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?
‘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.But wait, you say, how was this allowed to happen in the first place? Wasn't he under guard?
‘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.”
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.What were they doing?
‘The detainee was handcuffed and accompanied by three escorts when the incident occurred.’
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.An accident? Carelessness?
The speakers had also been turned the wrong way and covered in paperwork.
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.Are you sure?
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.’
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.And the verdict?
‘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.’
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?
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.Run out of ice? Isn’t it just frozen water?
But when she asked nurses for ice, Mrs Sanderson said she was told they had run out.
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!
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:
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, 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’.
Mrs Sanderson said: “It’s not so much the money, because the ice cost about £3 a day.Yes. Yes, it was…
"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.”
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.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?
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.”
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?
… 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?
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.No surprises what conclusion they eventually came to...
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.
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?
For the last few years, she has counted on the health service to afford her dignity and security in her old age.This doesn't even make sense. It's not like she couldn't fake it if she wanted to, is it?
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.
'I was incensed, but we put three pads in a carrier bag.And believe it or not, the health authority actually defended this:
When we got there the nurses actually weighed each pad in front of us and referred to some kind of scale...'.
A spokesman for Nottinghamshire Community Health insisted that testing incontinence pads for absorbency was standard practice.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.
‘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.’
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.I know the hospital well - it's a £238 million disaster area.
He was delivered by a stranger in the room, but fell to the floor and hit his head.
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...
Queen’s Hospital’s head of midwifery, Sue Lovell, apologised for the latest incident and said a new triage system was being introduced.It didn't occur to you to do this before..?
‘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.’
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
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.Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…the caring profession.
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.
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.’
DAMNING reports on the state of the National Health Service, suppressed by the government, reveal how patients’ needs have been neglected.One must wonder at the pointlessness of a Labour Lord commissioning reports if his own party then contrives to hide unfavourable conclusions.
They diagnose a blind pursuit of political and managerial targets as the root cause of a string of hospital scandals that have cost thousands of lives.
One report, based on the advice of almost 200 top managers and doctors, says hospitals ignored basic hygiene to cram in patients to meet waiting-time targets.
It says “several interviewees” cited the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells [NHS Trust in Kent where 269 deaths during 2005-6 were caused by infection with Clostridium difficile bacteria].
“Managers crowded in patients in order to meet waiting-time targets and, in the process, lost sight of the fundamental hygiene requirements for infection prevention,” the report stated.
There were subsequent failings at health trusts in Basildon in Essex, and Mid Staffordshire. Filthy wards and nurse shortages led to up to 1,200 deaths at Stafford hospital.
Lord Darzi, the former health minister, commissioned the three reports from international consultancies to assess the progress of the NHS as it approached its 60th anniversary in 2008. They have come to light after a freedom of information request.
Nurses are to face police questioning over deaths from Clostridium difficile at a Dunbartonshire hospital, it has emerged.
Officers will interview staff at the Vale of Leven Hospital, where a C.diff outbreak was linked to 18 deaths.
A report which identified failures in hygiene and infection control was passed to prosecutors last year.
