Category Archives: health
Norman Lamb MP responds to the Francis Report
Norman Lamb MP writes…The government will act in response to the Francis Report
Over the course of four years at Mid Staffordshire hospital, hundreds of patients suffered from appalling neglect and mistreatment. Relatives that voiced concerns were ignored; staff that tried to speak up were silenced. It was a shocking betrayal of trust of patients and their families.
Yesterday Robert Francis QC published his report into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. The public inquiry lasted more than two years, heard over 250 witness statements, considered over one million pages of documentary evidence, and has produced a report nearly two thousand pages long. It makes 290 separate recommendations.
The story of Mid Staffs, the report says, is one of “terrible and unnecessary suffering of hundreds of people who were failed by a system which ignored the warning signs of poor care and put corporate self interest and cost control ahead of patients and their safety.” The overriding message is the need for a culture change across the NHS to make sure that patients always come first.
Campaigning for Justice after the harrowing death of her mother
Mum’s death meant I HAD to fight for justice, says woman who spearheaded campaign after the death of her mother at Stafford Hospital
By Julie Bailey
PUBLISHED: 22:37, 6 February 2013 | UPDATED: 08:55, 7 February 2013
Long fight: Julie Bailey, who has campaigned for justice at Stafford Hospital since her mother Bella died there in 2007
After the harrowing death of her mother at Stafford Hospital, Julie Bailey campaigned to bring those responsible to account. Yesterday, her courage was finally vindicated.
The other night, I had a recurring dream – one which comes back to haunt me regularly, and leaves me sweat-drenched, shaken and bereft.
A nurse is standing in front of me, hands planted firmly on her hips, refusing to fetch the drugs which will save my mother’s life. Mum is gasping for breath, her rheumy eyes gazing at me in terror and her nails digging into my hand.
The nurse is ignoring her dying gasps, but is shouting at me instead. ‘I’ll decide when to call a doctor,’ she screams.
Then, without fail, I wake up and remember that most of my dream did happen. But in reality, no doctor was fetched. My mother died within hours – in a Third World hellhole known as Stafford Hospital.
Yesterday, the long-awaited report into failings at the hospital found that between 400 and 1,200 patients died needlessly.
My 86-year-old mother Bella was one of them. She passed away on November 8, 2007, and from the moment I lost her, I’ve fought to expose the indifference, cruelty and neglect which I witnessed over eight horrendous weeks when I refused to leave her side in the ward.
Mum was admitted to Stafford Hospital that September with a hernia. When I left her, I asked the nurse if she could be given something for her pain. But when I returned the next morning, Mum was agitated.
Medical staff to be made personally liable for their care they provide to their patients
They could also be prosecuted if they break a new statutory duty of ‘candour’ requiring openness with patients, families and healthcare regulator
, Wednesday 06 February 2013
Doctors, nurses and hospital managers should face criminal prosecution if they fail to provide basic standards of safe care to their patients, a landmark report recommends today.
The Francis Report into the lessons to be learnt from the scandal of Stafford Hospital calls for all medical staff to be made personally liable for their care they provide to their patients, and for a “zero tolerance” approach to poor standards.
They could also be prosecuted if they break a new statutory duty of “candour” which would require health professional to be honest with patients, families and healthcare regulators.
The inquiry chaired by Robert Francis QC was set up to assess the wider lessons to be learnt by the NHS from the Staffordshire scandal where up to 1,200 patients died unnecessarily because of widespread failings in both Mid Staffordshire Trust and the wider NHS.
He made a total of 290 sweeping recommendations for healthcare regulators, providers and the Government in his 1,782 page report. Among its main recommendations are:
* A new register for health care support workers – the lowest rung of caring staff in the NHS – which would be able to “strike off” poorly performing staff. There would also be a code of conduct and new minimum training standards for such staff.
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