts said medical staff neglected to control his blood sugar levels and had to revive him after he lost consciousness on the way to the operating theatre.

He also claimed that after the operation nurses nearly gave him the wrong medication because the hospital ward was in a “state of disarray”.

Watt’s condition was made worse when a pressure stocking was applied too tightly to his right leg causing a blood blister to develop.

After he was sent home an ulcer formed on his right foot and he was readmitted to hospital where he was told he would lose his right leg as well.

“I was extremely depressed and distraught at the treatment I had received,” said Watts. “I couldn’t face living without legs.”

But after seeking a second opinion, Watts underwent a nine-hour operation which saved his right leg.

Kashmir Uppal from Thompsons Solicitors said “Medway NHS Trust never admitted liability for what we consider to have been a series of failures that led to the loss of one leg and the near loss of the other,” adding that the Trust initially refused to settle the case out of court.

But a few months before the trial, Medway NHS Foundation Trust agreed to pay Watts £250,000 in compensation in an out-of-court settlement.

Source: Health and Safety at Work

Gearing Up For Withdrawal Of Goodwill?

2010-07-27T08:34:00.001+01:00

Working to rule is the most favoured method of industrial action among the 5,185 nurses and midwives who took part in Nursing Times’ exclusive survey.
Asked what duties they would refuse to do as part of formal industrial action, 59 per cent of respondents said they would refuse to work unpaid overtime and 53 per cent said they would insist on leaving the ward or clinic for breaks - something nurses in practice are often unable to do.

Other targets for bolshy nurses may be ‘non-nursing duties’:

Just over half said they would refuse to carry out non-nursing duties such as cleaning and portering - another role nurses are frequently asked to do when workplaces are short staffed.

Of course, should this take place, patients are unlikely to notice the difference:

A report by the National Health Service has found that millions of patients suffer falls or malnutrition during their stay in hospital, according to the Daily Mail.

When you have to remind people exactly what their jobs are, you may well ask how they’d have the nerve to go on strike in the first place…

The report, entitled High Impact Actions for Nursing and Midwifery: The Essential Collection, concluded that many of the injuries could have been avoided and reminded staff of their duties.

Almost a quarter of patients are malnourished the report, which was sent to hospitals last month, found.

It admitted: "Most patients, carers, health care professionals, commissioners, senior managers and chief executives do not realise how common it is in the UK and so it goes unrecognised and untreated."

Elderly patients 'leaving NI hospitals malnourished'

2010-07-21T14:42:00.002+01:00

Too many elderly people are leaving hospital malnourished, a charity has claimed.

Age Northern Ireland said older patients were being left hungry because they were unable to eat the food left on their hospital tray.

The charity said patients depended on families to both provide the food and feed it to them.

It said relatives were concerned patients were malnourished because food was not being pureed or cut up.

Duane Farrell from the charity said ensuring patients are properly looked after in hospital is more important than ever in the current economic climate.
Standards

"Under these conditions older people are going to spend longer in hospital, they're at risk of getting more infections and are going to need more medicine, so the economic reasons are argument enough," Mr Farrell said.

"We believe that hospital trusts need to be at the forefront of this, directors of nursing within those trusts need to be compiling information about how standards are being implemented and coming up with action plans."

Leandre Munroe, from Belfast, said her mother was sometimes unable to even reach her food tray.

"They can't bend over if they've just had surgery so the tray was just too far away.

"If it was closer, even then she couldn't cut it so you had to try and spoon feed, just to drink things she would need a straw," Ms Munroe added.

"Unless you were there to feed the person you were caring for, there wasn't enough staff to do that."

In a statement, the Department of Health said nutritional standards for patient food in hospitals was launched in 2007.

Since then trusts had adopted a screening tool to identify those patients who are at most risk, the department said.

Source: BBC

Schoolgirl, 15, had four heart attacks and died days after doctors sent her home and told her 'take paracetemol'

2010-07-21T11:30:00.002+01:00

A frightened schoolgirl suffered multiple organ failure and four heart attacks just days after doctors sent her home with paracetamol and told her to take 'plenty of rest', an inquest heard.

Amy Carter, 15, begged doctors not to discharge her, telling them 'I'm dying' but medics assured her she would be fine. Two days later on Christmas Eve, Amy - who had not been able to eat for 19 days and weighed just six stone - was rushed into hospital and died hours later.

An inquest heard the teenager had developed a lethal combination of conditions never before seen in a patient. A post-mortem revealed Amy, from Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, died from glandular fever and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome..."

Source: Daily Mail

Twin born after 23 week pregnancy becomes most premature baby to survive

2010-07-21T09:56:00.000+01:00

A twin girl has become the youngest baby to be born prematurely and survive in Britain, it has been claimed.

Amelia Hope Burden was born before the 24-week legal limit for abortion when her mother was just 23 weeks and two days pregnant, the Daily Mail reported.

She was born weighing only 1lb 2oz ten days before her brother Arthur arrived at 1lb 4oz.

He was born in July after Amanda Staplehurst had been pregnant for 24 weeks.

She went to hospital complaining of stomach cramps only to be told that she was in labour.

Amelia Hope showed little sign of life but doctors were able to revive her.

Under law they are not obliged to do so unless they feel it is in the child’s best interest.

Miss Staplehurst, 30, from Bournemouth, told the Daily Mail: “Doctors said she had just a 10 per cent of chance of survival and we never thought she’d pull through.

“Then having delivered Amelia Hope, it was totally bizarre that for ten days I remained pregnant with Arthur. The doctors have told us they’ve never come across a case like it.”

The babies are being kept in incubators but are putting on weight and said to be developing well.

The twins’ survival will give weight to the campaign to have the abortion limit lowered.

Some campaigners would like to see it reduced to 20 weeks.

David Cameron, the Prime Minister, voted for a cut earlier this year and has said that an upper limit of 20 or 22 weeks would be “sensible”.

The previous British record for surviving premature twins was 24 weeks, the paper reported.

Source: The Telegraph

Updated: Baby born at 23 weeks dies because she was 'one week too early'

2010-07-21T09:50:00.000+01:00

See Above.

A heartbroken mum who tried for five years to get pregnant told yesterday how a hospital let her premature baby die - because she was born one week too early.

Latisha Brown and husband Robert, 30, begged staff to put daughter Alexis in a special care incubator after she was born at home at 23 weeks. Alexis, who weighed 1lb 1oz and was 28cms long, was breathing, kicking and waving her arms when taken to hospital on June 26.

But a midwife at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital said there was nothing they could do. Alexis clung on to life for two hours without any medical help before she died. Guidelines say babies born less than 24 weeks into pregnancy should not be resuscitated.

Nursery nurse Latisha, 23, from Attleborough, Norfolk, said: "I can't understand why they just left her to die."

The hospital said: "There was no question of survival for such a premature baby."

Source: The Daily Mirror.

Bolsin For UK Honours List

2010-07-19T01:56:00.000+01:00

Please support our campaign to nominate Whistleblower Stephen Bolsin on the UK Honours List.

Support Steve Bolsin For UK Honours

Baby Peter GP suspended for year

2010-07-18T23:07:00.000+01:00

A GP who saw Baby Peter eight days before his death has been suspended from working as a doctor for 12 months.

The General Medical Council had already ruled there were "serious failings" in Dr Jerome Ikwueke's care.

Peter, from north London, died aged 17 months in August 2007 after sustained abuse.

His mother Tracey Connelly, her boyfriend Stephen Barker and his brother Jason Owen were jailed last year for causing or allowing his death.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

You don't pose a risk of repeating this behaviour”

End Quote Dr Judith Worthington, GMC panel chairman

Dr Ikwueke, 63, who was the family's GP, had noted that the toddler was not his "usual happy self", seemed "withdrawn" and pulled away when he saw him for the last time on July 26 2007.

The GMC had said the GP breached his professional duty towards the child in not carrying out a full examination, making an urgent referral for further checks or sharing information with a health visitor or social workers.

But giving her judgement, panel chairman Dr Judith Worthington, said: "You don't pose a risk of repeating this behaviour and there's no evidence of deep-seated attitudinal or personality problems."

She also spoke of how Dr Ikwueke had shown remorse, and had taken "remedial action", such as attending a number of child protection courses and improving procedures at his surgery.

Dr Worthington said that, despite the serious breaches identified in Baby Peter's case, striking Dr Ikwueke off the medical register would not be "proportionate or in the public interest".

But she said the panel had decided it was necessary to suspend the GP for the maximum period of 12 months "in order to maintain public confidence in the profession and to declare and uphold proper standards of conduct and behaviour".

Patients of Dr Ikwueke had given written and verbal testimonies to the hearing in his support.
Face value

The GP saw Peter at his north London surgery at least 14 times in the months before his death.

The GMC panel ruled there were "serious" failings to prioritise the toddler's welfare in the doctor's care.

It said Dr Ikwueke should have considered the possibility of child abuse when he noticed Peter had bruises on his chest and head at an appointment on October 13 2006.

Instead he accepted a claim by the child's mother that he had fallen downstairs at "face value".

The GP also failed to mention these injuries when he referred Peter to hospital with further bruising two months later.

Dr Ikwueke, who qualified as a doctor in Nigeria and worked as a GP for nearly 20 years, denied misconduct.

Source: BBC

Out-of-hours GP firm had systematic failings, CQC says

2010-07-15T13:31:00.002+01:00

I know we've mentioned this story before, but it just gets worse:

A company providing out-of-hours care in an area where a pensioner died after a painkiller overdose had "systematic" failings, the NHS regulator says.

David Gray, 70, from Manea, Cambridgeshire, was killed by Dr Daniel Ubani, a German medic working his first NHS shift for Take Care Now. The now-defunct firm was criticised for failing to act on previous cases and warnings on standards.

The Care Quality Commission said the whole NHS should learn lessons too. The death of Mr Gray in February 2008 after he was given 10 times the normal dose of diamorphine has focused national attention on weekend and night GP cover, which in many cases is provided by private firms.

The CQC criticised Take Care Now (TCN) for failing to investigate and learn from two previous cases of diamorphine overdoses prior to Mr Gray's death...

Source: BBC

Nurses thought anorexic teenager who died in their care 'was just sleeping'

2010-07-15T10:56:00.003+01:00

An anorexic teenager under 24-hour hospital supervision died in bed - in front of nurses who thought she had just fallen asleep. Rachael Stubbs, 17,was on the highest level supervision and should have had her hands and neck in full view of nurses at all times at the private Cheadle Royal Hospital, in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, an inquest heard. A coroner is now writing to health bosses, saying observations 'were not carried out properly'.

The teenager went to bed face down and began to make heavy breathing noises 'like she was hyperventilating', on January 13, 2008. Nurses, who should have been within arm's reach of Rachael at all times, did not intervene and 15 minutes later the noises stopped, but they assumed she had fallen asleep. Nurses on the Meadows Unit dialled 999*; when they realised she was not breathing 10 minutes later

Stockport deputy coroner Joanne Kearsley said: 'I find from the evidence that the (level four) observations were not being carried out correctly. I accept that this was a particularly difficult time for the unit and the staff who have to deal with distressing and difficult patients and situations, but I fail to find any reason why the guidance was not followed. Perhaps of most concern was the fact that CPR was not commenced when Rachael was found. I would expect all staff to be reminded of the importance of this in an emergency situation.'

Source: Daily Mail

* WTF? Aren't nurses supposed to know CPR? Isn't that a bit like the fire brigade calling the fire brigade?

Nurses spend more time doing paperwork than looking after patients

2010-07-14T12:47:00.000+01:00

Some nurses are spending more than half their time doing paperwork instead of looking after patients, according to new figures.

Statistics from one group of hospitals show senior sisters and charge nurses – who oversee all the patients and staff on a ward – spend as little as 44 per cent of their time with patients.

Managers at Cambridge University NHS Trust have handed senior sisters and charge nurses new contracts to ensure they spend at least 80 per cent of their time to caring for patients.

Chief nurse Karen Castille said: “The trust is piloting a scheme to free up sisters’ and charge nurses' time and trying to measure the impact of this.”

She told the Nursing Standard magazine the hospitals would be trying out the new contracts until the end of the year.

It comes amid growing concerns that nursing staff are being increasingly swamped by bureaucracy and target-chasing.

Dr Peter Carter, General Secretary of the RCN said: “Nurses enter the profession because they want to care for patients, and so measures that increase the amount of time they spend with patients are a good thing.

"However, it is often problems with resourcing that reduce the amount of time nurses spend with patients.

“It is vital that wards are sufficiently resourced so nurses can provide patients with the level of care they want and deserve.”

The Royal College of Nursing has repeatedly warned that nurses are being forced to spend too much time on paperwork.

Source: The Telegraph

Aylesbury and Wycombe MPs slam treatment after Stoke Mandeville Hospital death

2010-07-13T15:17:00.001+01:00

FURIOUS MPs have slammed the "shocking" hospital treatment of a 77-year-old woman whose death came after nurses failed to give her medication for 36 hours. Health bosses said they were launching a 'detailed investigation' following an inquest into the death of Hughenden Valley resident Margaret Brown at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

The inquest heard on Friday drugs to treat Mrs Brown were unavailable after staff at the hospital's pharmacy could not be contacted. Nurses' attempts to obtain the drugs was described as "haphazard" by coroner Richard Hulett, who recorded a verdict of misadventure.

Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust this week apologised to Mrs Brown's family and offered its "sincere condolences"...

Source: This is local London

Talented singer died 'after doctors blamed agonising headaches on pregnancy

2010-07-12T13:44:00.000+01:00

A talented singer married to one of Britain's top songwriters died after her rare brain condition was repeatedly mistaken for pregnancy complications, her family claims.
One doctor said the headaches were caused by a slipped disc while another told her it was just a trapped nerve.
A third doctor said her migraines were hormone-related and one suggested they were being triggered by an addiction to painkillers.
When she finally had an MRI scan in March - three months after giving birth to daughter Sophia - doctors discovered she was suffering from Chiari malformation.
The condition - which affects one in 1,000 people - is a deformity at the base of the skull which crushes the brain stem into the spinal column causing a blockage of spinal fluid.
The mother-of-two underwent an operation on June 23 to relieve pressure on the brain stem but she died three days later of heart failure.

Source: Daily Mail

A new treatment is giving hope to MS sufferers such as Mark Walker. So why can’t he get it in Britain?

2010-07-12T09:42:00.000+01:00

Mark Walker is what the NHS calls an “expert patient”. He’s someone who knows all there is to know about the disease that has shadowed his existence on and off, for nearly 20 years, forcing him to give up the high-flying job he adored, and curtailing an active life. Walker asks difficult questions of doctors, expects candid answers, and pursues new research doggedly.

Before our meeting at the pretty bungalow on the outskirts of Oxford where he lives with his wife, Natasha, he provided me with a detailed record of the onset of his multiple sclerosis (MS): from the first signs of a problem (double vision in December 1991) through putative diagnoses (myasthenia gravis and a brain tumour) and accumulating symptoms (numbness, balance and bladder problems) to definitive diagnosis in 2000. Each treatment tried and its result are documented meticulously, as you would expect from someone who qualified originally as a pharmacist.

Today, at 51, the former IBM management consultant has severely impaired mobility on his right side. He relies on a walking aid known as a Musmate and trekking poles. He knows what, in all probability, lies ahead – a life of increasing debilitation and limitation. It is this glimpse of the future that lies behind his decision – a “rational and considered one” – to go to Athens for tests and, possibly, treatment based on a controversial new theory about the cause of MS.

Walker is frustrated, however, that he must seek help abroad and, given that he lives close to two world-renowned MS centres at the John Radcliffe and the Nuffield hospitals, angry at the lack of support from MS experts here in exploring new approaches.

“Yes, I am desperate. Two years ago I was living in a three-storey townhouse in the centre of Oxford. Now, I’m living in a bungalow because I can’t do stairs very well. Ten years ago, I was managing a team of 20 people in Rome. Now, my life is all about managing my disease.

''In the 21st century, patients like me, who are well informed about their progressively disabling disease, should be allowed to choose private diagnostic tests and treatment for themselves. And health-care professionals should surely be helping patients’ freedom of choice.”

Source: The Telegraph

Sacked NHS whistleblower vindicated

2010-07-11T20:22:00.000+01:00

Tribunal judge orders that radiology manager who reported senior doctors' misconduct be reinstated on her full salary

An NHS worker with an unblemished 27-year career was sacked after she blew the whistle on senior doctors who were moonlighting at a private hospital while being paid to diagnose NHS patients, an employment tribunal has heard.

Sharmila Chowdhury, 51, the radiology service manager at Ealing Hospital NHS Trust, repeatedly warned the hospital's most senior managers that doctors were dishonestly claiming thousands of pounds every month.

A Watford employment tribunal judge took the unusual step last week of ordering the trust to reinstate Ms Chowdhury's full salary and said: "I have no hesitation in saying that you are probably going to win."

The ruling will be a bitter blow for the trust, particularly as despite the seriousness of the allegations, it failed for two years to take any action against Miranda Harvie and Peter Schnatterback, the two doctors accused of fraud at the hearing.

Instead, Ms Chowdhury was suspended after a counter-allegation of fraud made against her by a junior whom she had reported for breaching patient safety. Radiographer Michael McWha made the allegation at the request of Dr Harvie, the tribunal heard. Ms Chowdhury was sacked for gross misconduct in June, eight months after her suspension.

This case is the latest to highlight the inadequate legal protection for whistleblowers who speak out about wrongdoing in the NHS. It also raises the uncomfortable question about the power yielded in the NHS by senior doctors. The onus is now on the trust to prove at next February's tribunal that Ms Chowdhury was guilty of fraud and not, as she claims, sacked because she was a whistleblower.

Speaking after the judgment, a tearful Ms Chowdhury expressed her relief after months of financial hardship. A widow with a teenage son, Ms Chowdhury has been forced to move back in with her elderly parents and rely on the goodwill of outraged lawyers. She told The Independent on Sunday: "I cannot believe what has happened to me. I was horrified and humiliated when escorted out of the building, and for a whole month, I had no idea why I was suspended. I was just doing my job. I thought the trust would want to know consultants were doing private work on NHS time. The public has a right to know what is happening with public money.

"This whole thing has completely changed me. I'm trying to stay positive but I loved my work, my department, and there are not many jobs out there. I hope the trust sees sense and tries to resolve the situation. If it hadn't been for Julie Morris at Russell Jones and Walker who took on my case for free, I would have lost everything I'd worked for all my life."

Source: The Independent

Jane Harrop, 30, dies after doctors tell her: You've only got a headache

2010-07-08T07:39:00.001+01:00

Jane Harrop was told she ‘only had a migraine’. But ten days later, she was dead – after medics failed to diagnose what is believed to be Menigo-myeloncephalitis.

The care at Good Hope Hospital, Birmingham was ‘an absolute joke’, said Mrs Harrop’s husband, Dean, ‘The day before she died on February 19, Jane was rolling about on the floor screaming,’ added the builder from Selly Oak.

Hospital bosses have launched an inquiry into the 30-year-old carer’s treatment, and findings will be passed to a coroner. Lisa Dunn, Good Hope Hospital director, said: ‘We would again like to pass on our sincere condolences to the family.’

Source: The Metro.

Hospital trust pay-out for brain-damaged taxi driver

2010-07-06T10:12:00.001+01:00

A taxi driver who suffered brain damage after a hospital scan was not properly interpreted has been awarded a multimillion-pound pay-out. Leslie Dye was taken to Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, after he was stabbed in the neck by a customer in May 2003. Mr Dye, 57, suffered a cardiac arrest which left him seriously disabled and wholly dependent.

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust admitted liability. The trust has agreed to pay Mr Dye a lump sum of £850,000 plus index-linked periodic payments. Mr Dye is now cared for at the Jacob Centre, in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire.

At London's High Court earlier, Mr Justice Burnett said: "It is obvious that the consequences of the stabbing and the failures in medical care which followed had an absolutely devastating effect upon his life and on the lives of all those close to him."

A trust spokesman said: "Since the incident, the trust has worked hard to ensure the quality of its healthcare services improves and that nothing similar happens again. The trust has apologised to Mr Dye and his family for the quality of care he received at Princess Alexandra Hospital and wishes them all the best for the future."

Source: BBC

NHS trust 'deny' life-saving operation for 13-year-old epilepsy sufferer

2010-07-06T10:09:00.001+01:00

"A mother is uprooting her family because she says her NHS trust has denied her seriously ill son a life-changing operation.

Sue Lomas is moving from Staffordshire in the hope another trust will fund a £14,000 operation to ease son Ryan's life-threatening epilepsy. The 13-year-old's fits are so violent he wears a helmet – but is still left with broken teeth and sometimes even a fractured eye socket.

Ms Lomas, 40, made a case for vagal nerve stimulation surgery – in which electric impulses control seizures – but she lost her second appeal to North Staffordshire PCT despite backing from consultants, politicians and carers. 'The NHS will give out things like boob jobs and gastric bands, so why won't they give my son a chance at happiness?' she asked. She is moving from her childhood home of Biddulph to Nottingham to continue her fight.

The trust said it refused the procedure because there was a chance Ryan would feel no benefit."

Source: The Metro

"I think we've relied on an assumption that doctors, when they come out of medical schools, are competent to prescribe."

2010-06-27T08:40:00.000+01:00

A seven-month-old baby boy died after doctors gave him 12 times the correct amount of anti-epileptic drugs he should have received in 24 hours, an inquest heard.

A mistake? A single doctor's error compounded by tiredness and overwork?

Well, not really:

Medical staff involved in his care, including a consultant paediatrician, a specialist registrar and a senior house officer, were suspended from prescribing medicine and could still face disciplinary action.

'Could'? In any other profession, that would be a 'will'...

After Lucas's death, the senior registrar was forced to take two prescribing tests but failed both.

If that's the senior registrar, can you imagine what the juniors are like?

Major deficiencies in artificial feeding, inquiry finds

2010-06-25T07:27:00.001+01:00

There are major deficiencies in the way hospitals provide artificial nutrition to sick babies and adults, an inquiry has found.

A national safety watchdog found problems in three quarters of the intravenous feeding it cases examined. Complications were avoidable in half the adult patients reviewed, it said. Premature babies meanwhile were not always given the sustenance they needed, and delays were rife, the report added.

The report from the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) looked at more than 1,000 cases of artificial - or parenteral - nutrition in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Liquid containing key nutrients pumped from a bag directly into a vein is given to patients who cannot digest food through the gut as a result of disease or surgery, or babies whose systems are not mature enough. A catalogue of problems were uncovered while reviewing questionnaires and case notes from England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the "Mixed Bag" report found.

They included failure to ensure the catheter was inserted by a trained clinician under suitably sterile conditions, as well as lapses in monitoring and assessment...

Source: BBC

Kent bug scandal NHS boss awarded damages

2010-06-24T13:41:00.001+01:00

The former boss of a Kent NHS trust where 90 people died in a superbug outbreak has been awarded more than £190,000 in damages.

Rose Gibb went to the Court of Appeal in a legal battle over her severance pay. She left her job days before a report into a clostridium difficile (C. diff) outbreak at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust was released...

The trust negotiated a £250,000 pay-off, but £175,000 was withheld. Ms Gibb left her £150,000-a-year chief executive post in October 200... The report concluded the infection was the main cause of death for 90 patients in 2007.

Source: BBC

'Voyeur' GP admits fondling staff and installing webcam in series of sex and alcohol-related complaints before GMC

2010-06-22T11:25:00.000+01:00

A voyeuristic GP fondled his nurses and receptionists, installed a web cam in his surgery and watched porn on office computers, it was claimed yesterday.

Dr Ralph Vadas also turned up to work drunk and was caught pleasuring himself in the surgery kitchen, the General Medical Council was told.

The doctor has admitted putting his hand up a receptionist's jumper and telling her he was 'falling in love with her'.

Over four years between 2004 and 2008, Vadas watched porn on computers at the West Canford Health Medical Centre in Poole, Dorset. As part of this 'sexually motivated' behaviour he stockpiled images at the surgery in 2007, it is claimed.

Vadas now faces 60 charges relating to his sexual conduct and his alleged inadequate treatment of eight patients over 12 years.

Allegations relating to the GP's abuse of alcohol will be heard in private but the General Medical Council has heard the doctor 'was under the influence of alcohol on occasions' at the surgery between February and October 2007.

He had agreed to abstain completely from alcohol in September 2006 but lied to his supervisors about a drinking binge the following February.

Vadas has admitted that this conduct was inappropriate and dishonest.

The allegations of sexual touching refer to two nurses and two receptionists between August 2003 and 2007.

He has admitted touching a district nursing sister's buttocks 'without her consent' on August 26, 2003, but denies touching her hip. A further nurse claims the doctor touched her stomach 'without her consent'.

One receptionist reported that he touched her bottom and another said he put his hand up her jumper and said he was falling in love with her.

He has admitted installing a web cam in his surgery pointed towards the area where patients would sit, but denied masturbating in the surgery kitchen in April 2008.

It is further alleged his treatment of eight patients was 'inadequate' between 1996 and 2008.

On one occasion in March 2003, Vadas told a patient complaining of 'crushing pain' in his chest and trouble breathing to drive himself to hospital, it is claimed.

For the next four years he treated the man for angina without carrying out an adequate review of his medication, cholesterol level of blood pressure, it is said.

Vadas also prescribed his wife the powerful painkiller pethidine over nine years but did not attempt to wean her off it after she became addicted. Instead he prescribed morphine injections 'when it was not clinically indicated', the hearing was told.

When her husband queried whether she should drive while using morphine, Vadas told him it was up to him to decide if she was fit enough.

The GP denies any wrongdoing over his prescription of steroids to another patient over 12 years.

Another woman was prescribed the contraceptive pill for four years without annual reviews of her weight and blood pressure, it is claimed.

Vadas denies this conduct was inadequate.

A second woman was also prescribed an oral contraceptive which was 'contraindicated' and no reasons were recorded.

In February 2008 the doctor diagnosed a woman with iron deficient anaemia but failed to rule out bleeding as a cause of her problems, the GMC was told.

Vadas denies this was inadequate but admits failing to keep adequate records.

A further patient was prescribed a series of drugs for high cholesterol and high blood pressure but was not properly monitored, it is alleged. Vadas then failed to direct liver tests for a patient and review them every three months after prescribing antibiotics. He denies this conduct was inadequate.

After a series of complaints, the Hungarian doctor was excluded from the practice by the Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust in 2008.

He was also suspended by the GMC pending investigation.

It is claimed the GP then accessed patient records during his suspension and rang up the practice manager to make threats.

Vadas is attending his central London hearing and denies that his fitness to practise is impaired by reason of misconduct or adverse physical and/or mental health.

Source: Daily Mail

Head Injury? Well, Maybe...But You've Had A Few Sherbets, Haven't You?

2010-06-22T08:25:00.000+01:00

Following on from Dick Puddlecote's post yesterday, it seems alcohol + illness makes it hard to diagnose - particularly for those medics who have already made up their minds:

Confused and in distress, this man seems to be in need of medical attention.

But when this picture was taken, Arnold Siddall had just been dumped outside a hospital A&E department because staff thought he was drunk.

In fact he had suffered a fractured skull, but no one at the hospital read a form written by a paramedic which said the 47-year-old had hit his head on a pavement.

So he was turfed out, and eventually arrested. Whereupon, on suffering a fit, he was brought back to hospital. Too late.

Now a coroner has ruled that Mr Siddall could have survived had he been treated at once, rather than a full 14 hours after his fall.

His family released the poignant image of his final hours yesterday as they demanded assurances that no patient could ever be betrayed by the NHS in the same way.

Good luck with that!

The trust has paid his family a five-figure out-of-court settlement negotiated through solicitors Pannone and has apologised for Mr Siddall's treatment.

Anyone want to bet this won't happen again?

Doctor struck off after diagnosing alcohol withdrawal for patient who died of pneumonia

2010-06-21T20:41:00.004+01:00

If you've ever thought it odd that your GP routinely asks about alcohol intake when you visit about a pain in your elbow, this should be rather more worrying.

A BUNGLING Midland doctor has been struck off after telling a seriously ill patient that he was just suffering from alcohol withdrawal – hours before he died from pneumonia.

Madumita Mitra made the wrong diagnosis during a house call in Great Barr, Birmingham.

The male patient had tell-tale signs of pneumonia including a painful cough and shortness of breath. But instead of sending him to hospital, the medic diagnosed alcohol withdrawal.

The patient died three hours later.

The panel ruled that her actions were so serious they had no choice but to remove her name from the medical register.

She had previously spoken on the phone to a friend of the ill man and had taken details of his medical history, including the fact that he was an alcoholic. When Dr Mitra arrived at the house she, “kept looking round as if looking for alcohol” the friend later said.

The examination lasted between five and seven minutes, but the GP did not check the patient’s chest properly.

While top medics continually harp on about the all-encompassing evil of alcohol, is it really that surprising when a gullible doctor such as this sees a demon which isn't there?

Source: Sunday Mercury