NHS trust investigated over serious safety breaches

[Osem]

A hospital trust that ran a unit where a man drowned in the bath will be investigated for safety breaches.

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust has been asked to provide information on a number of unexplained deaths.

The death of Connor Sparrowhawk, 18, will be one of the cases reviewed by the Health and Safety Executive.

Trust chairman Mike Petter resigned on Friday after a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report found the trust was "continuing to put patients at risk"...

... Mr Sparrowhawk died after having a seizure in the bath at Slade House in Oxford. An inquest jury found neglect contributed to his death.

The CQC found the trust still had not implemented safe bathing guidelines...

... Southern Health was inspected by the CQC after a report by NHS England found it did not investigate the unexpected deaths of more than 1,000 patients over a four-year period.

Its chief executive Katrina Percy has refused calls to resign from Mr Sparrowhawk's mother, Dr Sara Ryan.

It beggars belief that this can still happen.

Originally Posted by Osem

It beggars belief that this can still happen.

I suppose the one silver lining is that ,after Stafford,the disgraceful quality of care has been discovered sooner rather than later

[Pierre]

But all nurses are angels and all doctors are beyond reproach, in fact they're all trying to save the NHS by striking for more money. So I doubt there's anything to worry about.

[Osem]

I wonder what the BMA's reaction to this and those who're culpable is.

I know what MY reaction is..This is the foundation that services my area and it's appalling how it's taken until now for anyone to fall on their sword....However we have been down this road before..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33706602


However all the treatments I have received during the last 5 years have been wonderful and I personally have no complaints at all.

[Osem]

I must admit I was a tad concerned after being diagnosed as suffering from constipation when I actually had a severely infected gall bladder which required emergency admission and subsequent surgery.

Given the number of cases which have come to light in recent years, why do we only rarely hear about any disciplinary/legal action taken against medics, managers and executives?

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by Pierre

But all nurses are angels and all doctors are beyond reproach, in fact they're all trying to save the NHS by striking for more money. So I doubt there's anything to worry about.

Actually the majority are. The problem is that most of them are overworked which leads to errors being made. This does not excuse the bad apples in the barrel though.

I worked for the NHS in a hospital many years ago as did (and do) other members of my family. You'd be amazed at the waste of money which would be better spent on more staff and patient resources to prevent things like this happening.

Too many chiefs and not enough Indians!

http://www.nhsconfed.org/resources/k...ics-on-the-nhs

Management
Managers and senior managers accounted for 2.67 per cent of the 1.388 million staff employed by the NHS in 2014.

The number of managers and senior managers increased slightly in 2014, having declined in each of the previous four years. However 37,078 was the second lowest total since 2004.

In 2008/09 the management costs of the NHS had fallen from 5.0 per cent in 1997/98 to 3.0 per cent.

[Osem]

The fact that events like this can keep happening says to me that there's something fundamentally broken in the NHS and nobody seems willing/able to tackle it. I'm sure most people love the NHS but our affection for the concept shouldn't blind us to its faults or prevent those who've done wrong (whether medics or managers/executives) from being exposed and appropriately punished.

[Mr K]

There is something fundamentally broken in the NHS, it isn't complicated. A lack of staff and resources. Increasing demands from an ageing population haven't been met with enough investment. What's more worrying is that the Govt. seem to delight in highlighting every failure rather than solving it; almost as if they have a hidden agenda. We ourselves have some responsibility as we keep voting for politicians giving tax cuts for those that don't need it, whilst at the same time expecting the same amount of public investment. There's an underlying cause to these issues and it isn't the people on the front line.