1. LO3 – Understand the roles
and responsibilities in the
health sector
D1 – analyse the effectiveness of redress
procedures in the health sector
2. What does redress mean?
To compensate or set a situation right. After
an argument, the person at
fault might offer an apology in order to redress
(put) the situation (right)
For D1 you can use Stafford Hospital scandal as an
example
3. The Stafford Hospital scandal concerns poor care
and high mortality rates amongst patients at
the Stafford Hospital, Stafford, in the late 2000s.
The hospital was run by the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, and
supervised by the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority
Julie Bailey, whose mother died in the hospital in 2007, started a campaign,
called Cure the NHS, to demand changes in the hospital.
The scandal came to national attention because of an investigation by
the Healthcare Commission into the operation of Stafford Hospital in Stafford,
England. The commission was first alerted by the "apparently high mortality
rates in patients admitted as emergencies".
When the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which is responsible for
running the hospital, failed to provide what the commission considered an
adequate explanation, a full-scale investigation was carried out between
March and October 2008.
4. Cont……
Released in March 2009, the commission's report severely
criticised the Foundation Trust’s management and
detailed the appalling conditions and inadequacies at the
hospital.
Many press reports suggested that because of the
substandard care between 400 and 1200 more patients
died between 2005 and 2008 than would be expected for
the type of hospital, though in fact such ‘excess’ death
statistics did not appear in the final Healthcare
Commission report
5. What happened?
In June 2010, the new government announced that a full public
inquiry would be held. The inquiry considered more than a
million pages of previous evidence as well as hearing from
witnesses. UK expert medical lawyers also offered their
assistance to distraught and angry families who waited for proof
that lessons had been learned. Many families of the victims felt
that crucial questions have been left unanswered.
The final report was published on 6 February 2013, making 290
recommendations
Academics at the University of Oxford and King's College
London have criticised its recommendations to legally enforce a
new duty of openness, transparency and candour amongst NHS
staff, arguing that increasing 'micro-regulation' may produce
serious unintended consequences
6. The revelations of the abuse at Stafford hospital were
widely considered to be deeply shocking by all sections of
the mainstream UK press; for example, patients were left
in their own urine by nurses, and forced to resort to
drinking from flower vases.
7. Taken from BBC News on Dec 13th as a result of the public
enquiry …. The trust that ran the scandal-hit Stafford Hospital
should be dissolved, administrators have recommended.
The Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust went into administration
on 16 April after a report concluded it was not "clinically
or financially sustainable“
Critical care, maternity and paediatric services should
also be cut, the proposals unveiled by Trust Special
Administrators (TSA) say.
The trust's two hospitals would come under two other
trusts.
Stafford Hospital will be part of the University Hospital of
North Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent while Cannock
Hospital will become part of the Royal Wolverhampton
Trust
8. The proposals include:
Stafford Hospital losing its maternity unit but keeping its accident and
emergency department, which will continue to open from 08:00 to
22:00, as it has since December 2011
Downgrading Stafford's critical care unit and losing some emergency
surgery
No longer admitting seriously ill children to Stafford. They will instead
go to Stoke-on-Trent
Both Cannock and Stafford hospitals will gain some minor operations
and more patients will be sent to those hospitals to recover from
complicated surgery
Introducing a "Frail Elderly Assessment service", which would mean
different sources providing information on older people's needs when
they are referred to hospital
9. What happens now? …..
The proposals will now go to a public consultation, which
will end on 1 October 2014
They will then go to health regulator Monitor before being
forwarded to the Health Secretary to make the final
decision by the end of the year.
If approved, the proposals will be implemented by 2018.
10. Rowan Draper, from the Support Stafford Hospital campaign, said
there had been some "obvious proposals" such as dissolving the trust,
but it was "very disappointing" the maternity and paediatric units
would be going.
He said: "After the Francis Inquiry and other reports I have read, at no
stage were they to do with the issues.
"But now expectant mothers and babies are paying the price for bad
management."
Stafford Hospital was the focus of a major public inquiry after it was
found poor care may have led to a higher-than-expected number of
deaths as a result of maltreatment and neglect.
The Francis Inquiry highlighted "appalling and unnecessary suffering of
hundreds of people" under the trust's care, with some patients left
lying in their own faeces for days, forced to drink water from vases
and given the wrong medication.
11. Safest outcomes …
Julie Bailey, who set up campaign group Cure The NHS
after her mother Bella died at Stafford Hospital, said
working closer with the University Hospitals of North
Staffordshire would be a "good thing for Stafford Hospital
and everyone who relies on it".
She added: "Evidence shows that specialist centres, such
as the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, have the
safest outcomes for patients."
The administrators said they did not believe other local
hospitals would be able to cope with the extra pressure if
Stafford's accident and emergency department was
completely shut.
12. Safest outcomes continued …
All existing services provided at Cannock Chase Hospital
will continue with the aim of extending them where
possible, the TSA said.
Administrator Alan Bloom said: "We are doing this because
services will become unsafe if no changes are made.
"I think people's worst fears might have been three to six
months ago that we wouldn't even have a hospital here
today, let alone the level of acute services and A&E
services we are going to have.
"It may be a little bit further to travel, it may be a little
inconvenient but we are genuinely recommending this on
clinical as well as financial grounds.
13. Analysis by Dominic Hughes Health correspondent,
BBC News ……. This will be the first foundation trust
to be dissolved
It's the financial pressures on the trust that have led to
where we are today. But the financial pressures that have
led to the probable dissolution of the Mid-Staffs
Foundation Trust are not unique to this hospital.
The hospital serves a relatively small population, meaning
not enough patients are walking through the door.
It also struggles to recruit doctors and nurses to come and
work at a hospital with such a dreadful reputation.
14. Analysis by Dominic Hughes cont ….
That too has led to further costs as the hospital employed
expensive temporary staff to make up the numbers.
But the squeeze on finances across the NHS in England
means many smaller district general hospitals are looking
down the barrel of similar money problems to Stafford.
So the kind of measures seen here may be a blueprint for
what happens elsewhere.
BBC News - Stafford Hospital timeline
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-
20965469
31 Jul 2013 - A timeline on the scandal hit Stafford
Hospital, including the publicinquiry and the latest
recommendations from the administrators
15. D1 – analyse the effectiveness of redress
procedures in the health sector
So, what you have to do its to look at the scandal and see
what new ideas they have put forward to ‘fix’ the scandal
problems and analyse how effective you think they will be
–
need to look at will the fix the problems that the scandal
brought up? Will it create new problems? Will it make
things better or worse for the local people? Put yourself in
a position of a pregnant lady – better or worse?
16. M2 and D1 (plus LO1 and LO2) need to be
completed by 26th Feb (the wed we get
back after half term) as on the 26th will be
moving onto P4 and D2 (then LO4)
