NHS-THE OTHER SIDE

Nothing changes

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:48:00 +0000

Over the weekend I have been poking a few “medical” sites with a stick and it seems that what has fallen out is the same as it was a year ago.

Maniac health workers are still killing patients, babies are still dying from bad practise, the Piss Poor Policies Millionaires Club Coalition is still trying to privatise the NHS.

My local hospital Grimly Dark is still bumping orf people and thinks that money will make it all better, and has decided that help for M.E. sufferers is too expensive.

Will Powell is still trying to get a change in the law for his son Robbie so that the cowardly, lying “Doctors” who supposedly treated him will be forced tofront up and tell the truth.

The Piss Poor General Medical Council is spending £280,000 a year for private medical cover for its employees.

And is still pretending that it is working in the interest of patients.

Feels like I haven’t been away....

Angus

Guess who?

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 11:25:00 +0000

After many, many months I have finally managed to reach that intellectual plateau known as retirement, after fading from the blogosphere for a while I have returned.

And no; I didn’t give up as some have suggested, I merely had other things to do such as make a living and pay the ever increasing bills, but now I am in a position to spend the rest of my natural having a pop at those “institutions” who have managed to maim, kill, ignore, frustrate and take the piss out of patients and their relatives.

So beware Piss Poor GMC, half witted hospitals, demented health departments and moronic MPs.

The Dei is back....

Barton finally buggers off-after piss poor GMC lets her stay

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 11:18:00 +0000

Morphine Moll and Bill Oddie look alike “Dr” Jane Barton has it seems asked to be removed from the Piss Poor GMC’s medial register.

Morphine Moll’s too little too late decision comes after a GMC hearing last year found she prescribed ‘excessive’ drugs to elderly patients but decided not to remove her from the register and instead placed conditions on her licence. Relatives of patients who died at the hospital under Dr Barton’s care have since been asked to give their views on her asking to be removed from the register.

But families are confused about why the GP, who last year retired from Forton Medical Centre in Gosport, has chosen to make the request now.

They are not the only ones, what “confuses” me most is why the Piss Poor GMC is still in being, it doesn’t exactly have a clean record when it comes to “disciplining” well connected doctors who can kill and maim at will and walk away with income and pension intact, while patients and their relatives suffer both physically and mentally for the rest of their lives as they see murdering quacks carry on killing and maiming.

Hasn’t the time to bury the festering, inbred, gold plated load of Tossers that can’t seem to tell the difference between justice and “Justice”, patients take a poor second/third/fourth place behind the needs and careers of those who know the right people.

And hasn’t the time come to allow patients and relatives to sue the so called “Doctors” personally with the help of legal aid, after all we pay for the NHS, we pay the Doctors salaries we should be able to get some redress when “they” cock it up, without having to resort to the archaic and medieval so called NHS “complaints” system which as we all know is so biased toward Doctors and Hospitals that it isn’t really worth the effort of spending years of your life only to see the cover ups and white wash brushes come out. And a final thought: why not allow us to sue the CEOs as well.

Angus

Another round up-sort of.

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 09:58:00 +0000

Real life is still impinging on blogging time, so once again a quick whizz through the “news”.

I suppose that everyone has heard about the Woman who has had to sell her home to pay for cancer treatment, probably old news by now but it does make you think about “what is important” to the pointy heads at the DOH, and NIHCE (NICE).

Prolonging terminally ill patients’ lives obviously isn’t high enough on the agenda.

And Reform seems to think that cutting a quarter of Hospital beds will “save money and improve care”, it said advances in technology and rising rates of conditions like diabetes meant the focus should shift towards more community services.

The government said local health chiefs could decide, while the British Medical Association said cuts made for purely financial reasons would be "immoral".

The hospital bed count has been falling for decades, but Reform's call represents a more rapid programme than has been seen in recent years.

There were just under 300,000 beds in 1987, but by last year that had fallen to 160,000 as advances in treatment have meant patients do not need to spend as long in hospital.

They also seem to think that fewer Hospitals and more competition is what we need in our NHS.

They obviously all have private healthcare, and does that mean that as beds are decreasing the “Management” salaries will decrease in proportion, after all there will be less work to do.

And apparently we don’t believe what the “experts” tell us regarding ‘cancer scares’, no surprises there then, blackdog as usual explains it all in his usual clear and understandable fashion.

The knobs have finally decided that the system of vetting “foreign” Doctors needs ‘improving’, Urgent changes must be made to the system of vetting foreign doctors offering out-of-hours GP care, MPs say.

The Health Committee warned NHS trusts "were not doing their jobs" by failing to check language and medical skills.

That meant patients risked being treated by doctors who were incompetent or were not fluent in English.

Lives were at risk due to a reliance on overseas doctors in weekend and night GP shifts, the MPs said. The government said improvements were being made.

There are no exact figures for how many foreign doctors are employed for out-of-hours work, although ministers said in evidence to the committee that it was a "limited" problem.

So how do they know it is a “limited” problem? Limited to what? How many people go to the media and tell their “horror stories”? Or limited to the amount of information that their one brain cell can contain.

Tell that to David Gray, oh sorry they can’t because Mr Gray was killed by a “foreign” Doctor who was incompetent and couldn’t speak English.

And last but certainly not least:

The “Powers that be” have a small problem, well actually it is a bloody great big one; The NHS has more than 34 million unused doses of swine flu vaccine despite agreeing deals to break its contracts.

The UK government had signed deals with two firms - Baxter and GlaxoSmithKline - for more than 120m doses of the jabs.

But just 44m will now be bought as cases have petered out since December. Of these, 6m have already been used and 3.8m is being sent to help Africa.

Estimates have put the value of the stockpile at between £100m to £150m; although the government has refused to confirm cost saying it was commercially confidential.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham said: "I am pleased we have reached an agreement that is good value for the taxpayer and means that the department has retained a strategic stockpile to protect the UK population without incurring a cancellation fee."

“Good value for the taxpayer”, interesting statement from Andy Burnham and how many nurses would £125 million pay for?

Angus

Collaberative care

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 09:57:00 +0000

Finally managed to find some time for a “proper” post, came across this whilst trawling the web.

From Pulse

Depressed? You will be after you have read this, first we had Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), then they tacked on Computer Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CCBT or CBBC as I like to call it), now we have “Collaborative Care” which I suppose you could call CCCBT, it was developed in the US – a form of enhanced consultation liaison, whereby input into general practice by mental health experts is facilitated through specially trained case managers.

Essential elements of these programmes are the use of evidence-based protocols for treatment, structured collaboration between primary care providers and mental health specialists, active monitoring of adherence to treatment and of outcomes, and in some cases structured programmes of psychotherapy delivered in primary care.

Collaborative care involves trained and competent workers who manage high volumes of patients, are supervised by mental health specialists and link with GPs to provide regular feedback on the progress of an individual patient.

A great deal of evidence has been amassed in the US on this quality improvement method and recently three small trials have shown that positive results could also be achieved here in the UK.

Great, you may think, but look at the reasoning behind this Telephone Therapy-Despite the proven efficacy of pharmacological and talking treatments, patient compliance with both is poor. One of the problems with talking treatments is that they tend to be offered in very traditional ways, mainly face to face with therapists using weekly ‘golden hour’ sessions. This limits the numbers of patient’s counsellors and therapists can treat and many patients find the need to take time off work every week an insurmountable barrier.

According to Professor David Richards GPs have very limited options available when faced with patients consulting about common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. NICE guidelines state that cognitive behaviour therapy is as effective as some drug treatments and recommend all suitable patients be offered such treatment.

But best estimates are that overall GPs are able to access talking treatments for only 9% of their patients, with fewer than 2% receiving CBT.

In a recent clinical research protocol developed by a team funded through the Medical Research Council, case managers supported patients with depression in primary care using a 6:1 ratio of telephone versus face-to-face contacts. The workers delivered a mixture of medication support – mainly regarding antidepressants – and a form of low-intensity CBT for depression called behavioural activation.(5)

On average, patients in the case-managed group showed twice the improvement compared with a control group. The total additional time spent treating each patient was very modest – on average slightly more than three hours per patient in total over a 12-week period.

Interviews with patients were extremely positive, particularly regarding the use of the phone, providing they had at least one initial face-to-face appointment.

With PCTs now focused very much on patient choice and access, GPs and practice teams may find the arguments easy to make.

Most patients value the flexibility of telephone working – indeed, in one classic recent case study, a mental health worker was able to treat a patient over the telephone during his lunch break while the patient sat in his JCB, allowing him to undergo a full treatment programme without disturbing his very real need to function undisturbed at his workplace.

Although telephone working will not suit all patients, current evidence and experience is indicating that telephone support and treatment is effective, acceptable and a cost-effective way of redressing the parlous state of access to non-drug treatments for the majority of people with anxiety and depression.

A bit like the Swine Flu helpline then, let your fingers do the walking and some invisible “therapist” do the talking.

Angus

Cash at the top

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 09:55:00 +0000

This sad tale comes from my local “Foundation trust”:

The boss of Frimley Park Hospital was awarded an inflation-busting 6.5% pay increase last year, taking his annual pay above £175,000.

Andrew Morris, the hospital’s chief executive, was given the pay hike despite the fact that nurses and low-paid staff at the hospital, which employs 2,972 people, were given rises of just 2.5% in the same year.

His raise was made up of an increase of 3.5% in salary, with a bonus payment of £5,000 for hitting a number of performance targets, the hospital’s annual report showed.

Mr Morris has also built up a personal pension pot worth more than £1.5m.

The figures come as a report by public sector pay experts Income Data Services showed that boardroom pay in the health service had doubled in the past decade – faster than the average rise seen in public sector pay.

"Testing times"

Steve Tatton, editor of the report, said: “These are undoubtedly testing times for those making decisions about how much to pay NHS chiefs, balancing recruitment and motivation against the need to keep tight control of the public purse, but it seems that the equation has fallen on the side of high salary awards."

Frimley Park’s own pay policy for top executives, published as part of its annual report, suggested that its executives should be awarded a pay rise every year in excess of that given to bosses at other hospitals.

Mike Jackson, from public sector union Unison, representing nurses and healthcare staff, said: “It is not right for senior staff to get above inflation pay hikes, while the rest of the workforce get a below inflation pay deal.”

Frimley Park Hospital said election rules meant it could not comment publicly about the pay increases.

But Denis Gotel, a patient governor at the hospital, said he thought the public got good value for money out of Mr Morris and that the boss commanded respect from all the hospital's staff.

"He's worth every penny," Mr Gotel said.

Bollocks “Mr” Gotel, the front line staff are worth every penny, the CEO is taking the piss, and the money, I know, I have “met” him a few times.

Angus

The BMJ and mortality rates

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 09:54:00 +0000

It seems that the BMJ (British Medical Journal) has decided in its wisdom that Death rates are a poor measure of hospital care and should not be used to trigger public inquiries.

The British Medical Journal analysis argued the figures were a "poor test of quality" and urged inspectors to rely on other measures instead.

It contrasts with the pressure mounting on the Care Quality Commission to pay more attention to death rates produced by Dr Foster, a private research group.

The NHS regulator said death rates were just one part of the armoury.

The two experts in disease monitoring, Professor Richard Lilford, from Birmingham University, and Peter Pronovost, from Johns Hopkins University in the US, criticised the way death rates were used to castigate Stafford Hospital over the past year.

So what figures do the “experts” suggest we use? Maybe the number of patients that leave hospital and die at home? Which can be arranged by astute trusts, ship them out before they die so that they are not included, or maybe the total of complaints, that can take years to complete, many of which are abandoned by complainants because of the biased system that allows CEOs to delay, deny and destroy peoples lives to suit their own purposes.

How about we rely on the self assessed ratings that trusts give themselves, so that they can continue to have “Foundation” status and be financially independent of “Government”.

Or do we just ignore all the stats and let the Management carry on blithely, with no checks or come backs, killing patients by the tens of thousands, ignoring patients’ pain and disablements.

Should we return to the nineteenth century when Doctors were Gods and patients slabs of meat with no rights and less dignity.

Or maybe we could find out the truth, let the Government hold a referendum on our NHS, ask us what we like, and what we don’t, on a trust by trust basis and on a national scale, so that we can see where the bad apples are in the NHS barrel, so that we can tell them what we want for a change.

It must be worth a thought.

Angus

Death and the NHS

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 09:53:00 +0000

Been a while since I posted here, real life has a habit of buggering up your blogging.

Couple of items today the first is from the Telegraph, it seems that if you have Vascular surgery in a small Hospital you are more likely to die than if you were admitted to a large hospital for the same operation.

Death rates in planned vascular surgery varied from fewer than one in 50 in some hospitals to more than one in 10 in others, according to data collected by the Guardian from surgeons at 116 hospital trusts.

More than 5,000 vascular operations are carried out each year, most of which are planned.

Patients were found to be less likely to die during a planned operation in the bigger hospital units where surgical teams are more skilled because they perform the operations more frequently.

Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, announced a moratorium on anyreorganisation within the health service last month, including the closure of smaller hospitals in favour of larger institutions.

The death rate at Scarborough Hospital in Yorkshire was among the highest, with 29 per cent of patients admitted for planned vascular surgery having died in the three-year period from 2006 to 2008. The national average was just over 4%.

Scarborough said it has stopped offering the operation.

Other hospital trusts where the death rates following planned surgery were high included Gateshead, on 12.9 per cent and Hull on 9 per cent and Leeds on 7.1per cent.

Gateshead and Hull blamed a high number of difficult cases; while Leeds pointed out that it has brought its death rates steadily down over recent years.

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the NHS and a former heart surgeon, told the Guardian: "Surgeons have a moral and professional duty to know what they are doing, how well they are doing it and to use that information to help them improve – otherwise they have no right to be doing it at all."

Have I been beamed to a parallel universe? A knob from the NHS who is also a surgeon admitting that the walking on water, arrogant, club together, omnipotent surgeons cock up and kill people, is this a first? Will this change the way surgeons “operate” and will they humbly beg forgiveness from the relatives of those butchered by the “untouchables”?

Of course it won’t; they will carry on maiming, killing and denying any responsibility, the old boy’s club is stronger now than ever, the GMC has developed many different personas, which enable it to let those that are senior walk away from evidence based incompetence and those that are junior lose their careers for the smallest of mistakes.

The other tale also comes from the Telegraph.

Patients are much more likely to die if they are rushed to hospital at weekends than during the week, because too few senior staff are working, a new study suggests.

Higher deaths rates at weekends mean thousands of patients every year are dying unnecessarily, according to the findings.

Patients were seven per cent more likely to die if they were admitted as an emergency case on a Saturday or Sunday, the largest study of its kind shows.

The higher rates were equivalent to 3,369 extra deaths a year, more than the total number who die every year on Britain’s roads.

Conditions including heart attacks, heart failure, stroke and some cancers all had higher deaths rates at weekends than Monday to Friday.

The team behind the findings warned that a lack of senior staff, such as consultants, working weekends and reduced access to specialist services could be behind the higher death rates.

Hospitals should look closely at weekend staffing rotas and other potential problem areas, according to researchers.

Dr Paul Aylin, from Imperial College London, who led the study, said: "We estimate that there were over 3,000 more deaths than expected at weekends in 2005/06 compared to weekdays – more than the number of people dying in road accidents in 2006.

“Clearly this is a significant number of people and we need to get to the bottom of what this means.

"Staffing levels are often lower at weekends, with fewer senior medical staff around, and some specialist services are less available.

The study looked at all emergency patients admitted to 163 hospital trusts across England between 2005 and 2006.

The findings are published in the journal Quality & Safety in Health Care.

The study, supported by Dr Foster Intelligence, the independent research company, reviewed more than four million admissions and 215,000 deaths.

No surprises there really, the £175,000 pa consultants can’t be expected to work at weekends, after all they have to keep up their golf handicap.

Angus

Déjà vu

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:39:00 +0000

This item was sent to me by a friend and I am posting it because it bears an uncanny resemblance to “M”s treatment.

From the Manchester Evening news:-The whole thing:

A HOSPITAL has paid out £50,000 to the family of a mother-of-six who died after a string of failings by medics.

Karen Bambrough, 42, should have had urgent surgery when she was admitted to Tameside Hospital with a severe blockage in her abdomen.

When she did not receive the treatment her condition worsened.

She died in 6 January 2005 after her intestines ruptured and medics did not attempt to resuscitate her.

Despite admitting that these failings caused Mrs Bambrough additional 'pain and suffering', Tameside hospital said that she would have died anyway.

Her widower Chris Bambrough, from Ashton under Lyne, said he had accepted a £50,000 settlement because he had 'given up' after a stressful legal battle lasting almost five years.

Mr Bambrough, now a single father of six, said: “This isn't about the money. I just want people to know what happened at Tameside. I don’t want this to happen to someone else.

“After five years I just wanted it all to be over. The hospital has caused me so much stress. They have done nothing but drag out the case, and refuse to admit they neglected to save Karen's life.”

No apology

Mr Bambrough said he was angry that after five years he still hadn’t received an apology.
“Karen was such a wonderful mother to our children,” he said. “She was my everything since we were 15 years old. And the hospital just wrote her off.”

Mr Bambrough’s lawyer, Janet Johnson, a partner at Simpson Millar, said: “Coming to terms with the loss of a wife or a mother is difficult enough in itself without the added strain of having to fight tooth and nail for justice.

“The last five years have been both stressful and emotionally draining for the Bambrough family.

“Although you cannot put a price on a human life, surely £50,000 is nowhere near enough for such a massive loss.”

Tameside hospital declined to comment on the case but confirmed the £50,000 settlement.

“M” was left with a blocked bowel, the hospital dragged out my complaint for three years, they also said “she would have died anyway”, and I was given no apology regarding her treatment.

Unlike Mr Bambrough I didn’t sue for damages because I wanted to leave the door open regarding Human Rights, but like Mr Bambrough I just want people to know what happened, and I don’t want this to happen to someone else.

Sadly no one wanted to know.

But it seems that it has, it also seems that there is a “system” in place by CEOs of hospitals to use a script agreed between them to defer, deny and outwait relatives who are at the most vulnerable point in their lives, if there is such a system in use it can only be described as callous and uncaring (which was also denied by the Chairman of the ‘Hospital’ “M” was in).

After Christmas I am going to set up a blog to collate all the “NHS horror stories” -NHS Horror Stories and I need readers to send in an abridged version of the treatment given to their relatives.

The data will then be sent to MPs, Hospital CEOs and the media, so spread the word and submit your stories, I know it will be painful but maybe we can stop this happening again and discover if there is a script being used by the NHS to deter us from complaining.

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

Angus Dei politico

The hidden stories of the NHS

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:20:00 +0000

After my get together in Fareham yesterday with the ladies from The Gosport War Memorial Hospital cover up and tomsanguish/ NHS palliative care Sheffield I did a bit of Google-ing and came up with about 67,900 hits for NHS horror stories.

The thing that struck me during the “meeting” was how much alike we were, we had all been dumped on by the NHS complaints system from a great height, our relatives had all been subjected to third world country treatment before they died, and we had all been lied to, misinformed and treated badly by the “Senior Management”.

But the point that hit home mostly was that we all felt alone when setting out on the long and winding road that passes for a “Complaints System” in our health service.

We all had our horror stories, we were all “damaged” by the complaints system, we were all frustrated and angry, but in a way we are all still alone.

Media coverage is good for the cases that pertain to hundreds of patients dying, but for the relatives of a single death the media do not really want to know, there is not enough mileage in it for them, I know because I sent “M”s ‘story’ to them all, papers, TV and radio and not one replied or showed any interest.

Even my “campaign” to bring together people who have been badly let down by The NHS wasn’t a runaway success, and from the meeting came the feeling that there is a lack of impetus by relative to get involved, whether it is because people don’t want to “rock the boat” or that it is too painful to keep going over the death of a loved one I don’t know.

But if only half of the Google results on ‘NHS horror stories” are true there are some 30,000 people out there who, if they got together could make a significant difference to the complaints system, there are many bloggers out there who bite the bullet and try to change things, but if there were a central site where those 30,000 people could post their experiences and 30,000 stories were sent to the media and the Government maybe, just maybe the ‘powers that be’ would finally take notice of bereaved relatives.

It is just an idea I am toying with, but what is needed is the backing from those relatives, and the strength to let the country know what is really happening to patients, I would be happy to start a new blog and call it “NHS-the real story” or something along those lines, all ideas welcome.

If you are interested contact me at angusdei@live.co.uk and perhaps together we can make a difference.

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

Angus Dei politico

Burnham Bollocks

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:09:00 +0000

Health secretary Andy Burnham addressed NHS chief executives last week, and he used the opportunity to outline a five-year plan for the NHS. He described it as upbeat, gritty and realistic given the consequences of the downturn.

It contains the usual platitudes and “pie in the sky” promises:

“First, we will improve the payment system so that it rewards quality and puts patients first. A growing proportion of hospital’s income will be linked to patient satisfaction, rising to 10% of their payments over time. This is a symbolic shift towards the people-centred service I want to see, a service which at times thinks about how things look through the eyes of the patient their family. Poor or unsafe care will not be tolerated - and payments will be withdrawn if care does not meet minimum standards.”

“Second, we will provide more choice for patients, giving them the ability to register with a GP wherever they choose by abolishing practice boundaries, an option of seeing a doctor in the evenings and weekends in every area, and more access to services - like chemotherapy and dialysis - at home or in the community”.

And no word of scrapping the over paid, arrogant Foundation trusts:

“Fifth, we will provide more freedom for hospitals. The best NHS foundation trusts will be free to work across a wider area. We will encourage high-performing foundation trusts based in one area to provide both acute and community services in other areas, if the PCTs in those areas want to commission from them. And we want to see more integrated provision across the entire patient pathway. We open the possibility of acute trust providing GP services, if safeguards can be found.”

Burnham finished by offering chief executives one of his trademark deals: “As we go through this change, we will support them and empower them to make the changes we need. I will explore whether we can maintain frontline employment across a locality or region - in return for flexibility, mobility and sustained pay restraint.”

The parting message - play ball or face cuts.

But who will suffer? It won’t be the chief executives, or the Director of Nursing, or the HR director, or the Estates director, or any of the other directors or boards, it will be the patients, cutting funding to hospital that do not perform well is not the answer, the answer is to sack the overpaid underworked management and put in place a system that actually makes patient treatment a priority rather than Kudos for the £150,000+ CEOs and medical directors.

The full report can be downloaded Here.

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

Angus Dei politico

Clean hospitals-whose responsibility?

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:13:00 +0000

The NHS is going from bad to worse, despite all the hype about better treatment, the billions poured into the NHS has not helped patients, or it seems Doctors.

Doctors and nurses at one of the country's top children's hospitals have been asked to help clean wards in their free time, according to the British Medical Association.

Staff, including consultants and managers at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, were reportedly asked to do the work outside normal working hours.

It is thought the suggestion was made to ensure the hospital impressed inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) who visited Alder Hey.

Unions criticised the move and said cleanliness should be sufficiently resourced without seeking volunteers.

Dr Jaswinder Bamrah, of the British Medical Association, said: ''Doctors and nurses have been asked to volunteer to clean the hospital and I just do not think it is right.

"They are over-using a highly skilled workforce to do what they are not trained to do.

"They need to look at the issue of who is paid to do the cleaning and sort it out.

"This step takes doctors and nurses away from patient care - the time spent cleaning would be better spent providing care for patients.

"This has been an ongoing problem for Alder Hey and it is very important to make sure the hospital is cleaned properly by those paid to do it - otherwise all sorts of problems car arise, like MRSA or C difficile spreading."

Paul Summers, Unison's regional organiser, said although it was a voluntary request some employees felt pressure to comply.

"It was not compulsory but I have heard some people did feel bullied into helping out," he said.

Louise Shepherd, chief executive at Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust said CQC inspectors were impressed by the way staff rallied round after the unannounced visit.

She said: ''We believe, along with all our staff, that maintaining high standards of cleanliness in a healthcare environment is everyone's responsibility and have very much welcomed those many staff who have volunteered from every service and department to support this initiative.

What a load of Bullshit, the responsibility for cleaning the hospital rests with the overpaid, overmanned management who should ensure that there are enough trained cleaners.

If they cannot employ enough cleaners let them get on their hands and knees and do a bit of scrubbing, Doctors and Nurses are far too valuable a resource, whereas the management is not.

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

Angus Dei politico

A plethora of news

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:14:00 +0000

There seems to be so much “health” news about today I thought I would use the “snippets” format today.

I see that “Sir” Liam Donaldson is to retire in May next year, probably just before the election as it is always wiser to hedge one’s bets.

“Sir” Liam of course will be remembered for his smoking in public places ban, which has been a success, apart that is from destroying the Pub trade.

He has recently called for England to adopt an opt out system of organ donation, where people are presumed to have consented to donation unless they registered their objections in advance.

Sir Liam, 60, intended to retire from the post earlier this year but agreed to stay on when the swine flu pandemic emerged.

He will stand down in May unless the swine flu pandemic worsens.

A replacement will be announced in due course, a spokesman for the Department of Health said.

He was also the mastermind of the shake-up of junior doctors' training and there were calls for his resignation following the chaos of its introduction.

He will join the ranks of the ex-knobs which includes “Lord” Ara Darzi, who managed to make “quality of treatment” for patients a byword for spend billions and get thousands of managers, clinics that are failing and.....

A hospital has been accused by a coroner of "gross negligence" after a 10-year-old boy died following a seven hour wait for an ambulance.

Kieran Howard, from Fordcombe, Kent, was taken to three hospitals after emergency staff failed to diagnose the severity of his condition, Southwark Coroner's Court heard.

Doctors were aware there was potentially a problem with the child's brain, but the boy sill had to wait 12 hours to receive a scan which would have allowed a diagnosis and meant life-saving surgery could have gone ahead.

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox said there was a "four hour window of opportunity" after the boy's eyes had become fixed and dilated to perform surgery which likely would have saved his life.

She described the Pembury doctors failures to check his eyes as "gross negligence" and "neglect".

And: A two-year-old boy died after paramedics failed to notice the severity of an injury to his head, an inquest heard.

Lewis Urmson-Brown banged his head on the ground whilst in his father's arms after he stumbled walking on a playground near their home in Runcorn, Cheshire.

Lewis's mother, Michelle Urmson, 39, collapsed in court after describing how her son seemed floppy and pale after returning from the park with her partner Chris Brown.

After Lewis died both parents were arrested and questioned on suspicion of murder only to be exonerated by police when the full facts emerged.

The couple, who have two other children, told Warrington Coroner's Court how they called an ambulance after the fall and waited anxiously for Lewis to be examined on June 19 last year.
But when two paramedics arrived they decided within minutes his injuries were superficial and hospital treatment was not needed.

Eight hours later Mrs Urmson woke to find Lewis unconscious and frothing at the mouth.

An ambulance crew rushed him to Warrington General Hospital where doctors tried in vain to resuscitate him and he died a short while later.

Or even: A three-year-old boy died of tonsillitis because of a 'gross failure' by an out-of-ours GP service, an inquest heard.

Joseph Seevaraj, died after his parents phoned their local service to insist a doctor visit their son, who was suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea complications arising from the bug.

But they were told to wait for the medication to work during the 11pm call after the lad had been prescribed antibiotics when advised to go to hospital two days earlier.

He was found dead by his mum and dad Nicola and Jean at their home in Hove, East Sussex, the next morning on January 20 this year.

Brighton and Hove Coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley described errors made in his treatment as "total and complete" at a hearing on Thursday.

The coroner said: "He needed basic medical attention. The failure to provide it was gross failure. I am satisfied there is a clear connection between this gross failure and his death."

How about this: Cancer sufferers living in the most deprived parts of England are up to five per cent less likely to beat the disease, official figures show.

A report from the Office for National Statistics reveals that patients in the 62 worst off areas in the country had a lower chance of survival five years after diagnosis than those in more affluent communities.

The largest difference was seen in women suffering from bladder cancer.

And this: Britain spends less on medicines than similar countries making it the 'poor man of Europe', a report has said.

Britain spends less than half that of Greece, Portugal and Spain on medicines, the report from the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry, the trade association for companies making prescription drugs said.

As a proportion of gross domestic product Britain spends one per cent on medicines, compared with 2.32 per cent in Greece, 2.17 per cent in Portugal and two per cent in France.

And finally this: Junior doctors could be swapped for nurses as hospitals face losing money for medical training, in a shake-up ordered by the Department of Health.

Patients could be put at risk as a review of the way junior doctors' salaries are paid could mean hospitals are forced to employ fewer doctors and rely more on nurses and other professionals, medical leaders warned.

Currently the Department of Health pays for the doctor's time spent training to be a consultant or GP and the hospital trust pays for their time treating patients.

But payments vary with some training posts being paid for entirely out of central funds and others being split 50:50 between the Department of Health and the trust where the doctor works.

Proposals to make the system fairer will see some hospitals lose substantial amounts of money, leading to warnings they may be forced to employ fewer junior doctors and replace them with nurses instead.

Officials said the Department of Health spends £1.6 billion a year on training junior doctors and dentists in England and this will not change.

It comes as the NHS is having to find efficiency savings of between £15 billion and £20 billion over three years as the large budget increases come to an end and the government seeks to reduce the national debt.

I could go on, but I am getting depressed by all this and may have to go off and slash my wrists if I carry on, plus the fact that I wouldn’t give the “powers that be” the pleasure.

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

Angus Dei politico

Having a laugh

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:25:00 +0000

Following the unsurprising news that the NHS is a prime target for thefts, amid reports that criminals see the service as an "easy target".

Among the items snatched have been ambulance satellite navigation systems, patients' belongings and hospital equipment and laptops.

The NHS Security Management Service believes the health service is vulnerable because large parts of its estate have to be open to the public.

It wants to see if extra measures need to be put in place to improve security.

Figures show there have been 57 "high-value claims" - those worth more than £20,000 - over the past five years.

In recent months, there have been several reports of ambulances being raided for medical equipment, while London's St George's Hospital had laptops containing data from 20,000 patients snatched last year.

One of the problems is that the public is free to come and go in many NHS sites and this leaves them vulnerable, the experts say.

In fact, some large hospitals can see as many as 8,000 visitors a day.

And now security chiefs have asked every trust in England to give them details of thefts to see what can be learned.

Here is a story from my local “Foundation Trust”-Grimly Dark back in April; Nitrous oxide canisters have been taken from Haslemere Hospital and Frimley Park Hospital this month.

Surrey Police has urged young people to beware of using the chemical as a recreational drug.

A spokesman for the force said regular misuse of the gas could cause serious long-term health problems.

In extreme circumstances, inhaling the gas could lead to suffocation or a temporary loss of motor function, he added.

The theft from Haslemere Hospital in Church Lane occurred between 10 and 11 April when two containers labelled with the word "Entonox", were stolen from an outbuilding.

Another canister was stolen from Frimley Park Hospital in Portsmouth Road in the early hours of 15 April by three men.

A security guard disturbed thieves trying to break into an outside storeroom at Frimley Park on 18 April.

Supt Johnny Johncox, from Surrey Police, said: "All our local health care trusts have been warned of these recent thefts and have stepped up their security measures accordingly.

"It is imperative that anyone using this substance, or who knows someone who is doing so, is aware of the serious implications it could have on their health."

Jill Abethell, who is overseeing the investigation for the security service, said: "We have decided to look at theft as we believe it is a real problem.

"I think like any organisation open to the public there is that risk something can be stolen.

"We have heard of ambulances having sat-navs and equipment stolen out the back while crews treat people on the street and laptops going from hospitals.”

"We want to find out more so we can look to see if measures can be taken to protect property."

She accepted there was a limit to how much could be done to make public places, such as hospitals, more secure but said security codes on doors or more surveillance might help.

Jonathan Fox, of the Association of Professional Ambulance Personnel, said: "Most people will find it astonishing that people can take things like this.

"But I am afraid it does happen. In many ways the NHS is an easy target. But in the case of ambulances, every time there is a theft that vehicle has to be taken off the road and that means patients are put at risk."

Old news sadly, I was told that the income from car parking was used to boost security, but it seems that isn’t working, personally I would like to see the safety of patients put first, but “things” have always been more valuable than people.

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

Angus Dei politico

Go slow saves lives-you think

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:19:00 +0000

From the research centre of the bleedin obvious:

UK cities should have more 20mph speed zones, as they have cut road injuries by over 40% in London, a study claims.

In particular the number of children killed or seriously injured has been halved over the past 15 years, the British Medical Journal reported.

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine study estimates 20mph zones have the potential to prevent up to 700 casualties in London alone.

At 20mph, it is estimated only one in 40 pedestrians is killed in a crash.

This compares with a one in five chance for someone hit at 30mph.

It has probably been ten years since I drove in London, and then the average speed was about 12 MPH, in my home town the max speed that can be attained is about 10MPH because of the humps, road width restrictions traffic and buses.

We all know that driving slower is safer for pedestrians, especially those pedestrians that think (or rather don’t think) that they can leap into the road with impunity, is there really a need for “research” into this subject?

No matter how many 20 MPH signs there are you cannot take account of the idiots who would drive at 35 or 40 in those zones, or take account of children that do not know how to cross a road properly.

Shouldn’t the money wasted on this type of investigation be used to educate pedestrians and drivers to the real dangers of driving a two ton weapon, or stepping in front of one?

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

Angus Dei politico

Depressed? Go to your Jobcentre

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:41:00 +0000

The latest spiffing idea to come from the Dept of Witless Pillocks (DWP) is to base a mental health co-coordinator in every Jobcentre, to “help people with conditions such as depression to find and stay in work.”

Ministers announced a new vision for mental health services that aims to reduce the £40 billion cost to the economy of conditions that are often “shrouded in mystery, stigma or simply forgotten”. Advice lines for small businesses will also offer employers direct access to occupational health professionals in nine pilot schemes.

The Government said that there would be no new money to support its New Horizons strategy, insisting that at least £5 million in funding could be found out of existing budgets.

The plans, published jointly by the Departments for Health and for Work and Pensions, follow a review led by Rachel Perkins, a specialist on mental health issues, on how to improve support for an estimated one million people who are off work or unemployed with mental health problems.

Up to 15 per cent of the population suffers from clinical anxiety or depression at any one time, but the plans also cover the knock-on effects of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

The new co-coordinators will be based in every Jobcentre Plus district at a cost of £1 million to improve job opportunities for people who may feel stigmatised or apprehensive of returning to work. A two-year pilot for the occupational health phone lines will cost a further £4 million. A pilot scheme to meet the costs of temporary staff when workers with mental health problems need to take time off have also been agreed by ministers.

Is this a chicken and egg conundrum? Does being out of work make people depressed, or does being in work make people depressed?

Will a Mental health coordinator make depressed people feel better, or is a way to refer them on to non existent therapists, for non existent treatment, or is it just a way to re categorize the depressed as “fit for work” so that they will have to take up the training schemes for non existent jobs?

Back to the chicken and egg; the Gov has caused the unemployment which causes people to be depressed, which will be “treated” by Mental health coordinators, which will stigmatise them even more, which will make them even more depressed, which will make finding a job even harder because how many employers will hire people with “mental health problems” which will depress them even more.......................ad infinitum.

Take a look at the picture.....does he seem depressed to you?

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

Angus Dei politico

Robbie Powell-One step nearer Justice

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:30:00 +0000

Since I stopped writing for a certain blog site some months ago, I have not featured Robbie Powell and his death some nineteen years ago at the hands of inept, so called “Doctors” who covered up by altering his medical records and lying to save their own skins, you can read Robbie’s “story” here.

Or the GMC who have used their rules to stop an investigation into those “Doctors”, which isn’t surprising because the general attitude of the ‘Medical Regulator’ is to treat the public as “non people” who have the gall to complain about treatment by some doctors who manage to kill patients and walk away.

So today I am going to correct my error, and I apologise to Will Powell and his family for not continuing the battle.

It looks like after almost twenty years of fighting for his son, Robbie’s case is nearer justice for him; a public inquiry into the death of a 10-year-old boy from a treatable condition moved a step closer today.

On his last day in office, it was revealed that First Minister Rhodri Morgan was minded to call an inquiry into the death of Robbie Powell.

The issue of the inquiry and its terms of reference will be decided by Mr Morgan's successor in the New Year.

Robbie died 19 years ago after doctors failed to detect he had Addison's disease, a chronic but treatable condition affecting the adrenal glands.

The charity, Action against Medical Accidents, recently abandoned a judicial review into a decision by the General Medical Council (GMC) not to investigate the case after an application for protected costs was dismissed.

Robbie's father William, of Ystradgynlais in the Swansea Valley, asked the GMC to investigate in 2003.

In 2004 an inquest jury returned a verdict of natural causes, aggravated by neglect.

The inquest heard Robbie was seen by a series of doctors in the months before his death in April 1990, but none diagnosed his condition. It was only discovered after a post-mortem examination was carried out.

A Welsh Assembly Government spokeswoman said: "The First Minister has indicated to Mr Powell on a number of occasions in previous correspondence that he felt unable to reach the point at which a final conclusion to his request for a public inquiry could be reached whilst there were outstanding issues being actively considered by other bodies.

"Following recent developments in the case relating to the GMC, the First Minister decided that he was now able to advise Mr Powell how he was minded to proceed.

"The First Minister has written to Mr Powell and the other parties affected to say that he is minded to set up an inquiry.

"This letter starts a consultative process which will end on January 25, 2010, and which will inform further decisions by the First Minister's successor on the issue of an inquiry and its detailed terms of reference."

Let’s hope that the “powers that be” finally get off their arses and give Robbie and his family an end to the interminable denials, lies and self serving interest that has prevented Justice for this young boy.

Good luck Will.

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

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OH Dear, we are F####d!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:18:00 +0000

Following the 2008 Darzi Report, High Quality Care for All, NICE has been tasked with developing independent, evidence-based standards for the NHS. These NICE quality standards will act as a final distillation of clinical best practice and will clarify what high quality care looks like in relation to clinical effectiveness, patient safety and patient experience.

Derived from the best available evidence, and produced collaboratively with the NHS and social care, the standards will provide a set of specific concise quality statements that act as markers of high quality, cost effective care across a pathway or clinical area.

NICE quality standards are intended to provide a clear description of what a high quality service would look like, enabling organisations to improve quality and achieve excellence. The standards will bring clarity to matters of quality by providing patients and the public, health and social care professionals, commissioners and service providers with definitions of high quality care. They will have the potential to be harnessed for a range of different uses both locally and nationally.

NICE Quality Standards are currently being developed for Stroke, Dementia, VTE Prevention and Neonatal Care and we estimate publication in April 2010. A consultation period for the first draft on stroke and dementia standards will run from 30th November 2009 to 4th January 2010. Individuals and organisations with an interest in these areas are invited to comment on the provisional standards via the NICE website:

http://www.nice.org.uk/aboutnice/qualitystandards/qualitystandards.jsp. We are also keen to test the practical aspects of the statements of quality and measures in the field: how implementable they are, the validity of their content and whether there may be any unforeseen consequences as a result of putting them into practice. Details of how you can get involved in Field Testing are also available on the NICE website.

So what is The CQC there for then?

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

Angus Dei politico

Our Caring Government

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:47:00 +0000

Seriously ill cancer patients are being forced to undergo ''cruel'' back-to-work interviews despite the fact they should be exempt, charities warned today.

Those who are terminally ill or undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy are being threatened with benefit cuts if they do not attend the meetings, according to Macmillan Cancer Support and Citizens Advice.

The ''fit for work'' interviews are for people seeking the employment and support allowance (ESA), which replaced incapacity benefit and income support in October 2008.

The drive behind ESA is to focus on what people can do rather than what they cannot do, as a means of getting them back to work.

However, cancer sufferers undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy or who are terminally ill are automatically exempt from the interviews.

Today, Macmillan and Citizens Advice condemned the ESA process, saying it was ''failing seriously ill and disabled people''.

Macmillan's benefits helpline has taken more than 600 calls about the issue since May.

A joint report - Failed by the System - found evidence of cancer patients with just months to live being told they had to undergo medical examinations and be questioned.

Others having radiotherapy and people in hospital have also been refused ESA when they should automatically get it, the study found.

It also noted examples of people with cancer being told they are fit for work even when they are suffering from long-term effects of the disease.

The charities said poor knowledge of ESA rules among Jobcentre Plus and Department for Work and Pensions medical staff is resulting in claims being handled badly.

Poor administration systems and a lack of understanding about cancer are fuelling the problem, they said.

Mike Hobday, head of campaigns at Macmillan, said: ''It's cruel and completely unacceptable that people who are terminally ill or going through gruelling treatment are being made to jump through hoops to get money they should receive automatically.

''The safeguards to protect cancer patients clearly aren't working, and the ESA system is riddled with problems.

''The Department for Work and Pensions must address these issues without delay to make sure people living with cancer are spared unnecessary distress and financial hardship.''

Lizzie Iron, head of welfare policy at Citizens Advice, said: ''Citizens Advice Bureaux are reporting significant evidence of a range of problems with delivery of the ESA system, which are causing real hardship to the most vulnerable when things go wrong.

''People claiming ESA are frequently seriously ill with urgent needs.''

It’s bloody hard enough for those who are fit and over a certain age to find work, let alone the terminally ill, yet another instance of knobs at the Dept of Witless Pillocks (DWP) showing how much they care.

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

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Nice for NIHCE in Nice

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:26:00 +0000

A friend sent me this link, it seems that Quality and Safety Healthcare is holding an international forum on the 20th to the 23rd of April 2010.

“The 2010 International Forum comes to the city of Nice, located on the French Riviera in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Blessed by a temperate climate and exceptional sunshine, Nice attracts visitors from around the world. Set on the coast with stunning hilltop villages that dot the surrounding countryside, Nice offers lovely seaside promenades, numerous museums and amazing architecture.”

“In view of the current economic climate, the main focus for the 2010 Forum is on "Improving quality, reducing costs". There are more than 80 sessions across four days, from Tuesday 20 April to Friday 23 April. To help you get the best of out the Forum, these sessions are organised into content areas or "streams". You can choose to either register for sessions individually, by day, or follow a specific stream over a few days.

On the first day of the Forum, Tuesday 20 April, there will be four full day mini-courses running concurrently with a full day event, the Global Patient Safety Summit.”

2010 Confirmed keynote and headline speakers include:

Don Berwick, MD, FRCP, President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School. International expert in innovation and leadership, author of “The Change Masters”

Hans Rosling, Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Founder of Médecins Sans Frontières in Sweden

Uwe Reinhardt, James Madison Professor of Political Economy, Princeton University, leading health policy expert for various bodies including the World Bank

Sir Michael Rawlins, Chairman, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence

Laurent Degos, MD, PhD, is Chairman of the Board of the French National Authority for Health (Haute Autorité de Santé, HAS)

Brent James, Chief Quality Officer & Executive Director, Institute for Health Care Delivery Research, Intermountain Healthcare

Bernard Crump, CEO, NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, England

Brenda Zimmerman, Professor of Strategic Management, Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto.

Emily Friedman, Assistant Professor, School of Public Health, Boston University and Independent Health Policy and Ethics Analyst

Improving quality, reducing costs

In view of current economic climate, this is the Forum's overarching theme. View the conference format and the Forum's six programme streams.

Fees for the ‘event’ are:

Attendance

Early Bird* fee Standard fee You save

4 days, including either full day mini-course or Global Patient Safety Summit

£1,244 £1,396 £152

3 days, including either full day mini-course or Global Patient Safety Summit
£897 £1014 £117

3 days general conference
£837 £954 £117

2 days, including either full day mini-course or Global Patient Safety Summit
-
£823
-
2 days general conference
-
£763
-
1 day, either full day mini-course or Global Patient Safety Summit
-
£441
-
1 day general conference
-
£382
-

Or if you are in a group the fees are:

Attendance

4 days group, including full day mini-course or Global Patient Safety Summit
Fee (per delegate) You save
£1,330 £66

3 days group, including full day mini-course or Global Patient Safety Summit
£948 £66

3 days general conference
£889 £65

So a “nice” little holiday for the biggest knob at “NIHCE” and the CEO of the Institute of Innovation and Improvement, England, who will be “speaking” at our expense and in our time.

Not to mention of course all the NHS Trust CEOs that will be attending at our expense and in our time.

In this digital age what are all these “experts” doing flying into Nice at a huge cost to the public and a huge cost to the environment when video conferencing is widely available?

Let’s hope that they enjoy the “temperate climate and exceptional sunshine, Nice attracts visitors from around the world. Set on the coast with stunning hilltop villages that dot the surrounding countryside, Nice offers lovely seaside promenades, numerous museums and amazing architecture.”

While there are thousands of patients dying needlessly in our hospitals and wards are understaffed of Nurses.

Jealous? Bloody right, maybe they could invite me speak at their conference about the piss poor attitude of the senior management and even more piss poor treatment doled out by ‘Foundation trusts’.

But then that would be upsetting the applecart wouldn’t it, because these types of Numptys don’t really want to know the truth.

Maybe I should renew my passport just in case.

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

Angus Dei politico

Sports injuries-golf, the dangers of playing a round

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:52:00 +0000

Sorry, but I couldn't resist.

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

Angus Dei politico

Cancer survival rates: best and worst trusts

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:22:00 +0000

New Department of Health figures show wide disparities in cancer survival rates across primary care trusts in England.

Here are the PCTs with the best and worst records for dealing with common types of cancer, in terms of the proportion of patients who are still alive one year after diagnosis:

Breast cancer

Worst
Tower Hamlets (89.3pc)
Hillingdon (89.5)
Barking and Dagenham (90.2)
Hastings and Rother (90.3)
West Hertfordshire (90.6)

Best

Torbay Care Trust (99.0)
Darlington (97.9)
Stockport (97.6)
Warrington (97.6)
Western Cheshire (97.6)

Colorectal cancer

Worst

Hastings and Rother (57.8)
Waltham Forest (57.9)
Tameside and Glossop (61.5)
Derby City (62.6)
Enfield (62.6)

Best

Telford and Wrekin (80.0)
City and Hackney (77.5)
Shropshire County (77.0)
Peterborough (76.7)
Plymouth Teaching (76.6)

Lung cancer

Worst

Herefordshire (15.4)
Milton Keynes (17.5)
Blackpool (18.3)
East and North Hertfordshire (20.3)
Hartlepool (21.1)

Best

Kensington and Chelsea (43.7)
Hammersmith and Fulham (35.3)
Richmond and Twickenham (35.2)
Islington (34.8)
South Birmingham (34.6)

You pays your money and takes your choice.

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

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Some good news... some bad news...and some odd news

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 10:56:00 +0000

The good news is that NICE (which should be NIHCE by the way) is going to allow patients with rare diseases to receive important new drugs which have not been appraised by the NHS rationing body, Nice (National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence).

It will allow the makers to build up sufficient evidence on the benefits of the drugs which will then be used by Nice to decide if the medicine is cost effective enough for the NHS.

The bad news is that in order for the “makers to build up sufficient evidence on the benefits of the drugs” it will cost us £25 Million Andrew Dillon, Chief Executive of Nice, said: "We recognise that for a small number of very promising new treatments, the evidence available may not reveal their full potential benefits for patients.

"Where there is a high risk that a Nice appraisal of a new treatment at the point of its first use in the NHS might underestimate its benefits, providing the opportunity to gather more evidence and making the treatment available before undertaking an appraisal is the right thing to do.

“We’re happy to play our part in making this new arrangement work well, and that it works in the interests of patients and the NHS.”

The Innovation Pass pilot consultation will run for 10 weeks, closing on 8th February 2010. Input and comments are welcome from all groups including stakeholders, industry, the NHS and patient groups.

Here’s a comment: why are we paying money to the Pharmas to collect data on THEIR drugs when NICE is refusing cancer patients drugs on the basis of cost?

A bit of bad news:

The latest brown runny stuff to hit the whirly thing is of course the ‘revelation’ that the ratings given by the CQC may not be quite accurate.

Well surprise bloody surprise, Dr Foster that old medical man who went to Gloucester in the rain I believe has “discovered” that 27 trusts had unusually high death rates.

But the Care Quality Commission, which has issued its official ratings within the past month, said it saw no need to intervene to make improvements.

Its chairwoman said Dr Foster's report was part legitimate, part alarmist.

On Thursday, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) sent a task force into Basildon and Thurrock NHS Trust in Essex after it uncovered major lapses in hygiene and unusually high death rates.

Just 24 hours later, the chairman of Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust was sacked after inspectors found it had consistently failed to improve waiting times and had death rates 12% higher than expected.

Bloggers have been telling the ‘powers that be’ this for years, but as usual no one listened

If you want more info see Fridays post, but don’t bother to use the Dr Foster site because it keeps crashing.

And the Odd news:

A mother is being taken to court by her ex-partner for refusing to allow their daughter to have the swine flu vaccine.

The 44-year-old, a former international consultant, opted to take her daughter, 9, out of the immunisation programme run at her private school because she had reservations about the safety of the vaccine.

After spending hours researching it and speaking with friends in the medical profession, she decided that not enough was known about the long-term effects of the vaccine, and that her child, who has no medical problems, should not have it.

The mother said: "My former partner is adamant that he wants her to have the swine flu vaccine.

"I received an email from him saying he really wanted her to have the vaccine and I wrote back explaining my reasons and telling him it wasn't a decision I had taken lightly.

"The next thing I know, I received a letter telling me to attend court on Monday. His letter notified me of his application for a specific issue order, which I am told means our daughter could be made a ward of court and the judge could decide that she must have the injection.

"He knows I can't afford lawyers to fight him."

NHS figures show that under 16s are the age group most likely to be admitted to hospital with swine flu, while 21 per cent of deaths in England are among under-14s.

The Government says that trials of the swine flu vaccine have proved it to be as safe as the normal seasonal flu vaccine.

However, a poll of doctors for Pulse Magazine found that 49 per cent would refuse to have it, while a similar survey for GP magazine found 29 per cent would opt out, with 71 per cent stating safety fears as their reason why.

The Vaccine is being “tested” to identify any rare side effects of the swine flu vaccination by scientists in Dundee.

Although already tested as part of the licensing process, the new study will focus on any effects not picked up by routine clinical trials of the vaccine.

Discuss...

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

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Darzi Clinics down the Kharzi

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:27:00 +0000

It seems that the “new exciting all things to all patients” private/NHS Darzi clinics are about to be sold off or closed down.

Why you may ask? and the reason is that Assura have lost £4.5 Million ‘running’ them.

“Despite having won or reached preferred bidder stage for 68 tenders, including a string of GP led health centres across the country, Assura revealed losses before interest and taxes in its medical division of £4.5m.

City experts say Assura shareholders would rather the GP operations were sold off or shut as they are not expected to earn enough money to make a profit for a considerable period.

Announcing its half yearly results, Assura warned that the current high volume of procurement for contracts, such as the Darzi rollout, was likely to slow after the general election and warned that the medical business would ‘be loss making for some time and will consume further cash.’

It added: ‘The board is in the process of evaluating a number of options to separate the GPCo business from the rest of the group.'

City analyst Investec said the move ‘could include sale, spin-off or closure’ of the GP ventures.

It added that it would cost Assura around £10m to spin off or close the ventures but that the benefits of either move would outweigh the long-term damage to the company’s share value of holding on to the loss making division.”

Despite opening a string of centres in Bath, Coventry, Stockton, Hartlepool, Reading, Hull, Hertford and Cheshunt, since April, just three of Assura’s GP companies reported a profit in the first six months of the year.

Well done Ara Darzi, you managed to waste millions on this half baked idea, and now that you are gone so are your clinics.

So much for "better treatment for patients".

I think I may start a petition to re-nationalise the NHS.

Angus

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Is it time to bury Foundation Trusts?

noreply@blogger.com (Angus) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:22:00 +0000

The latest “scandal” to hit the headlines is of course Basildon University Hospital,

“The way hospitals are regulated should be urgently reformed after a report found a catalogue of failings at two hospitals in Essex, a charity has said.”

The Patients Association said people had been "appallingly" let down.

The independent regulator highlighted an unusually high death rate and poor hygiene, including blood-spattered kit.

Basildon and Thurrock NHS trust said concerns were not indicative of wider problems, but a taskforce has been sent in to force through improvements.

The Patients Association said the failings were not isolated cases and patients had suffered a lack of monitoring, lack of help with feeding and a lack of dignity.

'Not complacent'

Director Katherine Murphy said: "How many times do the public need to keep hearing about this before the government is embarrassed enough to do something about it?

The Daily Fail reports it in a ‘slightly’ different way: “Dozens of patients died needlessly as a result of filthy conditions in an NHS hospital a shocking report said last night”

“Appalling nursing care in Basildon University Hospital contributed to a mortality rate that was more than a third higher than the national average. At least 70 people may have died who should have been saved.

It is the latest example of patients paying the ultimate price for labour’s failure to stamp out third world conditions in the NHS-despite trebling taxpayer funding over the last decade.”

Monitor the Foundation Trust regulator: We were established in January 2004 to authorise and regulate NHS foundation trusts. We are independent of central government and directly accountable to Parliament.

There are three main strands to our work:

Determining whether NHS trusts are ready to become NHS foundation trusts;

Ensuring that NHS foundation trusts comply with the conditions they signed up to – that they are well-led and financially robust;

And

Supporting NHS foundation trust development.

Assessing NHS trusts for NHS foundation trust status

We receive and consider applications from NHS trusts seeking foundation status and look at three areas:

Is the trust well governed with the leadership in place to drive future strategy and improve patient care?

Is the trust financially viable with a sound business plan?

Is the trust legally constituted, with a membership that is representative of its local community?

If we are satisfied that certain criteria are met, we authorise the trust to operate as an NHS foundation trust.

Regulating NHS foundation trusts

Once authorised, we regulate foundation trusts to ensure they comply with their terms of authorisation. These are a set of detailed requirements covering how foundation trusts must operate – in summary they include:

The general requirement to operate effectively, efficiently and economically;

Requirements to meet healthcare targets and national standards; and

The requirement to cooperate with other NHS organisations.

The board is the first line of regulation in NHS foundation trusts - we ask them to submit an annual plan and regular reports to us. We then monitor how well they are doing against these plans and identify where problems might arise.

Where problems start to develop we make sure the trust has an action plan in place and monitor progress against the plan. Where possible we work closely with a trust to resolve a problem quickly.

We have powers to intervene in a foundation trust in the event of failings in its healthcare standards, or other aspects of its leadership, which result in a significant breach of its terms of authorisation.

Take which view you like, this is not about funding, or the Government, although the “target driven policy” has not helped, the real problem is ‘Foundation Status’ which allows hospitals to become almost independent of the NHS.

NHS Foundation Trusts are a new type of NHS organisation, established as independent, not for profit public benefit corporations with accountability to their local communities rather than Central Government control.

The Secretary of State for Health has no powers of direction over them.

NHS Foundation Trusts remain firmly part of the NHS and exist to provide and develop healthcare services for NHS patients in a way that is consistent with NHS standards and principles - free care, based on need not ability to pay.

NHS Foundation Trusts have greater freedoms and flexibilities than NHS Trusts in the way they manage their affairs, this extends to:

Freedom from Whitehall control and performance management by Strategic Health Authorities

Freedom to access capital on the basis of affordability instead of the current system of centrally controlled allocations

Freedom to invest surpluses in developing new services for local people

Freedom of local flexibility to tailor new governance arrangements to the individual circumstances of their community

In line with the programme of reforms set out in The NHS Plan, NHS Foundation Trusts give more power and a greater voice to their local communities and front line staff over the delivery and development of local healthcare. NHS Foundation Trusts have members drawn from patients, the public and staff and are governed by a Board of Governors comprising people elected from and by the membership base.

This is the “star rating” for my local foundation trust in 2005, the year in which “M” spent 27 days in ICU because of the failure to diagnose sepsis by a “senior surgical consultant” from a cut bowel and a leaking anastomosis, and the later failure by the same senior surgical consultant to diagnose recurrent bowel cancer for seven months, by which time it had become inoperable.

The CEO, Medical Director and the Chairman have consistently refused to tell me why “M”s cancer was inoperable and what effect the sepsis had on her cancer.

This is part of that three star rating:

Clinical focus-High

Patient focus-High

Staff focus-High

And yes I know you can say that one case does not make a failure, but the real failure is responsibility: responsibility of the people who work in foundation trusts devoid of any need to account to anyone.

The Healthcare Commission was about as much use as a paper scalpel and was totally biased toward the trusts, Monitor was only concerned with approving the maximum number of foundation trusts that it could in order to show patients how wonderful the NHS is and believed everything that the hospital management told them, and once approved the trusts were more or less left to get on with it.

The CQC is about the same as the Healthcare Commission in that it talks tough and does nothing until stories such as Mid Staffs and Basildon are splashed all over the media.

But the failures of those hospitals are due to poor care, by Consultants, Doctors, Nurses and the lack of leadership by management.

And I know that nurses will cry “not us” there are not enough Nurses on the wards and we work 14 hours a day and don’t even have time for a pee let alone looking after patients, and most do.

But in the two hospitals mentioned they didn’t; the Nurses failed, the Doctors failed and the Consultants failed, but hospital Doctors and particularly Consultants do not ‘rock the boat’, I am not going to get into “whistle blowing” because it is a moot point, but the deaths at Basildon happened because of the attitude of the staff, the lack of initiative, the lack of pride and worse of all the arrogance of the management.

The real problem as I see it is “Foundation Trust” hospitals; they should not be cut adrift from regulation, and along with the CQC and Monitor they do not work, they are not fit for purpose, all hospitals should be the same, regulated by one department with ad hoc powers to inspect without prior notice and with the power to close wards or even hospitals if need be, and to be able to sack senior managers all the way up to the CEO and Chairman if it is warranted.

Patient safety must be the number one priority in the NHS, it really is about time that hospitals were brought into line and provide the service that they are paid for and we deserve, and responsibility must be placed on those who fail to perform.

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

AnglishLit

Angus Dei politico