MEDIA
TELEVISION
BBC Panorama "Trust Us: We're an NHS Hospital" BBC1 March 8th 8:30pm
Two hospitals hit the headlines when it emerged that hundreds of patients may have died unnecessarily, despite one hospital being rated as good and the other fair. Panorama investigates how many more hospitals may be failing the public while being allowed to assess themselves as good. Simon Boazman reports.
This documentary is not about the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. This documentary is initially about Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, although there are discussions about the horrors of Mid-Staffordhire NHS Foundation Trust and the similar attrocities that happened at Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Colchester Hospital University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust isn't mentioned, despite sacking it's chairman after the Foundation Trust had 12% more deaths than were expected. The programme is specifically about declining care in our Foundation Trust hospitals (all the ones discussed being Foundation Trusts), and about how these Foundation Trust hospitals self-assess themselves as being much better than they actually are. So no mention is made of the Royal Surrey County Hospital Foundation Trust who less than a month ago were exposed for being international drug dealers having sold drugs (destined for NHS patients) for huge profits in Europe, despite being told by the government and the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency's principle pharmacist that the practice was unacceptable, and will lead to shortages for NHS patients. Is this what they mean by the much-hyped "Financial Freedoms"? The Royal Surrey County Hospital Foundation Trust have denied that they have sold any drugs that are in danger of being in short supply to the NHS, although we will have to take their word for that as they have refused to provide a list of which drugs were involved because they said the list was 'commercially sensitive'. So much for the new 'open' Foundation Trusts.
Since Panorama was aired, St George's Hospital has also been in the news after a 21 year old patient, Kane Gorny, suffering from a brain tumour, had to resort to phoning the police to get a glass of water when he couldn't get nursing staff on his ward to provide him with one. Mr Gorny died shortly later, in an NHS Hospital, the death certificate reading 'water deficit' and 'hypernatraemia' - a medical term for dehydration. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'Detectives from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command are investigating the death of Kane Gorny at St George's Hospital. St George's Hospital is currently going through the process of becoming a Foundation Trust.
The Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust is not, a Foundation Trust, yet. We have however been in the news recently, having less than a month ago been 'named and shamed' as one of the 20 worst Trusts in the country for failing to comply with patient safety alerts. The list was of NHS Trusts who had failed to comply with more than 10 alerts, the NUH having failed to comply with 19 alerts. However, even that figure pales into insignificance when compared to The University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, having ignored 37 alerts, and they are actually not a Foundation Trust. Although to be fair, they can probably be forgiven for taking their eye off the ball as they would seem to have far more important things to think about than patient safety, as they are presently going through, what they obviously perceive as, the much more important process of becoming a Foundation Trust. In fact out of the twenty Trusts, twelve of them are Hospital Trusts (eight being PCTs) and out of those twelve, five are Foundation Trusts, and five are going through the process of becoming a Foundation Trust.
This is all very confusing, because over a year ago the Nottingham University Hospitals (soon to be Foundation) Trust was enthusiastically proclaiming itself to be the best acute teaching trust in the country by 2016, and an employer of choice to boot. Apparently "patients and staff deserve nothing better". Yet here we are a year later, and a year nearer to 2016, and patients are already being put at risk, they will be put at even further risk by inevitable staff cuts and the inevitable consequential cuts in patients services, and the excessive pressures put on all staff. Yet all this is being done in the name of increasing the quality of patient care, by becoming a Foundation Trust. Yet the only increases that are evident in Foundation Trusts are in patient death rates and directors pay. Maybe we're missing some basic logic here, but it would seem obvious that all the evidence might suggest that the best way to improve patient care is specifically to not become a Foundation Trust? And is this transformation to be the best hospital and best employer going to commence gradually at some point, or is it going to be a new years resolution on New Years Eve 2015? Or will everything become much clearer when we become a Foundation Trust?
So one more time, and this time we'll really concentrate, why exactly do we want to become a Foundation Trust?
BBC Panorama "Trust Us: We're an NHS Hospital" BBC1 March 8th 8:30pm
Two hospitals hit the headlines when it emerged that hundreds of patients may have died unnecessarily, despite one hospital being rated as good and the other fair. Panorama investigates how many more hospitals may be failing the public while being allowed to assess themselves as good. Simon Boazman reports.
This documentary is not about the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. This documentary is initially about Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, although there are discussions about the horrors of Mid-Staffordhire NHS Foundation Trust and the similar attrocities that happened at Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Colchester Hospital University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust isn't mentioned, despite sacking it's chairman after the Foundation Trust had 12% more deaths than were expected. The programme is specifically about declining care in our Foundation Trust hospitals (all the ones discussed being Foundation Trusts), and about how these Foundation Trust hospitals self-assess themselves as being much better than they actually are. So no mention is made of the Royal Surrey County Hospital Foundation Trust who less than a month ago were exposed for being international drug dealers having sold drugs (destined for NHS patients) for huge profits in Europe, despite being told by the government and the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency's principle pharmacist that the practice was unacceptable, and will lead to shortages for NHS patients. Is this what they mean by the much-hyped "Financial Freedoms"? The Royal Surrey County Hospital Foundation Trust have denied that they have sold any drugs that are in danger of being in short supply to the NHS, although we will have to take their word for that as they have refused to provide a list of which drugs were involved because they said the list was 'commercially sensitive'. So much for the new 'open' Foundation Trusts.
Since Panorama was aired, St George's Hospital has also been in the news after a 21 year old patient, Kane Gorny, suffering from a brain tumour, had to resort to phoning the police to get a glass of water when he couldn't get nursing staff on his ward to provide him with one. Mr Gorny died shortly later, in an NHS Hospital, the death certificate reading 'water deficit' and 'hypernatraemia' - a medical term for dehydration. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'Detectives from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command are investigating the death of Kane Gorny at St George's Hospital. St George's Hospital is currently going through the process of becoming a Foundation Trust.
The Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust is not, a Foundation Trust, yet. We have however been in the news recently, having less than a month ago been 'named and shamed' as one of the 20 worst Trusts in the country for failing to comply with patient safety alerts. The list was of NHS Trusts who had failed to comply with more than 10 alerts, the NUH having failed to comply with 19 alerts. However, even that figure pales into insignificance when compared to The University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, having ignored 37 alerts, and they are actually not a Foundation Trust. Although to be fair, they can probably be forgiven for taking their eye off the ball as they would seem to have far more important things to think about than patient safety, as they are presently going through, what they obviously perceive as, the much more important process of becoming a Foundation Trust. In fact out of the twenty Trusts, twelve of them are Hospital Trusts (eight being PCTs) and out of those twelve, five are Foundation Trusts, and five are going through the process of becoming a Foundation Trust.
This is all very confusing, because over a year ago the Nottingham University Hospitals (soon to be Foundation) Trust was enthusiastically proclaiming itself to be the best acute teaching trust in the country by 2016, and an employer of choice to boot. Apparently "patients and staff deserve nothing better". Yet here we are a year later, and a year nearer to 2016, and patients are already being put at risk, they will be put at even further risk by inevitable staff cuts and the inevitable consequential cuts in patients services, and the excessive pressures put on all staff. Yet all this is being done in the name of increasing the quality of patient care, by becoming a Foundation Trust. Yet the only increases that are evident in Foundation Trusts are in patient death rates and directors pay. Maybe we're missing some basic logic here, but it would seem obvious that all the evidence might suggest that the best way to improve patient care is specifically to not become a Foundation Trust? And is this transformation to be the best hospital and best employer going to commence gradually at some point, or is it going to be a new years resolution on New Years Eve 2015? Or will everything become much clearer when we become a Foundation Trust?
So one more time, and this time we'll really concentrate, why exactly do we want to become a Foundation Trust?
