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Mid Staffordshire Scandal
Topic Started: Feb 6 2013, 10:37 PM (258 Views)
madfor4

"Guardian"......Stafford scandal: no one to blame as report refuses to name and shame 'scapegoats'
Health bosses who presided over the worst scandal in the history of the NHS at Mid Staffordshire have escaped censure in an official report which refused to name and shame “scapegoats”.for days

Amazing??? Nurses who left patients to lie in their own excrement for days and whose patients were driven to drink water from flower vases because they were left unattended for so long. Doctors who 'cocked up' operations and after care and managers who ignored long lists of complaints.

No-one has been dismissed or seriously censured.

To my mind the situation can be summed up by this example..."Martin Yeates led Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust for four years, until an investigation uncovered up to 1,200 “excess” deaths amid an appalling catalogue of failings in care.
It was Mr Yeates who had earlier decided to lead the hospital on a cost-cutting programme in order to secure “foundation trust” status. This led to widespread job cuts and between 2006 and 2008, 160 nurses left the trust either through retirement or redundancy, with £1.3 million spent on redundancy payments.
As a result, nursing shortages and reliance on untrained health care assistants meant patients were left unattended or not cared for properly.
After the failings came to light Mr Yeates resigned, walking away in March 2009 with more than £400,000 and a pension valued at £1.27 million.
He subsequently said he was too ill to be cross-examined over the scandal at the public inquiry and refused to attend....... <steam>

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becky sharp
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From The Guardian article

The report found that some patients had been left for hours sitting in their own faeces, many patients had relied on relatives to ensure they ate and drank because food and drink was left out of their reach, misdiagnosis of medical problems had been common, pain-relieving drugs had not been given or had been given late, and hygiene had been so poor that relatives had had to clean toilets themselves to avoid catching infections. "Many suffered horrific experiences that will haunt them and their loved ones for the rest of their lives," said Francis in his 2010 report.

Hard to believe this happened in a hospital in this country ..even harder to believe that heads won't roll, in due course, because of it.
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becky sharp
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Sir David Nicholson could be tried at the Bar of the House, MP suggests

Sir David Nicholson could be tried at the Bar of the House for misleading Parliament over how he dealt with a whistleblower, a Tory MP has suggested.

Charlotte Leslie made the claim as she wrote to the Prime Minister calling for the NHS boss to be sacked "with all speed".

In a letter to Mr Cameron first reported by The Spectator, Ms Leslie said she is "deeply concerned" about Sir David's false account to the select committee, which could be a contempt of Parliament if deliberate.

Sir David was forced to issue a correction over evidence he gave to the Public Accounts Committee on Monday, after part of it was revealed to be untrue. He says the evidence was a mistake, which he realised after reviewing past correspondence.

The NHS boss had claimed that Gary Walker, former head of United Lincolnshire NHS Trust, had not identified himself as a whistleblower in a July 2009 letter to him. Sir David also told MPs that Mr Walker had not raised concerns about patient safety in the letter.

On Tuesday, Mr Walker produced the letter in his own evidence to the Health Select Committee, which flatly contradicted Sir David’s account.

Sir David is currently under intense pressure to step down over the NHS's treatment of whistleblowers and failure to spot poor standards of care at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust.

Ms Leslie, who has led calls for his resignation, wrote to the Prime Minister on Tuesday night.

"I know you are aware that wilfully misleading a parliamentary select committee is an offence for which one can be tried at the Bar of the House," she wrote.

"It is inconceivable that Sir David, in attending a PAC committee on whistle-blowing, would not know the facts about the most high-profile whistle-blower case in which he himself had involvement, and which the deputy he recently appointed, Dame Barbara Hakin, is accused of silencing the whistle-blower, Gary Walker. Therefore there are serious questions of integrity to be answered. If, however, Sir David was really aware of none of this, it draws such questions over his competence and memory that he cannot be a man to oversee crucial reforms."

Deliberately misleading a select committee is not a criminal offence but can be punished as a contempt of Parliament.

A House of Commons briefing note says historically the power to adjudge a contempt is linked to the power to commit to prison. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries committal to the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms, or to prison, was a regular punishment but this is unheard of in modern times. Alternative punishments are formal admonishment or reprimand.

http://aggbot.com/Headline-News/article/19215799
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rumbaba
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"Sir David Nicholson could be tried at the Bar of the House, MP suggests"

He could be sentenced to be punched in the head by Eric Joyce <laugh>

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21796157
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