Comments on: Stafford Hospital Inquiry report out today http://www.matthewellis.cc/archives/5161 Member of Staffordshire County Council representing Lichfield Rural East - Cabinet Member for Adults and Wellbeing Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:01:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Josie http://www.matthewellis.cc/archives/5161/comment-page-1#comment-29651 Josie Wed, 06 Oct 2010 10:32:38 +0000 http://www.matthewellis.cc/?p=5161#comment-29651 Stafford Hospital is no better now, in fact it seems worse! My father was recently admitted and during the time he was there his treatment was shocking! He was left without food or water for over a week and the nurses were talking about how he "only had days left" right in front of him! He died there a few weeks ago and we just feel that his death was made much more painful and horrible because of the absolute neglect he was subject to. The staff seem uninterested and uncaring. The most helpful person there was the cleaner, who went off to find a nurse for us! The thought of being a patient there right now is very scary. The whole place should be bulldozed. WHEN ARE THINGS GOING TO CHANGE?? Stafford Hospital is no better now, in fact it seems worse! My father was recently admitted and during the time he was there his treatment was shocking! He was left without food or water for over a week and the nurses were talking about how he “only had days left” right in front of him! He died there a few weeks ago and we just feel that his death was made much more painful and horrible because of the absolute neglect he was subject to. The staff seem uninterested and uncaring. The most helpful person there was the cleaner, who went off to find a nurse for us! The thought of being a patient there right now is very scary. The whole place should be bulldozed. WHEN ARE THINGS GOING TO CHANGE??

]]> By: Rod Hutchinson http://www.matthewellis.cc/archives/5161/comment-page-1#comment-27814 Rod Hutchinson Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:14:16 +0000 http://www.matthewellis.cc/?p=5161#comment-27814 Congratulations Matthew on a well written and considered piece on the crisis at Stafford hospital. You have correctly identified the cultural problems at Stafford and your comment that "everyone was looking but nobody saw what was happening" is apt. However, with some insider knowledge, I know that some staff were aware of what was happening but were powerless to rectify the chronic under-staffing of the hospital. Appeals for more staff were repeatedly ignored. I recall the league tables published annually by 'The Times' which ranked NHS hospitals according to number of beds, doctors and nurses per head of population. Stafford was consistently in the lowest 5th centile for staffing numbers for at least a decade before the crisis unfolded. It does not take much to realise that this was a crisis waiting to happen because of chronic under-staffing and a reluctance by management to appoint the required number of doctors and nurses. To save money, it instead chose to reduce investment in staff and to "sweat the assets". Inevitably, quality of care reduces if too few staff are expected to do too much with too little. Worryingly, staff and resource shortages are not unique to Stafford and similar problems could come to light at any time in almost any NHS hospital if subjected to similar scrutiny as Stafford. More instances of poor care are bound to come to light as the financial crisis affecting us all deepens and the NHS is forced into making more savings. In short, the NHS - previously unaffordable and unsustainable, is now in even greater peril. The country gets the healthcare it is prepared to pay for. Congratulations Matthew on a well written and considered piece on the crisis at Stafford hospital. You have correctly identified the cultural problems at Stafford and your comment that “everyone was looking but nobody saw what was happening” is apt. However, with some insider knowledge, I know that some staff were aware of what was happening but were powerless to rectify the chronic under-staffing of the hospital. Appeals for more staff were repeatedly ignored. I recall the league tables published annually by ‘The Times’ which ranked NHS hospitals according to number of beds, doctors and nurses per head of population. Stafford was consistently in the lowest 5th centile for staffing numbers for at least a decade before the crisis unfolded. It does not take much to realise that this was a crisis waiting to happen because of chronic under-staffing and a reluctance by management to appoint the required number of doctors and nurses. To save money, it instead chose to reduce investment in staff and to “sweat the assets”. Inevitably, quality of care reduces if too few staff are expected to do too much with too little.

Worryingly, staff and resource shortages are not unique to Stafford and similar problems could come to light at any time in almost any NHS hospital if subjected to similar scrutiny as Stafford. More instances of poor care are bound to come to light as the financial crisis affecting us all deepens and the NHS is forced into making more savings. In short, the NHS – previously unaffordable and unsustainable, is now in even greater peril. The country gets the healthcare it is prepared to pay for.

]]> By: jane webb http://www.matthewellis.cc/archives/5161/comment-page-1#comment-21549 jane webb Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:59:30 +0000 http://www.matthewellis.cc/?p=5161#comment-21549 the hospital isnt the only cover up going on in staffordshire the hospital isnt the only cover up going on in staffordshire

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