 |
| Edinburgh castle |
It all returns to my desk tomorrow, all the reports I need to write, the tests to check out, the letters to read, and the patients will be waiting. That is what I am paid and paid quite well for. I have complete job security, which - as I listen to my patients' stories - is an enviable position to be in.
Yes, I am lucky.
One of the thinks I shall be hearing about will be many stories. People often come to see me to listen and note their experiences in health care - many people have been treated well, and had important or vital treatment to prolong their lives. Some will, of course, tell me different stories - about lack of effective communication, about delays and confusion, about things that have not gone well. These experiences I note, although I have yet to see any pattern that causes me particular concern.
But I am not a GP in Stafford. This is where they pursued all the changes required by Government to achieve "foundation status" whilst forgetting the basic reason that hospitals exist: to treat the sick.
Whenever something major goes wrong, then the general rule of the establishment is to shift blame to as low a level as possible - dump it all on the poor bloody infantry, to use a military metaphor. In the case of Stafford, however, the Labour Government refused to hold a public enquiry at all, we hope that an enquiry which is finally taking place will - if appropriate - apportion blame all the way from the poorest paid workers up to the Secretary of State for Health and also Parliament itself.
In some senses, the very poorest paid - the health care assistants, the cleaners - were pretty blameless. They tried to do their best, and were given impossible tasks to do.
There will be blame, and I think this needs to be apportioned fairly.
The senior nursing team may well have colluded with staff cuts and employing people who were not trained to do the job, and not enough of them.
The consultants must have known what was going on, and seemed not take the appropriate action. Were there no whistleblowers here?
The board of the hospital trust seemed focussed only on gaining their 'foundation trust' status. This is the area that deserves most scrutiny.
The PCT seems not to have monitored what was going on at the hospital closely enough. They might have been active behind the scenes, but it seems to have been pretty ineffective.
The GPs might have done more than they did. Individual GPs feel fairly powerless, and can only steer people to different areas, and different trusts - difficult in an area like Stafford.
The Strategic Health Authority were merely concentrating on delivering the Government's agenda.
Monitor (the regulating body for hospital trusts) approved mid-Staffordshire during this whole dreadful period of time.
The politicians set the whole process up to be one of financial rather than clinical excellence.
Who will carry the can at the end of this shameful business? Some individuals will be blamed for their role in this shambles, but they will have largely moved on or retired. The politicians, and the CEOs of Monitor and the SHA have changed. The trust board will be virtually completely different, and the PCT is set to disappear.
The Staffordshire debacle is an inevitable end result of the processes that have been put in place over the last 15 years. The politicians, ministers, civil servants and special advisers are also very much to blame. Not one of them will get a mention in the final report, I can confidently assert.
Meanwhile we hear stories of compensation being awarded to the victims of this whole episode, with a sum of £1.1 million pounds being allocated for this process. That will be paid, ultimately, by the taxpayer. They deserve more, much more. They won't get it.
People may want to say that Mid-staffordshire is unique.
I would be very surprised at that.
6 comments:
Watch Scarborough. Mental Nurse did some posts on that place. They have been in the news lately but there seems to be a cover up happening.
Communication should be a 2 way process. The last 20 years of health re-dis-organisations have seen a retreat from "Listen and Learn" to the other extreme of "Tell and Sell".
Most of the time - whenever there is an opportunity for organisational learning - - all too often a "Spokesperson" will say the magic words which guarantee getting out of jail free. These people say they "are sorry" , have "investigated the causes", "reviewed procedures" and "made changes".
BUT I have never seen evidence in local or national media coverage where the "changes" are ever detailed. These statements are never explored - the smooth words are never challenged!
For as long as journalists - and their customers - remain content to believe what these "public servants" tell them and fear raising concerns themselves (because of possible reprisals), the problems exemplified at Mid Staffs will continue to haunt all who care about the quality of hospital care.
So when - after the long overdue public enquiry - blame will be apportioned, perhaps the media (who will report on it) and their readers, listeners and viewers might want to reflect on the part played by their own blind acceptance of official excuses.
In this instance (if not in facing up to the costs of too easy credit over the same period) we probably are "all in it together"
"Were there no whistleblowers here?"
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Rita Pal a whistleblower at a Staffordshire hospital? I remember Dr Crippen mentioning this ages ago in his blog. She ended up being sacked and became the victim of a witch hunt by the GMC.
Neelu
Your summary of the various watchdogs and levels of management reveal the problem. No one group will have (or take) responsibility with such diverse and overlapping structures.
Simplification and clearly defined areas of responsibility would have prvented Stafford (et al) forgetting their basic remit.
fioricet englandzenegra fioricet
Action income secretary reconstruction was launched on rules caged from tightening same models, about than the $500 of those scholars and 1890s separated over home.
I listen to my patients' stories too , at times, it's not enviable at all. Once my patient told her mother, 'Don't treat me like a child, I'm a grown woman.' Her mother commented: 'A woman?! A woman has children and you're just a whore.'
So I ask my patient 'Do you have the need to prove all around you're not a whore?'.
'Oh well, should I confirm or deny?' she says, and then 'No, it's not up to me to make people's opinions for them, it's their responsibility, imagine my life being wasted on such an activity as convincing them'.
You can blame no compass for pointing north, can you.
Post a Comment