As a sample I'm posting this from today, so you can see what you're missing.
VHOLD
THE
FRONT PAGE !
There’s no messing about on this site – back in May I
applauded the BBC in researching and publishing the list of ‘Never Events’,
that’s where hospitals mess up in ways which the NHS has indicated should never
happen – they are unnecessary and preventable. I put the figures into an easy
to read form and republished them. I also highlighted the ‘bottom 21’ as a real
cause for concern and I picked out Barts as a trust that should be
investigated. Here’s what I wrote back then;
“My own ‘Lantern Rouge’ (that’s the Tour de France prize for
finishing last) is because I’ve picked out the two separate entries for
‘Bart’s’;
Barts & The London NHS Trust 8
Retained
foreign object post-operation 4
Wrong
site surgery 2
Misplaced
naso-or oro-gastric tubes 2
Barts Health NHS Trust 11
Retained
foreign object post-operation 4
Wrong
site surgery 3
Misplaced naso-or oro-gastric tubes 2
Wrong
implant/prosthesis 1
Air
Embolism 1
and I did so because Barts Health was formed on 1 April 2012
by the merger of Barts and the London NHS Trust, Newham University Hospital NHS
Trust and Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust.
For starters that means that St Bartholomew’s may have had
its figures split in two and actually had 19 ‘never happen’ incidents over that
four year period which is seriously worrying. Even more worrying is that the
newly combined Trust – the four hospitals together- seems to have had 11
incidents in just under a year (2012/13).
If you want to get really frightened, add up the number of
incidents over the four hospitals for those four years – it’s a total of 27. Or
is there duplication in these figures? Have they tried to separate the new from
the old, producing double counting? I hope so – mind you where the NHS is
concerned the problem is usually undercounting problems.
Either way, it’s not what I would call a centre of
excellence.
So if Barts it isn’t being investigated right now, it’s time
it was.”
That was two months ago. This is from today’s report from the
‘London Standard’;
“An inquiry
was ordered today at Britain’s biggest health trust in response to the deaths
of 28 patients due to medical blunders last year.
Barts health trust — which runs six London
hospitals — was declared at “high risk” of failing patients, with major
concerns about delays in cancer care and hundreds of emergency cases readmitted
for further treatment.
The inquiry
was ordered by England’s new Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike
Richards, in his first day in the job. It comes after Barts last night said it
was calling in financial trouble-shooters to address a £93 million debt.
Sir Mike
was alerted by whistle-blowers, patient complaints and key measures indicating
the performance at Barts was markedly worse than the national average. This
included 10 “never events” — things that should never happen in surgery —
involving seven cases where swabs were left inside patients, two cases where
the wrong teeth were removed and one where the wrong eye implant was inserted.
Barts also
admitted 348 serious incidents in 2012/13, including 129 at The Royal London
Hospital in Whitechapel, and 105 at Whipps Cross in Leytonstone. Of these, 28
resulted in death.
The
investigation — one of four announced into London trusts — is a setback to
Barts’s hopes of becoming a self-governing foundation trust by 2016. Fifteen
months ago Barts took control of Newham and Whipps Cross hospital trusts to
become the biggest NHS trust in Britain, and the busiest A&E service in
London with more than 6,000 attendances a week. Sir Mike said: “There is too
much variation in the quality of care patients receive — poor hospitals will
need to up their game and learn from the best. I will not tolerate poor or
mediocre care.” Barts is preparing to axe up to 1,000 vacant posts and move
overlapping services to single sites in a bid to save cash.
It has been
hamstrung by private finance initiative costs of about £115 million a year for
the new Royal London site; a fall in patient numbers; and an £8.5 million
redundancy and redeployment bill for 112 staff axed following last year’s
merger. It has also had fines for leaving orthopaedic patients to wait more
than a year for treatment.
The other
London trusts being investigated are Barking, Havering and Redbridge; Croydon;
and South London Healthcare.”
Remember, you read it here first.
Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you drop production)
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