Tag Archives: Older care
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.
