Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals Parking Charges.

Another depressing day.

This last spring, I was involved in a campaign which tried to stop Ashford and St. Peter's hospitals charging holders of disabled drivers badges for the use of their car parks.

This Trust raises one of the largest amounts of money in the country from charging patients, visitors and staff for using the car parks. It's not something that people have much choice about - it's a tax on ill health and it's not what the NHS is about.

They tried the same thing in 2014 and we successfully stopped them. This time they didn't care about the bad publicity or the disapproval of local councils.

It is, after all, quite an unpopular Trust.

Sadly, we lost and the charges went on.

Today Frimley Park NHS Trust which is now administering Heatherwood and Wexham Park hospitals will be bringing in charges for disabled users. I have now doubt that Ashford and St. Peter's actions have emboldened them and it just shows how important it is to realise that the whole NHS is connected.

A defeat in one area means a defeat for all.

Although I'm now too ill to do a lot myself, I hope local users will oppose this move in Slough and force a rethink. Disabled drivers are some of the most active users of the NHS and often least able to pay.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Bacon sandwich day.

There's no fool like an old fool - I had a difficult day and then because I wasn't feeling too bad I went and added a couple more chores as well, which turned out to be big mistake.

At lunchtime I was back at Charing Cross Hospital at Radiology - I've been there a couple of times before.

Back in 2013 I had a little dose of cosmetic radiation which wasn't a big deal at all.

In 2015, I spent a very unhappy week at Wexham Park Hospital, screaming in agony because they were unable to control my pain. At the time my backbone was crumbling on me; every vertebrae was damaged, quite a few seriously so.

Wexham actually didn't realise what was happening or how to deal with it - luckily for me I had an appointment with Dr Feelgood at Charing Cross and got sent up there by ambulance.

Dr Feelgood refused to let me go back.

When I got there I discovered that my cancer had spread up my spine and I needed emergency radiotherapy. So, I turned up at Radiology on a stretcher, had my chest tattooed and then a scan.

By the next morning Dr Feelgood realised that Wexham really didn't have a clue and I got the all clear. At the same time, the agonising pain was brought under control and I started the slow process of getting back on my feet.

So I never got zapped although I still have the tattoo.

This time it's for real; I got fitted up with a really cool protective facemask which was moulded to my face as a hot thermoplastic.

I can keep it when they've finished and I've already decided how I'm going to use it on the Blog!

Next week I've got five visits to be zapped, but today I just had another scan.

The main problem was I had to lie on a hard flat surface which really hurt. And I forgot to bring any water with me and even forgot to get a drink before we left the hospital.

So I got tired out, hurt myself, got dehydrated and worn out and then I overdid it too.

We eventually got home and I collapsed - I slept until the evening.

Now I should explain; I'm on yet another chemotherapy and this time it regularly makes me feel sick, for the first time.

Well there were a few times before but not like this.

Anyway, this morning I grumbled to Robyn that I'd been awake at night  and was starving hungry. Which is odd because by the time I got up I was feeling sick in time for breakfast.

I told her how I was imagining a bacon sandwich in the early hours; something I never eat now because I'm largely vegetarian.

Then this evening, while I was still drowsing in a chair, trying to move my legs to shake off the pain, Robyn brought me a bacon sandwich - she'd sneaked off and bought a packet of bacon while I wasn't looking.

I'm not going to make a habit of it because I'm proud to be 'largely' vegetarian but it was a real kindness.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

7th April.

This is one of those 'funny' dates - because exactly a year ago I gave up and called 999 for an ambulance. I'd had terrible back pains for about 5 months and then I started getting neurological symptoms of spinal collapse which would have meant paralysis.

By accident, I ended up at Wexham Park Hospital which turned out to be a bit of a disaster because they didn't know what to do.

I was in agony - at times screaming with pain through the night. Pumping me full of morphine wasn't working and they didn't have any idea how to deal with it.

After a week I was taken by ambulance to Charing Cross and they sorted out the pain, started treating my broken back and got me home; all in about 48 hours.

It's quite frightening how bad Wexham was.

So today, is full of some fairly bad memories.

Except for this - it's a picture Robyn took of me wearing my new hat;

Very fetching, I think you'll agree.

Today is also significant because in two months time we're getting married.

Which is a bit worrying because we haven't chosen a venue for a reception let alone booked anything. Then there's all the other things we've got to sort out.

So it's all getting a bit stressful.

As I said, 7th April is a bit of a funny date for us.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

More closures at Ashford Hospital.

This is by way of an update and my commentary on developments at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust.

In a nutshell, the two rehab wards for elderly people at Ashford have closed by now and people too well to be on a hospital ward but too ill to go home are likely to be heading elsewhere.

Firstly, patients of all ages are getting sent home too early after operations; there’s a reliance on relatives or friends to ‘help out’ when often no one is available.

Secondly, as the Union points out, this is really a hidden privatisation of services.

Thirdly, it’s a further downgrading of Ashford Hospital. Once a fine teaching hospital with its own A and E, it is now a complex of flats and a Tesco with a hospital attached.

Fourthly, and saddest of all, NHS hospitals seem unable to properly deal with the rehabilitation of the elderly which is very specialised work which requires continuity of staff, a real ethos to help the elderly and an ability to care.

Unfortunately, the average NHS ward has such a changeover of staff and such a reliance on Agency temps to make up the numbers that long term care is problematic.

My own experiences with Wexham Park Hospital, Slough last year bear this out.

This failing hospital very nearly killed my Mum, failing to treat her properly over three long and very unpleasant weeks on the notorious Ward 17.

By then unable to walk, she was then sent to the Upton Community Hospital, Upton, Slough to ‘recover’.

This is run by a separate Trust and has a completely different ethos and way of working. It took two months of really hard work but they were open to restoring the treatment that Wexham had changed and gradually got her back on her feet.

It seems to be general that the elderly are being failed by NHS hospitals – Ashford and St. Peter’s are just accepting the inevitable.

 

Get Surrey

 

Ward closures announced at Ashford Hospital following CCG review

 

  16 June 2015

  By Matt Strudwick

The closure of two of Ashford Hospital’s wards, used by the elderly for rehabilitation care, is another step to privatising the NHS, according to a trade union.

 

The Wordsworth and Fielding wards will close by the end of this month after a review carried out by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) found patients recover better away from acute hospitals.

 

Patients will now be placed in rehabilitation care at Walton Community Hospital, Woking Hospital, nursing homes and care at home.

 

Stephanie Cesana, Unison regional organiser, said by putting contracts out to the private sector it showed everything is about savings.

 

“It’s a further example of the creeping privatisation in the NHS,” she said.

“This Government is determined to chip away at the NHS until all services have been privatised. It’s worrying and disappointing.”

 

Staff at the two wards have been moved to alternative positions within the trust.

 

Christine Armitage, assistant director of therapies at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said the use of nursing home beds would act as a step between nursing and patients going home.

 

“Within a nursing home, a lot of those patients don’t need intensive therapy,” she said. “They need a bit of time and someone there to get stronger and to regain confidence. That’s the idea of those beds.”

 

The ward closures will lead to a reduction of 43 beds at the hospital, but the trust said it is still working on its strategy as to what to do with the empty space.

 

Heather Caudle, chief nurse at the trust, said: “We know keeping patients in hospital for long periods of time is not necessarily in their best interests, particularly older, frail patients, and this can actually lead to a deterioration in their wellbeing as well as a reduction in independence.”

 

One-to-one

 

The trust said Ashford Hospital would still provide a walk-in centre and will continue to provide stroke rehabilitation care at its Chaucer ward and orthopaedic care at its Dickens ward.

 

“This is no reflection on the excellent job our staff have been doing for patients at Ashford Hospital,” she said. “These changes are purely focused on what is the best environment for this specific cohort of patients.”

 

On May 30, St Peter’s Hospital shut its Ambulatory Emergency Care Unit (AECU) which had been set up to provide urgent assessment and treatment for patients who were brought to hospital by ambulance. The trust said it had not seen the expected patient numbers or flow. The referral service for GPs, which was in place through the AECU, will now run from the Medical Assessment Unit.

Of course, the fact that CCG found that patients recover better out of hospital isn’t an argument for closing wards – it’s an argument for changing the system and adopting best practice instead.

 

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

36000 Thanx!

 

 

 

Many thanks for taking this Blog to 36000 - it's been a struggle.

 

It all started after St. Peter's Hospital, Chertsey sent me home with a seriously broken ankle for a week. When I complained the Accident and Emergency department didn't take it seriously; they never dealt with the problem. They blamed the inexperience of junior Doctors when this was a mistake by a consultant who did not know what he was doing.

 

He was allowed to continue to practise until his contract ran out.

 

Since then I've discovered how bad Wexham Park Hospital, Slough is - that's the next hospital along.

 

I've also found out about the appalling record of The Abraham Cowley Unit; that's a psychiatric hospital in the grounds of St. Peter's but run by a separate health trust.

 

As far as St. Peter's is concerned there are good departments and bad ones.

 

Wexham Park is a failing hospital - taken into special measures last year due to the risk of harm to patients and then taken over by Frimley Park Health Trust. It is still a risk to patients and the problems are systemic; they run through the whole hospital.

 

So, I may have cancer and I may have bust my back but I'm not about to give up - not just yet.

 

Neil Harris

 

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

 

 

Poonami!!

What a day!

This is Charing Cross Hospital's Poo Chart....it identifies the variety of Poo that there is in the world.

They do everything better - instead of just taking down temperature and blood pressure they have coloured charts to fill in so that anyone who looks can quickly see whether anything is in the danger zone.

People know what they are doing. Care Assistants, Nurses and Doctors are professional; things happen.

So, after a week of screaming in pain it took Charing cross about 12 hours to fix the pain, explain to me what was going wrong - make a plan to put it right.

There's no cure, it gets worse...but I'm getting there.

I put the Poo chart up because I've seen Physiotherapy and they got me up on my feet.

They took my back brace and measured it up properly.

Then I walked to the toilet with a walking frame!

Poonami!

It's a triumph, you have no idea. I'm on my feet again.

I've have my 'infusion' to strengthen my bones. I was rather hoping I was going to get an exoskeleton like Wolverine in the X-Men. That would be useful.

I fear it may not work so well.

Thursday.

I woke up and wasn't feeling so good - so it was amazing when physiotherapy came round and I went for another walk.

I'm going home today.

It's an amazing testament to the treatment I got from everyone at Charing Cross.

From screaming pain to being OK - 8 hours.

From arriving on a stretcher to tentative walking?

24 hours.

Going home? 48 hours.

Thank you Charing Cross. Thank you for not being Wexham.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home@ helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me@ neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Day six and has Art saved me from Wexham Park Hospital?

 

 

Here's my bed at Wexham Park Hospital. with one of the many holes in my blanket. Actually, I wouldn't normally mind I'm not fussy and if you are being cared for these things don't matter.

 

If you are not being looked after it's confirmation of the way the place is run.

 

Yesterday, I started having muscle spasms from about three in the afternoon until about 9-30pm when I was given morphine again. Then this morning I was screaming again rom about 3-00am onwards.

 

I've been complaining for a week that morphine doesn't work - if I have a spasm I'll be screaming no matter how much they give me......and they've been giving me lots.

 

Then I met Art- he's a Nurse not a Doctor. For the first time he actually listened to what I had to say and prescribed an 'Anti spasmodic' drug.

 

I'm guessing the clue is in the name - it's starting to deal with the problem. I can move again.

 

I can't believe that I've been screaming for a week - all night long at times, when there was a simple solution I could have been given on the first day that I arrived. Mind you, 'Pain Management'  haven't turned up yet.

 

My feet were also examined for the first time today - that's why I came in on an ambulance stretcher it was all about nerve damage.

 

I'm furious with them - a week of screaming agony and no one listening.

 

But there is hope - my cancer appointment is tomorrow and the transport is booked.

 

Now I just need a metal spine....like a terminator. That should be simple enough.

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

 

The canula at the end of the universe.Day six at Wexham Park Hospital.

It's day six - I don't have a name for the Doctor who is 'treating me', I wasn't seen by a Doctor yesterday and I haven't been seen this morning. Yesterday evening I asked to speak to the matron to complain - he didn't come.

I want to make a formal request to be transferred to a hospital with a spine specialist so at least it's down there in writing.

This is my canula and they've only used it once when I first came in, screaming in pain. I had intravenous morphine which didn't help. Since then I've been working my way through all the varieties of morphine when none of it works.

It can be fun, of course, but it didn't deal with the pain.

Since then I haven't seen 'pain management' and the only solution Wexham can think of has been to pump me full of more morphine which doesn't work at all.

My Oncologist at Charing Cross has now got them to put me on a muscle relaxant and I am hopeful that may work but it's taking it's time.

Here's how you operate pain management at Wexham Park Hospital; on Thursday I was due to be given morphine three times a day and in my book that means every 8 hours.

Instead they gave it to me at 0800, 1430 and 1800. That's three times in 10 hours but then they didn't give it to me again until 0800 am which is a whole 14 hours later.

It meant that at 1300 when I was taken for an MRI scan I had no medication and was screaming with muscle spasms after thirty minutes on the board. 

Just the worst pain ever.

Then morphine all afternoon when I didn't need it.

Next morning? I needed a wash and a bed change because the bed hadn't been changed for two days since I'd been sick in it.

So, because otherwise I'd have missed the change, I had to have the wash and change without medication which meant I was screaming again.
  
Sunday morning and I'm still in spasms of pain - yesterday I didn't have a wash so that I didn't miss the Doctor who never came.

Not making that mistake again.

The care assistants are lovely - last night Romeo and Jane. This morning Peter. Committed and concerned they are a complete contrast to the highly paid Doctors and Consultants.

Here's an example; a Doctor who agreed that it isn't appropriate to be treated for severe spinal damage by Doctors who hadn't bothered to even speak to you.

His answer?

"Well in 6 months time I'll be working at a different hospital"

This is why nothing changes and nothing gets any better.

Tuesday I'm due at Charing Cross to see my Oncologist - I run out of medication if I'm not there. That's going to be a battle; it's life or death for me.

Perhaps I could padlock myself to the gates at Charing Cross until they let me in.

That could work.
Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Wexham Hospital, Slough.

Ok, so here is where I am; trapped in bed on the fifth day at Wexham Park Hospital in the Medical Assessment Unit.

I arrived here by ambulance 5 days ago after a series of collapses and rather worrying neurological feelings in my legs.

I knew I had a collapsed vertebrae and I knew it was getting worse.

Yesterday, without ever having seen an orthopaedic specialist I was told I could go home with a brace and no other treatment (I can't walk right now).

I complained; they never spoke to me, they never explained the MRI scan to me. They haven't stabilised the pain - I've been stuck in a hospital bed for 5 days.

After a lot of fighting I got to see a completely different Doctor from orthopaedics to explain what had happened and later thanks to a nurse I got shown the MRI scan.

It's a lot worse than I expected; a whole lot of vertebrae are damaged and a fair few are badly damaged.

The Doctors who never spoke to me? None are spine specialists, they don't have any here.

They never told me that.

Meanwhile the neurological warnings of possible paralysis continue...

Today I have been waiting 5 hours to see the weekend Doctor to make my various complaints but so far no one has come round to see me.

Robyn has bought a lot of strawberry shoe laces and we are eating them like The Lady and The Tramp ate spaghetti in the Disney movie.

It's nice.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

  3

A very special person.

 

 

 

 

         Stephanie Harris 31/7/19 to 1/1/15 

 

My Mum died on New Year's Day after a long, long struggle which began before Christmas.

 

I would like to thank Sharon, Elizabeth, Virginia and Maurice for all their help over what was a very difficult time. It meant that my Mum was rarely alone and it meant that her family and closest friends were with her when she died.

 

Her treatment (as an elderly person) by the Doctors at Wexham Park Hospital has given me plenty to write about but the kindness, care and respect shown by the Nurses and Care workers of Ward three was wonderful.

 

This amazing picture was taken during the war and it shows Lance Corporal Goldstein looking surprisingly carefree and happy. She had a really tough life but none of that can be seen in her face here. I know she was very proud of it.

 

She was born and brought up in Germany but was forced to flee Hitler's oppression when she was only 18 years old.

 

By some miracle she was able to get to Britain where so many others failed.

 

She joined up when she was allowed to and spent the war as a German citizen in the British army. A very courageous stand to take.

 

She suffered a lot of prejudice after the war and struggled through it without making a fuss. But everyone who actually got to know her soon realised that she was a very remarkable person.

 

A very special person indeed.

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

  

Car Parking at Wexham Park Hospital, Slough.

At the end of the 1960’s/early 1970’s I was on holiday and took part in a ‘happening’, a last flowering of the counterculture of the 60’s. It was organised by a maverick artist and run by students from the local art college. It perplexed most people, as a young kid I loved it.

There were a series of rather provocative set pieces; I remember someone having a conversation down a pipe with an imaginary person ‘buried’ in the sandy beach. There were arty installations. It was great.

Best of all, in an era when ‘bingo’ was a mass entertainment, they had a bingo session on the beach. Free cards were handed out and almost fought for. About 50 people (including me) were avidly marking off the numbers as they were called by a solemn man in a dinner jacket and bow tie. My excitement mounted as I noticed that my card was filling up really quickly. I didn’t notice how hushed it had all got.

The last number was called and after a nanosecond looking at my card – I was leaping up and shouting ‘BING-GO!!.

The problem was that everybody else was doing exactly the same – we all had the same numbers.

I found it very funny – when I got over my initial disappointment. But a lot of other people (even though it was all free) got quite angry. Umbrellas (in those far off days people went to the beach well prepared for an English summer) were waived in anger at the bingo caller.

It all came back to me today, as it does every day I visit my poor old Mum at Wexham Hospital in Slough. Visiting starts at 2pm and there is a stampede of cars for a space like the race for a claim in a landrush.

We all drive in through the automatic barriers, taking a pay and display ticket from the machine. The only problem is that they always let in about 40 more cars than there are parking spaces for. So, we drive round and round an increasingly gridlocked carpark until in the end, one by one – we give up and leave.

It’s obviously a daily ritual because when I press the panic button on the exit barrier, the long-suffering controller of the car park just lets me out without paying.

Meanwhile on the road outside, there is a small amount of free parking – today there were three parking enforcement officers prowling like sharks, waiting to catch anyone who overstayed the time limit.

So all this week I haven’t been able to buy a parking space, had to park miles away and walk far too far to get in.

The private contractor of this fiasco has a motto on the barrier machine;

     Make a difference

So I checked out some information about the parking and where the money goes, the interesting bits are towards the end of this Freedom of Information request made by someone more annoyed than me, last year.

What is most relevant (apart from the lack of any mention of the amount of profit made from us by the private contractor) is that the rest of the money that staff and patients have to pay actually goes to paying for security at the Hospital.

And there we were thinking that all that money went to help patients. I suspect that similar applies to every hospital.

Car parking

 Date:  9 Oct 2012

 FOI Ref No:  919

We are writing in response to your FOI request dated 21 September.

Taking your questions in turn;

1.Please provide us with a list of your Trust’s car parks (including those for each hospital within the Trust) and the charges for each one.

 

The car parks are at both Heatherwood Hospital and Wexham Park Hospital. The charges are the same for both sites.

 

Parking Charges

 

Time Charge

 

Up to 1 hour £1.00

 

Up to 2 hours £2.00

 

Up to 3 hours £4.00

 

Up to 5 hours £5.00

 

Over 5 hours £10.00

 

Free parking will be provided for:

 

· Mothers of babies in the Neonatal Unit who are coming in frequently to feed;

 

· One parent of any child in for Haematology or Oncology treatment;

 

· Patients attending hospital on a daily basis for Chemotherapy or other treatment;

 

· One parent who has to stay overnight with a child.

 

Half price parking will be provided for:

 

· One parent of any child in hospital for longer than 48 hours;

 

· One relative of any patient in ITU.

 

In each case only one validation per patient is allowed (i.e. for the mother or the father of a child whose stay is longer than 48 hours).

 

It is recognised by the Trust that exceptional circumstances outside those listed above may arise. In these events a judgment will be made by the Head of Security or the Security Manager in consultation with the ward or departmental manager.

 

The Heatherwood and Wexham Park NHS Foundation Trust follows the Department of Health (2006) guidance on income generation. Revenue received from car parking pays for the security services and police within the Trust necessary for the protection of patients, visitors and staff.

1.Please also clarify who is responsible for managing each of the car parks; if not the Trust or individual hospital(s) please give the name of the Company/Individual.

 

The Trust manage the car parks but the Trust has contracted CP Plus who is responsible for the day to day running of the car parks and security

1.Please clarify when the fees for each car park were introduced.

 

Patient parking was introduced in approx 1994/5. Staff parking charges were introduced in 2011

(section on previous lower fees edited out by me)

1.Are fees the same for staff, visitors and patients? If not, please provide a breakdown of the different charges applicable to those three groups, including details of any discounts made available to patients, visitors or staff.

 

Patients and visitors charges are the same, documented on above (and on the Trust public website). Any discounts are also as stated above and on the Trust public website. Staff who are granted car parking permits pay 1% of salary.

1.How much money has been generated in total, per year, since January 2009 from parking fees paid by patients, visitors and staff, for using the Trust’s car park(s)?

 

The revenue raised from staff parking in 2011-12 was £559k (plus £93K from bus revenue). The revenue from patient parking was £742k in 2011-12

1.If the car park is not managed by the Trust or the individual hospital(s), how much of the total money generated from parking fees paid by patients, visitors and staff, was paid to the Company/Individual managing the car park?

 

For clarity;

 

Staff parking fees were spent in the following ways;

 

£437k of the money raised from staff car parking permits was spent in the following ways;

 

Staffing, operation and Management of the Travel Plan office

 Bus service WP1

 Two full time security officers in the car parks

 

CCTV and camera maintenance for the staff car parks

 Capital works associated with the car parks e.g. improved lighting and CCTV, staff showers for cyclists, cycle stands, lining of car parks

 Changes to car parking areas associated with the travel plan

 

We also assist staff who sign up for a salary sacrifice bus pass a contribution for local bus service/routes via the organisation that administers the bus pass service, so that individuals payments are more closely in line with car parking charges.

 

The differential between what is spent on the above services and what is raised by way of staff car parking permits is placed in reserve for major capital spends such as replacement of the barriers systems, re-design to maximise parking spaces etc, these schemes only occur every few years and we build a fund to pay for them.

 

Patient parking fees were spent in the following ways

 

The Trust has a contract with CP Plus to manage security and the car parking on both sites. Patient parking fees pay for this contract and for additional security that covers the whole hospital as well as the car park. It also pays for payment machines and maintenance of car parking barriers etc.

Well I’m sure that cheers us all up.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Wexham Park Hospital - the feud goes on.

Here’s an update on the feud at Wexham Park Hospital, Slough. I have to say, as a daily visitor, that none of this is spilling out onto the wards.

And at least there is some whistleblowing going on there;

26 Nov 2013

Slough Observer

THE chief executive of a crisis-hit hospital is reassuring doctors and patients they 'should have no fear’ using its services after alleged blunders and feuds were exposed.

 

THE chief executive of a crisis-hit hospital is reassuring doctors and patients they 'should have no fear’ using its services after alleged blunders and feuds were exposed.

Philippa Slinger, chief executive of the Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is reported to have said she fears there will be a boycott by local GPs frightened to refer patients to the Slough hospital, in an email leaked to a national newspaper.

 

It follows claims last week a 'race row’ had erupted at Wexham Park Hospital after a letter from top consultants to health watchdogs, Monitor and the Care Quality Commission, outlining 'a number of issues’ was also leaked. The letter is reported to claim that patients’ lives are being lost because errors made by white doctors are being covered up, while those made by ethnic minority doctors are highlighted.

 

The letter was sent only weeks after a probe, by medical investigations firm InPractice, into a 14-year feud between doctors at the trust uncovered 48 cases of possible harm to patients went unchecked.

Speaking to The Midweek, Ms Slinger said: “I think the way the story has been covered in the Mail on Sunday could lead to patients feeling more fearful than they need to about the care our surgeons provide.

 

“The difficulty is that if we have selective press coverage that perhaps doesn’t give the balanced view that the InPractice report gave, the danger is that people start to worry more than they need to and GPs get more worried than they need to.”

She added: “We would like to say that we have no concerns about the surgeons in that report. The reality is that if you look at the health outcomes we do incredibly well and we have good mortality rates and medical treatment has proven to be very good. The matters discussed were many years ago that needed to be completed and finished off. People should have no fears in using our doctors and our consultants.”

Last week, a Monitor spokesman told The Midweek’s sister publication The Observer, it is the 'process of investigating the issues raised’ in the letter.

The trust has been in huge debt, totalling around £13.5m last year. A damning CQC report on Wexham Park Hospital, published in July, found the hospital was 'failing to protect the welfare of patients’.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)