Delayed Whistleblowing Syndrome at Mid Staffs Hospital By Coughing Up Managers

By Art De Rivers UserWatch Member

Health Service Journal (HSJ) in the UK deserve some credit for helping NHS managers at Mid Staffs NHS Trust to open up about the appalling standards of care . Does this mean NHS whistle blowing, though delayed beyond saving real lives previously is developing shrilling and thrilling biceps ?

HSJ have created a survey of Mid Staffs managers and shortly this piece will show links to that .

The Mid Staffordshire Hospital's extra 400 deaths (beyond the expected rate) story runs on and on and has shown probably only one consultant had the conscience and foresight to get the mortality figures looked at again. It seems the holy triple spirits of the now defunct Health Care Commission and West Mids Strategic Health Authority ( and Monitor the Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts missed the phenomenon and the 2003 credo of the then Labour's Govt's Secretary of State John Reid's :"Trust Me I am a Patient" went into the health service mortuary too

Health Service Journal :

"6 May, 2009 | Updated: 7 May, 2009 0:00 am

Around half of hospital managers and other staff believe elements of poor standards found at Mid Staffordshire foundation trust exist at their own organisation, a HSJ straw poll suggests.

Fifty-two of 103 respondents - mainly acute managers - said they recognised parts of the poor management and governance highlighted by the Healthcare Commission in March.

Forty-two said they recognised elements of the care standards that were criticised.

Source: hsj.co.uk"

HSJ's survey comes at a time when public pressure led by Julie Bailey and Cure The NHS and now with extra cross party and legal focus is building up a head of steam - and the public are seriously behind it .

Its attracted too the remainder of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum members who were a hardcore leftover from when the Government disbanded them (March 2008) for a new slushier idea of : "Local Involvement Networks" which are not performing well across the UK and some have lost all touch with serious monitoring practice .

But the National Association For LINks Members is trying to re-create some good practice even though that will be a serious mountain to climb . Mount Effectiveness has been made glassier by Gov't and Dept of Health information slides and ice ..

A day ago the public met at Mids Staffordshire though, and the results will be interesting to hear and report on .

Everyone will note in the May 5th 2009 promotion of the public Mid Staff's meeting the lawyers are in presence too ...Leigh Day Solicitors . Hmmmm... Very interesting . Out of the 400 extra dead at Mid Staffs the lawyers may yet well find a case too for corporate manslaughter ..

But Julie Bailey , of Cure the NHS : (quote)

"This site is firstly dedicated to Bella Bailey 16/02/1921 - 08/11/2007 ... and also to the many others who have lost their lives needlessly on wards in Staffordshire General Hospital. We launched this campaign after witnessing 8 weeks of elderly care in this hospital. What we saw after the first few days left us fearing for my Mother's life and too frightened to leave her. We stayed by her side sleeping on a chair for 8 weeks, because we did I believe my Mother stayed alive for those eight weeks. "

(end quote)

whose mother Bella died even though Julie tried to save her and nurse her for eight weeks has instructed Leigh Day solicitors to bring a case against the Secretary of State for Health :

"Update on Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust 01 May 2009

Cure the NHS will be holding a public meeting on 5 May 2009 to discuss the Secretary of State’s announcement to defer his decision of whether to hold a public inquiry into Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust).

Richard Stein and Rosa Curling instructed by Julie Bailey and Chris Dalziel of Cure the NHS wrote a letter before action to the Secretary of State on 27 March 2009 stating that his decision not to hold a public inquiry into the Trust was unlawful under Article 2 and 3 of the Human Rights Act.

Source: leighday.co.uk "

No wonder the managerial birds are singing from their cages ..

A few canaries in offices may well be screaming later ..

Mind you , so did some of the patients , before they died prematurely ..

LINKS :

NALM's Previous Report On LINks In The UK

NALM pdf

NALM August 2008

NHS 400 Deaths God Is Aquitted But Patient Details Not Minuted

Cartoon By Kakatoo

Anything else to be squeezed out from this story ? Oh yes there is - do read on ..

Alan Johnson the Secretary Of State opposes a Public Enquiry into examination of the Mid Staffs NHS Foundation Trust 400 extra patient deaths (beyond the expected rate) . The Health Care Commission took quite a time to reveal the problems at Mid Staffs and the main public whistleblower Julie Bailey (who runs a cafe) with her concerns over the death of her mother Bella quite clearly did an important job of cutting right through the sleeping layers of NHS bureaucracy that surrounded change at Mid Staffs .

The current CEO of the Mid Staffs NHS Trust too opposes a Public Enquiry .

From The Staffordshire Newsletter :

"Mr Morton [CEO] said everyone had been shocked at how bad the report was but he saw no reason for a public inquiry despite calls from MPs and campaigners.

He said: "I think the Healthcare Commission was set up to do exactly what it has done. There is nothing more public than that. There is also the Sir George Alberti investigation, which will last at least four weeks."

UserWatch says : the amazing facts are that there was an Independent Patient and Public Involvement Forum (PPI) up to the time of Mid Staffs bidding to become a Foundation Trust . Two of the lead members of the PPI in fact became FT Governors .

The independent PPI's though were disbanded in March 2008 and ever since a hiatus in independent lay scrutiny has dominated the UK .. Its a Dept of Health and Gov't designer mess now called "LINks" (Local Involvement Networks) and it is not carrying any serious scrutiny weight at all .

What appears to have happened across the UK is "Partnership arrangements" but when you decode this in the company of previous lay scrutineers of health, it pans out to mean , too close a public assimilation into the bureaucratic and managment mechanisms of the State ..

Critically for health the public have to be able to depend on "Independent mindedness" without any conflicts of interest . FT in-house Governors are in fact a weak link to the public and were for the main self appointed and elected unopposed. The Trusts too have made them very in-house orientated and some patients feel they are "tamed" ..

Interestingly David Denny a Non Executive (appointed for the public interest) who is leaving Mid Staffs after 9 years on the Board, queries on 18th March (in reponse to another poster on Health Service Journal) why details surrounding Patient Safety and quality did not enter the Board minutes at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Hospital; Trust

From Health Service Journal

(Its amazing no-one in the British press has picked this up !)

"Added: Wednesday, 18 March 2009 14:26 GMT
David Denny, Stafford, United Kingdom

The very point I've been trying to make in other threads. There is so much that is inaccurate in the reporting and the HCC report; The Board did not discuss patient safety and quality - rubbish, it was discussed at every opportunity but it appears was not recorded as such in the minutes.

The Board didn't consider complaints - wrong. The Board were focussed on FT - yes, but only as a means to reinvest in patient services and move away from the DoH. I could write a book, maybe that's not a bad idea! "

As far as NHS complaints are concerned (as a mechanism of creating awareness of NHS problems) the UK Health Ombudsman themselves criticized the two complaint processes of NHS and Social Care - declaring that both together (and some patients do have dual services of Social Care and Health systems) they were often unnavigable. The NHS one alone was also criticized .

Its not surprising when you look at what the Labour Govt did by having two seperate Statutory Instruments in Health (2004) and Social Care(2006) - which created confusing layers of double processes to go through despite the 2001 Health and Social Care Act which proclaimed "Integration of services"... Its only NOW in the coming April 2009 that a new complaints system will be integrated more effectively ..

The big question is :

Who arranged all of these years when effective complaints systems were compromised ?

God ? No .. It was UK Government .

SEE NHS SYSTEM COMPLAINT CRITICISED CLICK HERE

Also see the Ombudsman's new office recruitment drive below :

"Home > News > Archive

News archive

Latest news

15 July 2008

PHSO plans major recruitment campaign

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is to set up an Office in Manchester for up to 150 staff, and will soon launch a major recruitment drive. This will be part of the build-up to the implementation of the two-stage system for NHS complaints in April 2009.

A range of posts in both London (where the Ombudsman already has an Office) and Manchester will be advertised in national, local and specialist press from September 2008. They will include opportunities for people with relevant skills, knowledge and experience to join PHSO as case workers, customer service officers, clinical advisers, managers and administrative support staff. A separate recruitment process will be available for any applicants who are currently employed in complaint handling by the Healthcare Commission.

People who wish to register an interest in working with PHSO should email us with details of the type of roles they are interested in. We will send them application details when vacancies are advertised. "

.

Mental Health Satire - A Sadvert For Mid Staffs NHS

.

A Sadvert Poster For

Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust Events

.

Will Mid Staffs FT Trust Pay Funeral Expenses Of Dead From Its Surplus?

.

.

Remember The 400 Dead at Mid Staffs FT NHS Trust

The figures are clear from the accounts presented to Monitor the UK NHS Foundation Trust Watchdog that from the £ 22 million income the Mid Staffs NHS FT Trust it made a combined surplus in 2008 of £886,000 .

Maybe it will offer to pay some funeral expenses for those it helped toward death by neglect ?

Or maybe these surpluses will form the legal fees for any corporate manslughter cases brought?

From the Annual Plan presented to Monitor by Mid Staffs NHS FT Trust :

"1.2 Summary of financial performance

2007/2008 was a year of financial consolidation for the Trust, the Trust concluded the financial year in recurrent balance, repaid in full the previous Staffordshire & Shropshire Health Authority financial support and in cumulative surplus.

The Trust has completed two year end final accounts for 2007/2008, these being the 10 month period ending 31st January 2008 for the NHS Trust and the 2 month period ending 31st March 2008 for the Foundation Trust, both of which are still subject to final Account audit opinion.

In the final 10 months of NHS Trust status a surplus of £250,000 was achieved, whilst the Foundation Trust first two months delivered a £633,000 surplus. The combined £883,000 surplus was achieved after successfully closing the CBT Laundry & Line business, this highlighting a non recurrent contribution of £737,000, the balance related to non recurrent gains linked to additional elective activity.

The combined surplus will give the Trust financial flexibility to manage the hidden costs of the HCC investigation and provide resources for improved facilities. "

LINKS

Opposition and other Comment Guardian

Main Findings

Mid Staffs and BCH