Everyone’s At Fault, No-one’s To Blame…

The court heard Melody's two friends, Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Port, frantically tried to get help when the attack began on October 12, 2010, but neither had a mobile phone.

Instead, the pair took the decision to drive her to hospital. On the way to the city centre hospital, Melody was in 'severe distress' as she held her head out of the window battling for air. She even tried to get out of the vehicle in panic.

When they arrived at the hospital car park in Mount Vernon, Grace ran into the reception to plead for help for her stricken friend.

As you would. I mean, here you are, at a hospital, run by that wonder of the world - the NHS - that Michael Moore has told all your countrymen should be replicated in your own country immediately.

You’re saved, right? You’re in the right place!

Well….no:

The medical student was told she had to call 999 and despite her screams of dismay was turned back to the car, where Elizabeth was supporting 'swaying' Melody to the entrance.

She collapsed before reaching the door and an ambulance arrived to take her the few yards to the A&E department.

But it’s not the fault of the NHS! Perish the thought:

…Liverpool Coroner’s Court heard the decision to take Melody to the hospital by car rather than call paramedics 'was the wrong one' and the coroner said he would not attach 'culpability' to the NHS.

And yet…

The hospital has since reviewed its policy for responding to medical emergencies within the hospital grounds.

Hmmm. They aren’t at fault. The coroner said so. Why change?

And…who is at fault, if anyone?

Mr Rebello told the court of the findings presented in the report by Dr Taggart, who claimed that the 'decision to put Melody in the car was the wrong one'.

He continued: 'Paramedics carry the appropriate equipment in case of an asthma attack of this nature and calling 999 would mean the medicine is brought to them.' Similarly, the findings from Dr Good stated that 'lack of awareness' was a factor in deaths caused by asthma attacks.

Dr Good wrote: 'The decision to travel by car is a common factor in deaths through asthma attacks.

'At the time of arrival, she was one to two minutes from respiratory arrest and no amount of emergency care would have saved her.'

So, it’s the fault of her two friends. Right?

Nope. Not really them, either:

Tearful Mr Davis asked the coroner if staff at the Royal Liverpool Hospital were at fault, but Mr Rebello said he would not to attach 'culpability' to the NHS.

He also told the grieving father, who lives with his wife Dorothea in San Jose, that Melody’s friends acted in her best interests.

Mr Rebello told Melody’s father: 'I am sure you would have liked attention to have been given in a different way when Melody arrived at the hospital.

'But the experts say that was not causative to her death.

'I’m hoping that the tragedy and upset you have suffered will enable other parents to take heed of the advice and to phone 999.

'In that way Melody’s death would not have been in vain.'

Seems like it was in vain to me…

This Very Same Thing Almost Happened To My Own Father….

A healthy, active grandmother died in hospital after she was denied food and water for more than a week.

And why..?

Well, you won’t believe this, but…

Joan Pertoldi, 76, was put on a nil-by-mouth regime while she waited for a routine hip operation at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Welwyn Garden City.

Her family was told she would be operated on within 48 hours but the procedure was put off three times – twice because the prosthesis due to be inserted into the joint was not properly sterilised.

Other delays occurred because there weren’t enough staff at weekends.

And through all this, no-one thought to say ‘Hey, it’s been a while. Maybe we should feed and water her?’. 

This wasn’t (directly) a lack of resources, or money, or trained, competent staff. This was gross negligence of the highest order.

And the same thing almost happened to my father – about, ooh, ten years ago, he had an obstruction in his throat and was booked in for an endoscopy. He too was nil-by-mouth. He, too, had delays and cancellations.

Three days later, when I took my mother in to see him to find he still hadn’t been fed (and there was no sign of any planned endoscopy or urgency in the medical staff that he’d not been fed, either) we both tore a strip off the ward sister, threatened to complain via all channels available and lo and behold, he was seen to immediately.

If he hadn’t had family to do that, who knows how long he’d have lain there, starving? Since, of course he – like Mrs Pertoldi, no doubt – was of the ‘Mustn’t grumble’ generation.

The operation eventually went ahead eight days after she was admitted but, severely weakened, Mrs Pertoldi never recovered and died in hospital a few weeks later.

Oh, and it wasn’t just the starvation in her case either.

During her stay, Mrs Pertoldi was dropped by nurses on one occasion because they failed to consult physiotherapists’ notes which explained how much assistance she needed to walk.

After becoming dehydrated, Mrs Pertoldi developed a urinary infection which, the family say, lead to blood poisoning because doctors failed to tackle the problem.

She also developed a blocked bowel and contracted superbug clostridium difficile which caused her organs to fail, leading to her eventual death.

Why is this not prosecuted as corporate manslaughter?

Hertfordshire coroner, Edward Thomas has now ordered the hospital to investigate the blunders and her family are considering legal action, claiming she died due to neglect.

Why are they only ‘considering’ legal action? Come to that, why should they need to take this action themselves?

This is the true face of the glorious NHS that Boyle’s Olympic tribute failed to mention…

East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust offered ‘deepest sympathies’ to the family.

Director of nursing Angela Thompson added: ‘We now have a dedicated fractured hip unit at QEII. Since being created, we have seen a significant improvement in both the clinical quality of care as well as patients.’

What, you mean you’re remembering to feed and water them now?

Is It The Procedure At Fault, Or The People?

Kane Gorny, 22, phoned police from his bed because he was so thirsty, but nurses and doctors ignored his requests for water and he died the following day.

In a devastating verdict, deputy coroner Shirley Radcliffe said there had been a collective failing by staff at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, south London, who all refused to take responsibility for their roles.

She added that the ‘target-driven’ culture in the NHS and the European Working Hours Directive, which limits the number of hours medical staff can work, had played a part in his death.

Is that the case? Because I really don't see how someone with the normal compassion and desire to help that you would expect to see in medical staff could hide behind directives and guidelines while someone suffered and died right in front of their e...

Oh:

A husband was forced to give his dying wife CPR because a lone paramedic sent to the scene could not manage on her own, it was claimed today.

Alfred Pearce, 65, and his daughter Tracey, 40, battled in vain to save Beryl Pearce after being asked by the first responder to help while she unpacked her equipment and called for back-up.

She apparently had tears in her eyes and kept saying she was 'sorry'. I don't know what about. It's unlikely she will be held truly responsinle:

Just one nurse has been demoted as a result of Mr Gorny’s death after a routine operation and the rest are still working in healthcare.

But ask yourself this; if the job you were doing would, as a result of crazy directives and hiring policies have a diametrically opposite result to the one it was supposed to have, would you continue doing it?

Because I don't think I could. Money isn't everything.

I Don’t Really Know What To Say About This…

…but while it’s undoubtedly awful, can anyone familiar with the horror stories about NHS failures say it’s a surprise? Certainly, for those of us who have had the misfortune to experience NHS ‘care’ it’s no revelation.

But some things do still stand out in their capacity to reveal the breathtaking contempt in which the state systems hold their ‘customers’:

Following his death, a nurse allegedly inquired whether the family, from Balham, South-West London, was 'finished' and asked a matron in front of them whether she could 'bag him up'.

*speechless*

Miss Cronin said: 'The main doctor came out and you could tell he was really angry. He said: “You need to go and see your son. He's dying.”

The couple then found their son lying in blood and fluid-soaked sheets and a nurse came in and asked them to help her to change them.

This was the same nurse who asked if she could ‘bag up’ the body in front of the grieving relatives. And, once again, even while this PR disaster is unfolding around them, their thoughts are only of themselves:

Nurses at the hospital were said to have been offered counselling as a result of Mr Gorny's death.

Would it even work? I mean, on people so utterly devoid of normal human compassion?

The inquest continues. The case is still being considered by the Crown Prosecution Service.

I hope that’s because they are waiting until the inquest finishes, and not because there’s really a doubt in their minds that they need to take action.

Oh, You're Wrong., It IS A Freak Show...

Large dust sheets and tarpaulins were put up outside her home in Aberdare, South Wales, so the operation could be conducted in private.

'This is not a freak show,' said a police officer.

Builders had to remove a window before tearing down an external and internal wall to free Miss Davis from her semi-detached council house. Scaffolding and a makeshift bridge were used to move her safely, and while there was a crane on site, it is not thought it was used to lift her.

Residents said the operation to move Miss Davis began just after 9am, and she was seen leaving the scene in an ambulance just after 5pm.

The cost of the operation – involving police, fire service and ambulance crews – is likely to run into tens of thousands of pounds to cover manpower, plus the emergency call-out and the reconstruction of the demolished walls.

...but the freak isn't young Georgia Davies, but the grotesque priorities of the NHS itself. The NHS happy to sit idly by as her carers slowly kill her as assuredly as if they were beating her daily:

In August 2008, a 33st Georgia was told by doctors to 'lose 20 stones or die'.

Spurred into action, Georgia attended a £3,600-a-month Wellspring diet academy in the US for nine months, during which time she shrank to 18st and beat her Type 2 diabetes. She was seen by behavioural coaches, food psychologists and fitness trainers and encouraged to walk 10,000 steps every day.

She returned to the UK in June 2009 to look after her mother who has a heart condition.

But she reverted to old habits when she returned home.

'When I arrived my mum said she hadn't had time to prepare any healthy food so we had fish and chips instead,' she said. 'For that moment on, I had a niggling feeling that things weren't going to work out.'

Yet which, while it's happy to leap into action once things reach critical mass, and free her from her prison with all the care of Seaworld staff assisting a stranded fin whale, it's strangely blasé about ensuring that patients already in their care don't starve to death, that they don't die through neglect and incompetence, that patients are properly diagnosed in the first place.

Yes, there's a freak show here, all right.

Patient’s corpse was left unnoticed in hospital car park for 2 days

From The Metro:

The 79-year-old man’s corpse was found in his car by an attendant patrolling the area.
He had driven to the hospital for an appointment on Thursday last week but was not discovered until shortly after 11am on Saturday.

His Ford Fiesta was parked in a disabled parking area and a hospital spokesman said, although this was regularly patrolled, it was not unusual for cars to remain for a longer period of time without raising suspicion.

‘Contrary to information printed in some media, the gentleman was not slumped across the steering wheel of the car,’ the spokesman added. ‘All CCTV has been passed to the police and, therefore, we cannot say with any certainty how long he had been in his car.’

Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, Devon, but say they are not treating it as suspicious ‘at this time’. The deceased is believed to have been from the Leigham area of the city and his next of kin has been informed.

Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust said the man was not visible to anyone walking past. When he was found near the outpatients department, the trust’s emergency response team attended before paramedics and police were called. Car park operator Vinci Park UK has yet to comment.

The NHS - Run For The Patients?

Picture the scene - Southend Hospital's phlebotomy service:

Under the automated system, outpatients have to book in and get a number from a touch screen before waiting for their number to come up on another screen.

They must then proceed to the hospital’s phlebotomy department on the mezzanine floor, where they face another wait for the number to come up again.

And woe betide you if this system doesn't suit your personal circumstances:

Rosemary Debenham was waiting with her daughter and grandson, who needed a blood test, when the drama unfolded.

Mrs Debenham said: “An elderly gentleman with two walking sticks came into the upstairs department. He said as he was not very mobile and he was frightened of missing his slot, he would wait upstairs until his number was called.”

What could possibly go wrong?

“He was told it could be a two-hour wait, but he was quite happy with this saying he had a newspaper and was content to wait.

“A member of staff then told him he had to wait downstairs and if he didn’t go he would call security. The elderly gentleman was then forcibly removed by security from the upstairs department.”

NHS staff. Angels, all.

Are You Sure It Wasn’t A Siberian Filigree Hamster?

Staff spotted Mr Ketley stumbling around a corridor with the rat hanging from his neck by its teeth and nurses knocked it off and killed it. Hospital officials said it was a field mouse.

Ah, yes, the well-known man-eating field mouse…

But his mother Pat Boardman told the Mirror: "That's an outrageous claim. He had large, open bite marks.

"I'm appalled that this sort of thing could happen to my son in an NHS hospital in this day and age.

"He was completely helpless and terrified. It's a disgrace. He was very scared and the staff had to show him they had killed the rat to prove it could no longer hurt him."

The field mouse, I guess you mean? If you know what's good for you....

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

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?

"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....

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...

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.”

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…

…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

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