After many years and unbridled
effort from relatives and carers Robert Francis QC has managed to produce
about a couple of thousand pages of “report” and quite a lot of “recommendations”
regarding the Mid Staffs Massacre and the rest of the ailing NHS.
Apparently patients who were
killed and tortured by lack of water, food, medication and being left to lie in
their own faeces and urine were treated thus not because of piss poor treatment
but “a systemic failure”, and according to Robert Francis QC “it is clear that the primary responsibility
lies with the Trust Board but he is also adamant that scapegoating individuals
would be a mistake. To do so merely allows others to duck responsibility. The
main purpose of the Inquiry was to learn lessons for the future rather than
perpetuate a cycle of 'defensiveness and concealment'.”
And goes on to say that “At the core of the failure was a culture of
defensiveness to complaints and a lack of openness. Management was distracted
by organisational churn and meeting targets rather than seeing what was
happening to the patients in their care.”
Interesting but bollocks, as with “Ms” death at the hands of
an almost Foundation Trust (at the time-2005) the “blame” was put on “system
failures”-NAH:
Yes the “board” and the CEO are ultimately responsible, but
the Medical Director and the Nursing Director are directly responsible for the
Doctors and Nurses under them as the Consultants and Sisters are directly
responsible for those on the front line who are responsible for the treatment
given to patients.
These aren’t “systems” they are people who should and do
know better, they are so called “professionals” who are happy to take the kudos
and money but lack basic humanity and morals.
I don’t accept that no one should be held to account, forget
the NHS “complaints” system which never worked and never will, forget the RCN
and the piss poor GMC, what we need are criminal prosecutions, not for revenge
or “scapegoating” but justice, if I held someone against their will and starved
them, left them in agony and abused them until they died I would be hauled up
before the beak at a rate of knots, so what is the difference between that and
nurses and doctors who took oaths not to do harm treating the old and sick in
the same way.
We need a purge, it is time to hold all those gutless,
cruel, uncaring killers to account, prosecute the murdering bastards, don’t
just strike them off from the “registers” throw them in prison for the statutory
sentence they deserve, and bring charges of corporate manslaughter against the
CEO, the board and all the other managers that allowed the culture of see no,
hear no, speak no evil to propagate.
The Hospital allegedly has “a vision”:
Our Vision is to
be recognised as the safest & most caring Trust in the NHS. This vision sums up everything we want to
achieve and supports the Trust’s 5 strategic Themes which continue to be the
focus of our effort and measurement of improvement.
Creating a culture
of caring
Seeing zero harm as
our target by keeping patients safe
Listening, responding
and acting on what our patients and community are telling us
Supporting our
staff to become excellent: giving responsibility but holding to account as well
Continuing to do
what we need to do to satisfy our regulators
Far too fucking little far too
fucking late....
And let’s not forget that this
isn’t an isolated case, torture and murder are rife in our NHS, your local
Foundation Trust is killing patients as you read this, mothers, fathers, sons,
daughters, brothers and sisters are dying because of lack of “care”, bad decisions
by doctors and nurses, the focus on financial targets instead of care of the
sick, the need to cover up, lie cheat and deceive so that they can continue to
advance their careers, the old boy’s GMC club and the “non disclosure” letters
that help to keep the truth from us.
Is most of the NHS doing a
wonderful job-probably, are
there an undisclosed number of Foundation Trusts that manage to maim, ruin
people’s lives and kill-definitely.
Is there proper redress for
patients and relatives of those harmed by the “caring” professions-NAH, will
there ever be-probably not; will the all pervading culture of “not my problem”
change-I hope so, can we look forward to being treated with dignity, care and
professionalism when we are unfortunate enough to end up in hospital-you tell
me.
Because if it wasn’t for the efforts
of Julie Bailey and others who had the balls to stand up and confront the “system”
we would be none the wiser.
Angus
(normal service will resume when
I can be arsed)
