Posted by
Defend America on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 10:22:01 PM
Stafford Hospital caused ‘unimaginable suffering’
David Rose, Health Correspondent
Patients were routinely neglected or left “sobbing and humiliated” by staff
at an NHS trust where at least 400 deaths have been linked to appalling care.
An independent
inquiry found that managers at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust
stopped providing safe care because they were preoccupied with government
targets and cutting costs.
The inquiry report, published yesterday by Robert Francis, QC, included
proposals for tough new regulations that could lead to managers at failing
NHS trusts being struck off.
Staff shortages at Stafford Hospital meant that patients went unwashed for
weeks, were left without food or drink and were even unable to get to the
lavatory. Some lay in soiled sheets that relatives had to take home to wash,
others developed infections or had falls, occasionally fatal. Many staff did
their best but the attitude of some nurses “left a lot to be desired”.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article7039285.ece
Patients 'routinely neglected' at NHS hospital where hundreds died in squalor
By
Fay Schlesinger, Andy Dolan and Tim Shipman
Last updated at 2:16 AM on 25th February 2010
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Up to 1,200 patients died unnecessarily because of appalling care
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Labour's obsession with targets and box ticking blamed for scandal
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Patients were 'routinely neglected' at hospital
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Report calls for FOURTH investigation into scandal
Not a single official has been disciplined over the worst-ever NHS hospital scandal, it emerged last night.
Up to 1,200 people lost
their lives needlessly because Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust put
government targets and cost-cutting ahead of patient care.
But none of the doctors, nurses and managers who failed them has suffered any formal sanction.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1253438/Mid-Staffordshire-NHS-hospital-routinely-neglected-patients.html
Leading article: The real lessons of this NHS disaster
The Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, yesterday described the appalling treatment of patients at Stafford
hospital as "ultimately a local failure". This misses the point. For
one thing, Stafford is not the only NHS hospital that has put patients'
lives at risk in recent years. Basildon and Colchester hospitals were
also discovered to have jeopardised safety in 2009.
What
is more, Mr Burnham's efforts to quarantine this disaster suggest an
unwillingness to face up to the scale of the problem that has been
revealed. The failure in Stafford is not just the tale of one badly run
hospital, but the failure of a regulatory system that did little to
sound the alarm until very late in the day. From 2005 to 2008 Stafford
hospital was judged by regulators and the Government to be performing
well. It passed many inspections and the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust
even achieved foundation status, supposedly the benchmark of excellence.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-the-real-lessons-of-this-nhs-disaster-1909596.html