Vocal Voices

On NHS scandals.
We have had care home scandals, the Mid-Staffs hospital trust scandal and now the Barrow in Furness scandal. With this latest scandal in Barrow especially, the Labour party are remaining uncharacteristically silent.
Why? Because the ironically named Quango the "Care Quality Commission" was set up in 2009 by - the Labour Government.
2Sir" David Nicholson head of the NHS was a Labour appointee, as was Cynthia Bower, head of the CQC, a woman so incompetent she presided over scandal after scandal after scandal - and was then allowed to walk off with £200,000 in her back pocket and a massive pension.
And not a word from Labour, not one word. Usually they are always saying that the government "should be doing more" but by gum they are keeping a lower profile than a snake's belly at the moment. Because this NHS culture of bullying, gagging orders and massive pay offs for incompetent managers, this culture that says that no-one is ever to blame for anything, is directly down to them.
Keeping quiet? Damn right they are.

Ah yes. Remember the children's heart surgery fiasco?

LGI unit to shut based on partial statistics. A judicial review finds the whole nationwide process flawed. It is eventually found to be so broken that the whole thing has to be scrapped and a costly rethink and review by the NHS to be carried out. The man running the show allowed to resign and walk away before judgement was made.

So where were Mr Edward Balls and Mr Hilary Benn, two of Labour's most high profile parachutists and MPs for Leeds constituencies, when all this was going on?

Dunno, but the silence was deafening.

As I have stated in my post beneath yours Frank.. It is an outrage.. An individual can be sent to prison for not paying a parking fine, be responsible for shocking neglect and deaths in hospitals care homes and in the public domain.. These cheats are rewarded with mammoth salaries, huge indexed pensions, golden handshakes that affords them a life of luxury beyond our wildest dreams. The rot has set in throughout the UK and I do not think it will ever recover.

Tonight on the six o'clock news.
ITN lead story - The scandal at the Care Quality Commission
Sky lead story - The scandal at the Care Quality Commission

BBC? The scandal was the seventh or eighth story - it came on at twenty past six. They aren't biased though.

It turns out that Cynthia Bower and Jill Finney are two officials named over the cover-up of deaths of babies at a Cumbria hospital. They are said to have authorised the deletion of a critical report from a review.

If their actions are ever proved to be illegal they should be arrested, charged, and if guilty, face any consequences including handing back any redundancy or golden handshake and having their pensions reviewed with a view to lowering them. They should also be banned from ever being employed by any government or quasi-government agency ever again.

Nine years ago serious questions were raised about the unacceptable number of still born babies being born in the Wolverhampton Hospital where my grandson and granddaughter were born.. I was shocked at the filthy lavatories, the office being used as a dumping ground in the delivery room for bloody sheets etc, the blood on walls and window ledges. When I raised the subject with my daughters super midwives they stated they were fed up to the teeth with the place and conditions, one of the midwives a German lass said she was returning to Germany
she has had enough... Two African female doctors wandered in for all of three minutes and wandered out again. ten recruited nurses by an agency from Africa were found to have Aids. They remained working in the hospital where they presented it was said no threat to the patients. Costs per patient over £40,000 a year if they were fully blown. Why aren't these nurses and doctors medically checked out before they are accepted.
Those running and bringing in foreign nurses and doctors have a lot to answer for..

My God !!!!

What's happening to this country that I used to be so proud of?

It couldn't be much worse if we had lost WW2, could it?

So much for so-called democracy.

Kate wrote:Those running and bringing in foreign nurses and doctors have a lot to answer for..

Another Labour idea Kate - cheap labour. The UK was still training up nurses and doctors, but they were off as soon as qualified, to places such as Australia and Canada. Why? Because there were no jobs for them!

A friends daughter trained as a physiotherapist at a local teaching hospital trust and couldn't find any work. They trained her, and used her, but didn't want to know her once she qualified. She is now in NZ.

Frank I do not know whether these foreign medics are paid less, but our hospitals are full of them. Some brilliant some good, and many bad who do not even have the skills let alone command of the English language. I had an appointment to see my oncologist in May, he was busy and another doctor was also on duty, I found him difficult to communicate with, he certainly did not come over as one who knew what he was doing. However I was delighted when a nurse called my usual fellow who is also foreign and brilliant who decided that he wanted to see me again in July. The sad thing is that many of our young doctors cannot get jobs in our hospitals and are found to be working in bars, no wonder they go overseas.
I also think these doctors no longer dress appropriately when on duty in their mufty, time we got back to a bit of the English tradition. Clean cut uniforms hair tied back, clean shoes (not those worn outside the hospital) and a MATRON.
I was on a course some 25 years ago in St Georges. The hospital was filthy so this situation is nothing new it has just got worse.

Kate wrote:I also think these doctors no longer dress appropriately when on duty in their mufty, time we got back to a bit of the English tradition. Clean cut uniforms hair tied back, clean shoes (not those worn outside the hospital) and a MATRON.

It sounds a bit old fashioned, but......

Remember MRSA? My next-door-but-one neighbour was a staff nurse on a medical ward. She had two children aged 5 and 8 and would leave home in uniform to drop them to school, and return still wearing it after her shift. Now, I am no expert, but that seems to be a disaster waiting to happen. Who knows what germs she took to work - from her children, the car, the home, and brought back from the hospital?

Nurses and doctors should change into sterile uniforms when they are on the wards. They should not use their uniforms as day wear.