NHS loses CD of 1.6 MILLION patients' records

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..?

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...

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!

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....

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

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

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..?

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

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...

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...

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…

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'

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

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.

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...

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'

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?

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?

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

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