R2OK! Forum Index R2OK!
Contact R2OK! admin

Click here for R2OK! Website


 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Stafford Hospital Failures

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    R2OK! Forum Index -> News and Current Affairs
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
iwarburton



Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 2133
Location: Northumberland

PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 5:12 pm    Post subject: Stafford Hospital Failures Reply with quote

Two thoughts, both arising from letters in today's Telegraph:

1. When I worked in NHS Management, up to 1999, we enjoyed a good working relationship with the local Community Health Council, which acted as the patient's voice and had wide-ranging rights to visit wards/departments/premises and question managers about what it found there. I knew that CHCs had been abolished but understood that they had been replaced by similar public participation groups. Now it appears that no such machinery may have existed for over a year. Why?

2. There is a sentence in one of the letters which I think should be printed in twenty-foot letters in every hospital foyer in the UK and it reads:

Accountants should be returned to their function of keeping the books and not be allowed to subordinate everything to their agenda.

Ian.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
gfloyd



Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 4861
Location: Here, There, Everywhere.

PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 5:32 pm    Post subject: Re: Stafford Hospital Failures Reply with quote

iwarburton wrote:


Accountants should be returned to their function of keeping the books and not be allowed to subordinate everything to their agenda.

Ian.


Accountants aren't responsible for the targets and their reporting. That would be general management. Anyway its easy to blame others. Everybody has to live with budgets and limits, but it doesnt mean they do the things that Staffordshire did.
_________________
His name was ernie ........ and he drove the fastest milk cart in the west.....
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
iwarburton



Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 2133
Location: Northumberland

PostPosted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 3:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for comments and I take your point. I don't think either the letter writer or I was trying to blame only accountants, when the baleful medicine dished out at Stafford has clearly been concocted by many. But it is the fact that, towards the end of my time in the NHS, the professional opinions of staff working in direct patient contact were continually taking second place to the wishes of the accountants, particularly in the field of recruitment. Delays in recruitment equal not enough staff on the ground equal...I rest my case.

Ian.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
gfloyd



Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 4861
Location: Here, There, Everywhere.

PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 12:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well only the Red Army employs more people than the NHS so if they dont have enough staff to deliver proper medical care already then I dont know how they ever will.
_________________
His name was ernie ........ and he drove the fastest milk cart in the west.....
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
colby



Joined: 06 Feb 2009
Posts: 1216

PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 12:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

gfloyd wrote:
Well only the Red Army employs more people than the NHS...


There's still a Red Army in Russia?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
iwarburton



Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 2133
Location: Northumberland

PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 2:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well only the Red Army employs more people than the NHS so if they dont have enough staff to deliver proper medical care already then I dont know how they ever will.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Could the problem be the deployment of the staff rather than their number?

In my neck of the woods in 1999 there were far too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

Ian.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
BDG



Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 202

PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In addition to the above there was the case of the poor Downs Syndrome man who died in hospital and it came to light he hadn't been fed for 26 days!! I don't care how many chiefs or Indians there are or not there is no excuse for that from the front line staff.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
iwarburton



Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 2133
Location: Northumberland

PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 8:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had a look at a relevant website which confirmed that Patients' Voice forums are not currently active and was very vague about what, if anything, had replaced them.

This is a really worrying development.

If the Community Health Councils still existed, I might well have been interested in offering to serve on the local one and feel that I could have had something to offer, given that my work background was NHS for over 30 years. But I just wouldn't know where to start on this one now.

Ian.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
BDG



Joined: 08 Dec 2006
Posts: 202

PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 5:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Ian

It all seems to be PALS lately doesn't it? Which isn't quite the same thing.

It might be worth emailing your MP about it. Also I'm tracking the progress of the current Health Bill amendments going through parliament for different reasons so I don't know if there are any amendments in that to rectify this. It's quite interesting because you can see all the discussions currently going on in the House of Lords in quite specific detail, they seem to have more sensible ones than the House of Commons.

On the Dept of Health site it refers to the following act regarding patient and public involvement act 2007 might be worth reading that :

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Managingyourorganisation/PatientAndPublicinvolvement/DH_085874

If you scroll down on the link above it gives you the explanation they give for doing away with CHC's and how it is now split into 4 groups! Which probably accounts for why it is less affective. One option might be to consider becoming a voluntary advocate?

CHC these days in Health is close to my heart and refers to Continuing Health Care!

The other person to write to is Lord Darzi he is the Minister spear-heading all the changes they are pushing ahead with.

I spend a lot of time on the Dept of Health website for personal reasons to do with getting my head around some of the legislation that affects my daughter. Good luck and I think if you have something to offer on a voluntary basis this is most welcome and I hope there is some way in which you can become involved. Good on you.

Regarding the case of the Downs man I think they were bordering on criminal neglect, maybe a prosecution like that is what is needed to wake the whole thing up. I can't see that it is any different then for example people have been prosecuted for corporate neglect resulting in loss of life in other situations.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    R2OK! Forum Index -> News and Current Affairs All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group. Hosted by phpBB.BizHat.com