Abuse and bullying.
Whistleblower doctors 'punished by mafia code'
David Tredinnick MP said “a mafia code, an omerta” rules the medical
profession. “If you do anything against the status quo of the organisation
you are finished. That is something that has to be broken,” he said.
Doctors are scared of speaking out when patients are put at risk because
they fear ruining their careers, the head of the new hospitals regulator has
said.
Not one senior medic raised concerns about failings of care during the Mid
Staffordshire scandal, David Prior, the chairman of the Care Quality
Commission, said.
MPs yesterday claimed the medical profession is ruled by a “mafia code” that
means whistleblowers are “finished” by their colleagues.
“One of the things I’ve learnt over the past six months is to be a
whistleblower you’ve got to be very, very brave. I’ve spoken to a couple of
surgeons who are alpha male types whose careers have been severely limited
because they expressed concerns about what was going on in their hospitals,”
Mr Prior told the Commons Health Select Committee yesterday.
“The most chilling phrase, after the Francis Report into Mid Staffs, was a
very distinguished clinician saying ‘Where were the doctors?’.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/10397842/Whistleblower-doctors-punished-by-mafia-code.html
BMA Scotland leader Dr Lewis Morrison: 'I
wouldn't encourage doctors to whistleblow'
DOCTORS are scared they will be victimised if they speak up about
issues affecting patient safety, a leading medic has warned.
Dr Lewis Morrison, chair of BMA Scotland, said he did not feel the trade
union could encourage its members to whistleblow because the response is
"not necessarily a good one for the individual".
The findings - which come in the wake of claims that NHS Highland has been
blighted by a "culture of fear and intimidation" for the past decade -
triggered BMA Scotland to launch its own research to determine what form
bullying is taking, and why it is happening.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17403735.bma-scotland-leader-dr-lewis-morrison-i-wouldnt-encourage-doctors-to-whistleblow/
The Health Service watchdog has ordered a
hospital trust to investigate its own boss following claims he attempted to
cover up the death of a baby with sepsis.
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust has been told it must look
into whether Robert Woolley is a 'fit and proper' chief executive following
the tragedy.
Ben Condon had two cardiac arrests while battling an undiagnosed bacterial
infection, which had triggered sepsis.
The eight-week-old boy had not been prescribed antibiotics until an hour
before his death at Bristol Children's Hospital in 2015.
Staff were later recorded admitting he should have had the medication
earlier.
The Health Service watchdog has ordered a hospital trust to investigate its
own boss following claims he attempted to cover up the death of a baby with
sepsis.
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust has been told it must look
into whether Robert Woolley is a 'fit and proper' chief executive following
the tragedy.
Ben Condon had two cardiac arrests while battling an undiagnosed bacterial
infection, which had triggered sepsis.
The eight-week-old boy had not been prescribed antibiotics until an hour
before his death at Bristol Children's Hospital in 2015.
Staff were later recorded admitting he should have had the medication
earlier.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6356471/Hospital-boss-probed-cover-baby-boys-death.html
Southern Health fined £2 million over deaths of
two patients-BBC
17 December 2015 - The report is officially published and shows out of 722
unexpected deaths over four years, only 272 were properly investigated
6 April 2016 - The Care Quality Commission (CQC) issues a warning notice to
significantly improve protection for mental health patients
29 April 2016 - A full CQC inspection report is published which says the
trust is continuing to put patients at risk
30 June 2016 - Following a review of the management team competencies, it is
announced that the trust's boss Katrina Percy is to keep her job
29 July 2016 - The BBC reveals the trust paid millions of pounds in
contracts to companies owned by previous associates of Ms Percy
30 August 2016 - Ms Percy announces she is standing down as chief executive,
but is staying on in an advisory role
19 September 2016 - Interim chairman Tim Smart resigns after admitting he
created a job for Ms Percy
7 October 2016 - Ms Percy resigns completely from the trust
13 December 2016 - A CQC report, the culmination of a one-year inquiry, says
investigations into patient deaths are inadequate
16 March 2017 - All the non-executive directors resign from trust
19 August 2017 - A medical tribunal finds a doctor failed to carry out risk
assessments for Connor Sparrowhawk
Southern Health NHS Trust 'paid millions' to Katrina Percy's associates
A troubled NHS trust has paid millions of pounds to companies owned by
previous associates of its embattled chief executive, BBC News has learned.
One firm received more than £5m despite winning a contract valued at less
than £300,000, while another was paid more than £500,000 without bidding at
all.
Both are owned by former acquaintances of Southern Health NHS Trust's chief
executive Katrina Percy.
The trust said it took its financial responsibilities "very seriously".
'Failure of leadership'
The BBC has also learned Southern Health has access to the services of
former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell, after it hired Portland
Communications to help with its ongoing problems.
Mr Jesudason was a consultant in the paediatric surgery department at Alder Hey Children’s hospital in Liverpool when in 2009 he became concerned about patient safety and what he describes as a culture of fear and bullying.
One in five NHS doctors were victims of
bullying or harassment last year, a major survey has found.
The problem leads to doctors losing confidence, and harms their careers and
personal lives, leading them to take time off sick, the report by the
British Medical Association revealed.
Its survey of 7,887 doctors of all grades across the UK found that 39%
believe that bullying, harassment or undermining behaviour occurs in their
main place of work and is a problem. Of those, 10% said it was “often” a
problem while 29% it occurred “sometimes”.
A fifth said they had experienced such behaviour during the past year, but
only 33% said they or a colleague had reported incidents to their employer.
“I struggled to function, felt physically sick, emotionally broken. I used
to cry on the way to work. [I] prayed that a truck would flatten my car,”
said a former trainee GP.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/01/nhs-doctors-bullying-abuse-bma-survey
And when he was admitted to hospital after taking an overdose she said words to the effect of: "He should have taken a few more pills and done the job properly", the panel was told. She also reportedly said: "I don't care if she lives or dies" when another colleague was taken to hospital with a head injury.
Determining the facts of the case against Ms Turner, the panel also ruled that she uttered racially motivated comments about Asian junior doctors, accusing them of carrying bombs in their rucksacks or calling them "suicide bombers".
The head of the health watchdog, Dame Jo Williams, cast doubt about the mental stability of a high-profile whistleblower who she wanted the Health Secretary to remove from the board, The Independent can reveal.
Kay Sheldon, a non-executive director of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), was subject to ‘priority monitoring' and declared a ‘risk’ to the regulator after she had raised concerns that public safety was being compromised by poor leadership and performance.
Internal documents show the plan to unseat Mrs Sheldon began as soon as she spoke out at the public inquiry into the scandal at Mid Staffordshire hospital last November.
The same day as that testimony was delivered, Dame Jo Williams, the CQC chair, immediately wrote to Andrew Lansley recommending that Ms Sheldon be “immediately” suspended and “urgently” replaced.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/exclusive-nhs-watchdog-claimed-that-whistleblower-kay-sheldon-was-mentally-ill-8046640.html
A former Care Quality Commission boss has been appointed as chair of Alder Hey Children’s Foundation Trust.
Dame Jo Williams, who has been a non-executive director at the specialist trust since 2016, will replace Sir David Henshaw, who is stepping down after eight years.
Prior to joining Alder Hey she held several senior roles, including chief executive of Mencap and chair of the CQC.
She resigned as CQC chair in 2012 after unsuccessfully trying to have a non-executive director, Kay Sheldon, sacked after she gave evidence critical of the CQC’s leadership to the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust public inquiry. The then health secretary Andrew Lansley declined Dame Jo’s request.
She was then forced to apologise about comments she made about Ms Sheldon’s mental health while giving evidence in public to the health select committee. In his final report Sir Robert Francis QC was highly critical of the CQC under Dame Jo’s chairmanship.
https://www.hsj.co.uk/alder-hey-childrens-nhs-foundation-trust/ex-cqc-boss-appointed-as-trust-chair/7024325.article
Stafford campaigner puts cafe up for sale on Ebay
Julie's mother Bella was one of hundreds of patients found to have died needlessly at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust between 2005 and 2008. It led to her forming the campaign group Cure the NHS which pushed for a public inquiry into the higher than normal death rates at Stafford Hospital.
Last month she said she wanted to move away from the town because she's being abused and she's too scared to carry on living there. Julie claims her mother's grave has been vandalised and that she's received death threats.
This is what happens when similarly (to Renfrewshire CHP) low quality individuals are allowed to take control of an NHS hospital . I communicated with the victim of this on Facebook and he told me the management were (all) nurses. They were advised by doctors, but it was the nurse managers that orchestrated the vile, Dickensian cruelty.
HOSPITAL HORRORS: Patient locked in cell with no toilet, food or water
Stratheden Hospital, a mental health unit, has been heavily criticised by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) following a string of failures.
The watchdog also reported that staff at the NHS facility dragged terrified Daniel Muirhead between wards in just his underwear and failed to appropriately monitor his wellbeing after he was dumped in a seclusion room.
The Sunday Express understands the findings, which follow a year-long probe, will be handed to police for further investigation.Last night furious patient campaigners expressed their shock and disgust at the 11-page SPSO dossier, describing the treatment as “cruel”.
Some claim that there was more than neglect going on at Lennox Castle
Hospital. Former patients recall being given unnecessarily cruel punishments
for small offences. Incidents included being struck with a baseball bat and
being made to run laps barefoot around the castle, just for forgetting to
address a staff member as “sir”.
Those who attempted to run away would be caught and locked up in isolation
for up to six weeks, drugged with heavy doses of medication, and refused
contact with visitors. Patients who didn’t need drugs were given them, as a
way of ensuring they remained calm and didn’t cause trouble in the
overcrowded conditions. In reality, only around 10 per cent of the
hospital’s residents genuinely required anti-psychotic drugs. There are
several reports of patients dying or being seriously injured due to the lack
of care at Lennox Castle Hospital.
One man was found set alight in the bathroom in the middle of the night and
died the following day. Another was seriously injured when a nurse threw a
scalding cup of tea on him, while a heart attack (brought on by severe
distress while being physically restrained) resulted in another patient’s
death.
The final report is a horror story. It shows how lackadaisical some hospital staff can be, and how dysfunctional many complaints procedures are. "I found a confused system, where the NHS was judge and jury, and where the strategic intent seemed to be to destroy the complaint," writes one respondent. "I tried to attract the attention of the nurses, but found the entire nursing team bidding at the end of an eBay auction," adds another.
It wasn't just nurses Clwyd's respondents find wanting: "The attitude of the consultant varied between pompous, arrogant and condescending. This was a man with a trail of young doctors in tow, moulding them… in the same uncaring way," says one person. It would be interesting to know the names of the hospitals concerned – and whether these appalling practices are clustered in a few places – but the report does not reveal that.
Across the board, those surveyed by Clwyd felt they were "outgunned by a powerful and monolithic organisation". Many people were too nervous to complain about the treatment they'd received, with 40% saying they feared retaliation. Perhaps it's no surprise – an octogenarian sister-in-law of mine was confronted in a Cambridge hospital after a serious car accident by a furious nurse, who said: "You have lodged a complaint against me."
When patients do pluck up the courage to raise concerns, the typical hospital reaction is to deny, defend and delay. It's a terrible situation, and it's nothing new.
Furness General Hospital scandal
Among the findings, the CQC was "accused of quashing an internal review that uncovered weaknesses in its processes" and had allegedly "deleted the review of their failure to act on concerns about University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust." One CQC employee claimed that he was instructed by a senior manager "to destroy his review because it would expose the regulator to public criticism."[17] The report concluded: "We think that the information contained in the [deleted] report was sufficiently important that the deliberate failure to provide it could properly be characterised as a 'cover-up'.
Furness nurses to face hearings
One of the midwives – who dubbed themselves the 'musketeers' – has been promoted to 'risk manager' of the maternity unit at Furness General Hospital in Cumbria where, according to a major report, a 'dysfunctional culture' led to the deaths of at least 11 babies and one mother between 2004 and 2013.Another faces being struck off over failings she made – years after the scandal first emerged – which left a newborn 'gasping' for life.
The investigation into deaths at Furness general hospital in Barrow between 2004 and 2013 found maternity services were beset by a culture of denial, collusion and incompetence. Work inside the unit was found to be “seriously dysfunctional”, with poor levels of clinical competence, extremely poor working relationships and a determination among midwives to pursue normal childbirth “at any cost”. The midwives at Furness general were so cavalier they became known as “the musketeers”.
Health watchdog spent £250,000 on lawyers to hide information from bereaved
father
James Titcombe exposed a baby deaths scandal at Morecambe Bay, and an
ensuing cover-up by NHS authorities, which led to an overhaul of the system
of inspection. His son Joshua died in 2008, aged just nine days, when
midwives Holly Parkinson and Lindsey Biggs repeatedly missed chances to spot
and treat an infection.
Midwives who dubbed themselves “the musketeers” colluded to hide failings
which caused the avoidable deaths of at least 11 babies and one mother, an
investigation found.
This is a nurse's horrifying comments on James Titcombe's book
no doubt sensationalised out of all recognition of the truth to suit. Shouldn't the Health Sec be impartial?
https://twitter.com/emjoanne2002/status/670954677601701889
'Our baby son died due to NHS error' BBC video.
More than 1,400 mistakes are being recorded by maternity staff in hospitals in England every week. Adam and Sarah lost their son after an NHS error.
Watchdog told to have a heart for grieving parents - Sunday Times
In a letter to Dame Julie Mellor, the parliamentary and health service ombudsman (PHSO), Hunt criticised her for treating bereaved relatives with a lack of compassion and sensitivity. He has demanded that she be more “humane” in the way she deals with families who have lost loved ones because of NHS errors.
Hunt’s intervention was prompted by the allegedly hostile manner in which the ombudsman had treated James Titcombe whose baby, Joshua, had died after NHS staff failed to treat him for an infection, as revealed by the Morecambe Bay NHS Trust baby death scandal.
This is a short piece on my (near) involvement with nurse education.
Mums and babies died because of shameful neglect at two maternity hospitals
- the secret report they didn’t want you to see
The report on North Manchester General and Royal Oldham hospitals details
horrendous incidents - including a baby being left to die alone in a sluice
room
The NHS must stop victimising bereaved families
Bereaved families of systemic failure-related deaths have far too often become second victims, due to the NHS’s misguided secrecy and focus on reputation management, writes Shaun Lintern
Losing a loved one is painful enough especially when that loss results from a mistake, a system error, or worse, clinical negligence. In too many cases the NHS fails to be open and transparent with grieving families, compounding their loss with obfuscation and secrecy. Insult is literally added to injury for people who, in the most part, are just desperate for the truth about what happened – as well as an assurance that it won’t be repeated.
The woman was knocked face down to the floor by a male nurse in a psychiatric hospital, according to a witness.
Three members of staff are said to have then held her down.
The Central and North West London NHS trust said a member of staff had been removed from clinical duties while the incident was investigated.
The alleged incident occurred on the night of 10 July while a former adviser to the health secretary on patient safety was an inpatient at the unit.
The former adviser, Alison Cameron, said that while the woman, who was eight and a half months pregnant, was being verbally aggressive she hadn't made any physical threats.
"A male nurse came marching over from the treatment room to the dayroom," said Ms Cameron.
TWITTER"He was threatening the woman saying 'If I hear your voice again, I will, I will...' and without finishing his sentence, he physically manhandled the woman from her seat to the floor. Three other members of staff then pinned her down."
It's ruined my career': accounts of bullying in the NHS
Midwives, nurses, doctors, managers and other healthcare professionals speak
out about the bullying they suffered and the effect on their health and
wellbeing. I raised concerns after seeing nurses bully me and patients but
it got me nowhere. The nurse/nurses that bullied me also bully patients. I
raised concerns regarding the bullying and its infringement to patient care
and safety using the whistleblowing policy. My superior claimed to have
known the bullying had gone on for years; however she did not want to call
it “bullying”. She intimidated me to drop the concern and the nurse/nurses
in question are still working.
‘Bullying and being bullied is everywhere now, at every level in the NHS’
Domineering behaviour and sexism have dogged the medical profession,
especially among surgeons. Now victims are being taught to fight back
“I know of surgeons who have considered taking their own lives, others who
have left the profession because of bullying surgeons’ bad practice going
unchallenged. Of course, the ultimate downside to all of this is patient
wellbeing being compromised.”
Evans’s concerns about bullying, particularly among surgeons, are backed up
by studies. A quarter of doctors say they have experienced bullying,
harassment or abuse from other staff in the past 12 months, according to
last year’s NHS England staff survey.One in six trainee surgeons, who
responded to a web survey, say they suffer from bullying-related
post-traumatic stress disorder that is so bad it can leave them suicidal,
according to a paper published this summer in the Surgeon journal.
NHS England is to review midwives’ investigations into colleagues’ mistakes
after an official report found the truth about a baby’s death was covered up
for six years - Sunday Times.
The mother of the baby has told how her fight to force the NHS to admit failures in care and take action to prevent other babies being harmed has destroyed her life.
Kate Stanton-Davies died in 2009 after being born at Ludlow’s midwife-led unit, part of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.
The birth unit was staffed only by midwives. An inquest ruled that Kate could have survived if she had been born at a hospital staffed by obstetricians. An investigation into the baby’s death was carried out by Angela Hughes, a supervisor of midwives employed by the trust. She concluded that there was “no breach in the duty of care
It blames a "failure of leadership" at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. It says the deaths of mental health and learning-disability patients were not properly examined. Southern Health said it "fully accepted" the quality of processes for investigating and reporting a death needed to be better, but had improved.
The trust is one of the country's largest mental health trusts, covering Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and providing services to about 45,000 people.
Jailing Rebecca Jones, 31, and Lauro Bertulano, 46, the judge Tom Crowther QC said the pair had betrayed patients and their families. “This was not a failure to do your job, but a failure of compassion and humanity,” he said. The judge described the crimes as “clear-eyed and calculated deception”, and said they were simply carried out to make the defendants’ working time easier.
Jones and Bertulano submitted bogus blood glucose readings instead of carrying out proper tests and recording accurate notes on a specialist stroke ward. Jones falsified 51 entries for nine elderly patients and Bertulano made 26 bogus readings for six gravely ill patients at the Princess of Wales hospital in Bridgend, south Wales.
Gareth Williams, whose mother, Lillian, died, aged 82, after having her records falsified by all three nurses, said: “It was a shambles, a complete and utter shambles. They would often sit at the nearest seat drinking tea and staring at their mobile phones while patients went unheeded. Each dreadful day was just an eternity that seemed to merge into one horrible nightmare.”
The retrospectoscope has made it blindingly obvious that I was the victim of an abusive relationship. I spent my time as a junior doctor being controlled, belittled, treated as property and threatened. The current generation of doctors have had it even harder. They have left university with tens of thousands of pounds of debt due to tuition fees and the decrease in maintenance grants.
The satisfaction of team working and the apprenticeships of training have been eroded through shift work and the ever increasing bureaucratic intensity of work in the NHS. They also know that life as a consultant or GP is now less rewarding than it was, due to the increasing controls, demands and threats of the NHS.
Baby death families excluded from review- BBC
In November, the health secretary ordered a review of the "unnecessary"
deaths of six babies at Crosshouse hospital in Ayrshire since 2008.
But the BBC has learned it will only look at cases that have happened since
December 2013.
The review is being carried out by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS).
One mother, who did not want to named, said: "The mistakes and failings in
the notes were shocking."
"Luckily the first staff to speak to us were very open and honest.
"It was clear I was having a placental abruption, there is no way that it
could have been mistaken.
"There should have been no hesitation in delivery as this is the only method
in dealing with an abruption."
She added: "When someone loses a child at the hands of our NHS the very
least that should be expected is honesty and clarity.
"I may have had this but really it has proven to be a complete waste of time
because nothing changed.
"They said they would learn from our daughter's death but then Lucas Morton
and other babies died in similar circumstances.
"And because she died before 2013 they've said we can't be included in the
review.
"I feel the HIS report, like the previous ones, is not going to change the
practice at this hospital as no-one is ever held accountable."
NHS staff who blow the whistle on substandard and dangerous practices are being ignored, bullied or even intimidated in a “climate of fear”, according to an independent review. A significant proportion of health workers are afraid to blow the whistle about poor patient care and safety failures in the NHS, the government commissioned inquiry, which documented “shocking” accounts of the treatment of whistbleblowers found.
The dedicated NHS doctor they tried to gag then destroy: His dream
career left in tatters, his family life ruined and his legal bills
crippling... after he blew the whistle on a hospital that left its
patients in grave danger
It was Chris Day's dream to become a consultant in A&E medicine
But that all changed when Chris reported staffing levels were 'unsafe'
at night
His concerned phone call left his career in tatters and sparked a legal
battle
NHS agencies have accused him of having 'personal and professional'
issues
The Court of Appeal ruled Chirs can finally see an employment tribunal
Rather than support his claim, NHS agencies accused him of having
‘personal and professional conduct issues’, removed his right to
continue training and used the full weight of the law against him –
destroying his promising career.
But in a landmark legal victory last week, the Court of Appeal ruled
that Chris is finally allowed to bring his case to an employment
tribunal. Not only that, the decision granted all of the country’s
54,000 junior doctors reassurance that they too are protected by
whistleblowing laws and should not be victimised for exposing NHS
failings.
Yet the win has come at a huge personal cost. ‘This has robbed us, as a
family,’ says Chris, speaking for the first time since the ruling. ‘In
the time it has taken to change British law for everyone else, in a case
which will hopefully improve patient safety by allowing junior doctors
to come forward with concerns, my family has paid the price.
If GPs meet targets for monitoring conditions they get extra funds
Mary Kerswell was handcuffed and taken away by police when she demanded to see her notes
Helen Wilkinson discovered she had been labelled an alcoholic."
See also
The woman falsely labelled alcoholic by the NHS -Guardian
Helen Wilkinson was mistakenly labelled an alcoholic after a simple computer error by the NHS. An unknown official at a hospital was updating her medical records and inputted a wrong code. The mix-up meant she was recorded as having received treatment for alcoholism, instead of surgery.
The comments on the Mail page show clear hostility to the medical
profession. This article puts numbers on it. My experience leads me to
believe the most likely reason for this massive upsurge in complaints to
the GMC is the arrogance and low quality of younger doctors.
Complaints about doctors 'double in five years'
The number of complaints against doctors in the UK has doubled in the
past five years, figures show.
The data from the General Medical Council showed there were more than
8,100 complaints in 2012, compared with just under 4,000 in 2007.
About a third of complaints led to a full investigation by the
regulator.
A report complied for the GMC to investigate the reasons behind the
large rise in complaints has found that patients are now showing less
deference to their doctor and are more willing to contact the regulator.
Complaints from the public to the GMC doubled between 2007 and 2012 to
reach around 6,000 it was found.
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
They listen (I think) but choose not to hear then repeatedly fob you off with excuses and do nothing. No point complaining: waste of time and effort. This Trust hurt me far more than if I'd never been in contact with them, they are dangerous and cruel.
Tunbridge Wells Hospital nurse hits out at 'culture of intimidation'
"The nurse, who the Courier agreed not to name, said the problem was made worse by a culture of intimidation. She said one student nurse, who complained to management after she witnessed nurses ignoring a "red tray system" used to indicate patients needed feeding, was told her training would be threatened if she continued with the complaint.Meanwhile she said doctors and nurses who made clinical decisions were being bullied into changing their minds.
"You can write it all down – state your case why a patient is not fit to leave hospital, and then you get management crashing down on you. The pressure is always on. The consultants are under pressure. The doctors are worn out by constantly being told to get their patients out of hospital," she said. And she said she had known patients discharged straight from the intensive care ward without any rehabilitation.
Since 2010, NHS bullying has further increased. According to the NHS national staff survey, the proportion of staff reporting being bullied, harassed and abused by colleagues and managers rose from 14% in 2010 to 22% in 2013. Staff surveyed said under half of these cases were reported while the proportion of cases being reported fell from 54% in 2004 to 44% last year. Bullying damages staff health and costs employers sick pay and turnover. Crucially, it is also bad for patient care. Staff are less likely to raise concerns and admit mistakes if there is a culture of blame and bullying.
Recent research found “a strong negative correlation between whether staff report harassment, bullying or abuse from other staff in the NHS staff survey and overall patient experience” and “a strong negative correlation between whether, in the NHS staff survey, staff reported harassment, bullying or abuse from other staff and whether patients reported being treated with dignity and respect”.
NHS whistleblowers 'gagged and blacklisted', says petition group
NHS whistleblowers face being “fired, gagged and blacklisted” while
disclosures go uninvestigated owing to the healthcare regulator’s lack of
powers and resources, a group of doctors, staff and patients has warned.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) was criticised for being “low value” by
the group, which has called for radical change in how the health service is
regulated.
In a letter to the Times, the group, which has exposed huge failings, said
the CQC had failed to detect poor care and governance since it replaced the
Healthcare Commission in 2009. It cited an example where an inspection of a
foundation trust cost £273,900 but failed to spot hundreds of uninvestigated
deaths.
NHS must tackle ‘toxic’ bullying culture – Lord Prior
Health minister Lord Prior of Brampton has said the NHS must make more of an effort to tackle the ‘toxic’ culture of bullying among staff. Speaking at the King’s Fund’s Better Value Healthcare conference yesterday, the former chair of the CQC said that the national staff survey revealed a quarter of employees have been victimised by colleagues, a rate he said is unheard of in other organisations.
He stated that the NHS has to make more effort to tackle bullying among staff, but should not move to a “blame free” culture. “We are not talking about a blame free culture, but a just culture, somewhere between a blame culture and blame free culture,” he said. “There’s something about the culture in the NHS that needs to change….staff experience is a critical indicator of whether an organisation is performing well. “Too many people in the NHS have been switched off; the level of bullying in the NHS, in the NHS staff survey, is 24%. When bullying levels got to 16% in the Royal Mail, they hit the panic button.”
Also set out plans to tackle abuse of NHS staff. Shocking that 25% of staff reported harassment or bullying last year. #PHE2015
Doctors have claimed that patient care may be damaged if a culture of “over prescribing and over-treating” emerges in an attempt to guard against any threat of prosecution.
CQC cover-up scandal: 'It couldn't be any worse'
The father of baby Joshua Titcombe, who died in hospital, tells Channel 4 News he felt physically sick on learning that Cynthia Bower ordered the CQC failings cover-up and calls for a wider inquiry. It has taken five years for the truth to come out - five years since nine-day old baby Joshua died from a treatable infection at Furness hospital, part of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust. But despite the recent report, questions still remain about what ministers and senior Department of Health officials knew about the failings and the cover-up, Joshua's father, James Titcombe, told.
Legal action over Furness General Hospital deaths
The coroner heard that midwives and medical staff made 10 serious errors that contributed to Joshua's death including a failure to detect and monitor the baby's infection and a failure to provide care before and after birth. "We asked repeatedly if Joshua should have antibiotics and we were told 'No, he didn't'," said Mr Titcombe.
"He was wheezing and he wasn't feeding properly and my wife called the emergency bell because he was grunting."And every time we were told Joshua was fine and that there was nothing to worry about. At no stage was a doctor ever called." Mr Titcombe described how and his wife watched helplessly as Joshua died from sepsis. To make matters worse, Joshua's progress chart went missing, never to re-emerge and the coroner later said there was a suspicion that it may have been deliberately destroyed.
More than 500 doctors at hospitals across Wales answered a BMA survey, with nearly 60% saying they had raised a concern in the previous three months. Of those, more than 60% reported experiencing bullying or harassment as a result. The Welsh government said staff concerns should be addressed.
The survey was sent to 3,000 staff including consultants, junior doctors and specialists between March and May this year, with just over one in six responding. Dr Phil Banfield, chair of the BMA's Welsh council, called the situation "hugely worrying". "Doctors care passionately about their patients and a key part of that is having the confidence to be able to raise concerns on their behalf," he said.
"To make this a reality we need a culture of openness within the NHS, not one where raising concerns can leave doctors feeling harassed or marginalised."
'No action taken'
Of those who raised concerns, nearly 40% reported no action being taken to the best of their knowledge.
Glan Clwyd Hospital: NHS inquiry call after care failings
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has apologised for the "inexcusable and unacceptable" treatment. A spokeswoman said the health board "will be undertaking a full investigation into how this situation could happen to ensure we can prevent something similar in the future".
Tina Donnelly, director of the Royal College of Nursing in Wales, told Radio Wales there now "needs to be very high scrutiny" to make sure people put in place make "changes happen".
Eight members of nursing staff have been suspended on full pay and a "significant" number have also been transferred to other roles.
UNMARRIED mothers, wayward teenagers and Down's Syndrome sufferers were just
some of the people starved, drugged and abused at Lennox Castle in
Lennoxtown.
.
AFTER 21 years in Lennox Castle, psychiatrists admitted they could find
nothing wrong with Marie O’Connor.“I never belonged there, at least I knew
that and that’s why I wanted away,” she says. “Your head is all full of
broken bottles once you realise that you don’t belong.”
Lennox Castle, in Lennoxtown, Dunbartonshire, was less of a mental
institution than a warehouse, where those deemed society’s misfits were
deposited. Truants, unmarried mothers, wayward teenagers and children with
learning difficulties, Down’s syndrome or mental illness all ended up there.
They were starved, drugged, physically and emotionally abused and robbed of
their humanity.
Ex-psychiatric patient speaks of repeated abuse - BBC
A woman who says she was raped more than 50 times while at an NHS psychiatric hospital has told BBC Radio 5 live such institutions are an "open playing field for predators". Catherine told the Victoria Derbyshire programme about being an in-patient at Little Brook Hospital, Kent, several times in 12 months in around 2003. She said she was groomed and repeatedly raped by a care worker at the hospital. A man was later convicted of one count of unlawful intercourse with a patient.
On April 17, at about three in the afternoon, Robert collapsed at home. GP Nicola Flower visited, diagnosed a throat infection that had gone to his chest, and refused to send him to hospital. At 5.30pm, with the boy complaining of stomach pains, Flower returned, refused again to send him to hospital, had an argument with Powell, relented, scribbled a referral note and walked angrily out of the house, leaving Robert's parents to drive their limp son to Swansea. When they arrived at Morriston hospital, some 30 minutes later, staff immediately called the crash team. They subsequently said that, on arrival, Robert was "desperately ill and close to death" and "looked like someone from a concentration camp." The boy died as they tried to revive him.
The Reverend's reaction to being called a liar!
They called the Reverend who witnessed the Addisons letter a liar and paedophile. Demonstrates just how low some doctors can go! :(
Summary of the events following the death of Robbie Powell – Part 1 -- Part 2
The latest MWC figures show while NHS Tayside obtained MHO consent in 80 per cent of cases, in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde the rate was below 30 per cent. Mr McKay said: "We were very concerned to see the low rates of consent from mental health officers across many parts of the country, and in Greater Glasgow and Clyde in particular. “It is unfair for vulnerable people to find that the area of the country in which they live plays such a central role when it comes to knowing whether they will get the support of these specially trained social workers in a crisis situation. They can help make a difficult and frightening situation a little bit easier, and may be able to find ways to avoid the use of detention altogether.
Health inspectors have demanded an independent system for investigating deaths of mental health patients detained in hospitals in England, in a scathing report on how those detained are being treated. Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) say 227 people died in 2014-15 while detained under the Mental Health Act: 182 from natural causes, 34 as a result of suicide, self-harm and other “unnatural” causes, and 11 from unknown causes. Eight of them were under 40.
An NHS mental health taskforce, which includes people using services, is looking at how to improve care over the next five years. The inspectors say: “We would welcome suggestions for the Department of Health to consider establishing a new, fully independent system for investigating all deaths in mental health settings. “We would also welcome proposals for a new framework that sets out standards for staffing, culture, policies and practices for carrying out investigations and ensuring the involvement of families and carers.” The number of times the act is used to detain people is rising. That occurred more than 58,000 times last year, but inspectors say the rights of patients are not always observed. Their records checks on how the act was being implemented found:
"GP labelled hypochondriac criticises colleagues after dying from cancer"
"A
report complied for the GMC to investigate the reasons behind the large
rise in complaints has found that patients are now showing less deference to
their doctor and are more willing to contact the regulator. Complaints from
the public to the GMC doubled between 2007 and 2012 to reach around 6,000 it
was found."
Hospitals, so they argue, are incentivised to get as many patients through
their doors as they can to generate income. This pulls against moves to
treat more people outside hospitals.
Mr Stevens wants to see local health economies run as single entities with
no purchaser/provider split.
Social Care
Under the plans, departments judged inadequate by Ofsted will have six months to improve or be taken over by high-performing councils and charities. "We, the state, are their parents; and we are failing them," David Cameron will say of society's most vulnerable. "It is our duty to put this right," he will add. Councils' failings have been exposed by a series of recent child abuse cases in Rochdale, Rotherham, Derby and Oxfordshire. 'High-calibre graduates' In future, emergency inspections of children's services by the care watchdog Ofsted will be more easily triggered following complaints from whistleblowers or evidence of poor leadership.
Where councils do not make significant improvements within six months, there will be similar measures to those used to deal with failing schools. High-performing councils, including Hampshire, Leeds and Durham, child protection experts and charities will be asked to form trusts to take over the worst children's services and will have powers to get rid of staff.
Some 2,018 babies were involved in such cases in 2013, compared with 802 in 2008, the University of Lancaster said. About half were taken from mothers with other children in care - one woman had 16 children removed - and a third were from women who became mothers as teens. Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said the figures were "worrying". Lead researcher Prof Karen Broadhurst said there had been "a general trend towards taking more timely action" where children could be at risk, but the number of newborns taken into care was "disproportionately increasing".
Rotherham Council 'still in denial' over abuse scandal
A report written by Louise Casey into Rotherham Council has found that it is still "in denial" about the child abuse scandal in the town, and that it is "not fit for purpose."
I exposed the Rochdale scandal – Three Girls should be a catalyst for
progress
Once I began to see the magnitude of the problem, I went out of my way to
tell everyone about it. But it seemed the scale of this crime was something
people just couldn’t face up to. My calls to police were ignored and social
workers told me the girls were making lifestyle choices. At the time I
thought I was going mad. How could no one see we were in the midst of a
major crisis where girls were being raped on an industrial scale?
By now, I would turn up for work at 8.30am to find a huddle of shivering
girls sitting on the steps. They were aged 13 and 14. Their hair was matted,
their clothes were dirty and they looked terrible. But you didn’t really
notice this, as the only thing that properly registered was the fear in
their eyes. They had been taken to Saddleworth Moor the night before,
violently raped by a gang of men and thrown out of the car. They had walked
miles through the night from the South Pennines back to Rochdale to wait for
our centre to open.
We’d make them a cup of tea, take them to a sexual health clinic to test for
and treat sexually transmitted infections and call the police. But, again,
the police didn’t want to know.