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South Derbyshire District Council's development control committee originally discussed plans to convert 1 Jason Hylton Court, in Wilmot Road, Swadlincote, in February, with the decision being deferred until Tuesday for a site visit. The application proposes to convert the building, named after the former Royal Marine killed by insurgents in Iraq in November, 2006, into a nursing home and add a side stairway, a rear and side single storey extension as well as making minor alterations to the external layout. Concerns raised by neighbourss include the use of pile driving to complete the extensions, lack of parking and disturbance by vehicles owned by staff and visitors. A report by planning officers says the key issues are the impact on neighbouring properties, parking and the effect on nearby protected lime, horse chestnut and sycamore trees. It lists a catalogue of failings at a hospital which had "lost sight of its priorities" at a time when "the quality of care of its patients admitted as emergencies was well below acceptable standards." The report confirms the experiences that were exclusively first revealed in the Newsletter by July Bailey in December 2007 and which have been highlighted since by members of Cure the NHS. And it offers a clear explanation as to why chief executive Martin Yeates was suspended and why chairman Toni Brisby stood down. The report reveals terrifying details, such as nurses in the emergency assessment turning cardiac monitors off as they did not know how to use them, patients being given the wrong medication, receptionists assessing patients and bosses shrouding the problems in secrecy. The report listed a catalogue of issues, including; * Lack of training for nurses * Insufficient nurses on the wards, meaning patients were left in wet or soiled sheets, in pain or unfed. * Delays in operations were commonplace, especially for trauma patients at weekends, with many nil by mouth patients being forced to go whole weekends without food. * Assessing the priority for care of patients in A&E was routinely conducted by receptionists, who were not qualified. * There were too few consultants in A&E to provide on-call cover all day, every day and junior doctors were not adequately supervised. * The trust had two clinical decision units which staff said were used as "dumping grounds" to avoid breaching the four hour target for being treated in A&E, one of which was not allocated any staff. * There were not enough nurses at the hospital properly to care for emergency patients although a review of staffing levels in A&E in 2007/08 found the trust was short 120 nurses. There has been a net gain of 97 nurses and healthcare support workers. * There was often no experienced surgeon routinely in the hospital after 9pm at night. * The trust was found to have poor systems for the prevention of deep vein thrombosis, a major cause of death in patients following surgery. * Essential equipment was not always available or working. * An analysis of the trust's board meetings from April 2005 to 2008 found discussions were dominated by finance, targets and achieving foundation trust status. * The trust was poor at identifying and investigating when things went wrong and had poor arrangements to manage risk. It had high levels of complaints but information provided to the board was so general that the board could not determine how serious the complaints were. Milford resident Julie Bailey, founder member of the Cure the NHS group, was joined by around 30 campaigners in a peaceful protest and candlelit vigil in the hospital grounds on Saturday. Ms Bailey said the demo had attracted a good turnout and the group would be staging more protests at both Stafford and CannockHospitals in future. But she also said the presence of the police at the protest had been intimidating for some campaigners and had deterred them from taking part. She said: "It went extremely well and there was overwhelming support from passers-by, who were sounding their horns as they went past. It was the first protest we have done inside hospital grounds, and it went so well that we will definitely be doing more. "I think the police presence was totally unnecessary though - and it stopped some people from taking part. Some members of the group came up to us but said they wouldn't join in because they were worried they would be breaking the law." Chief executive of Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, Martin Yeates, said said: "People standing outside our hospital entrance giving out leaflets we feel would be intimidating to our patients and their visitors who are often anxious because they are either ill themselves or have sick relatives. Our staff are very hardworking and should be allowed to arrive and leave work without feeling threatened or demoralised." Emma Stanley, of Staffordshire Police, said: "Due to concerns raised by hospital representatives surrounding the safety and security of patients and staff, a very small number of officers were obliged to monitor the protesters. No-one was arrested during the campaign and officers received no concerns about their presence at the event." Around 60 of them will push drinks trollies around corridors to give cleaners more time to keep wards and departments tidy. And a team of specialists trained to clean high up will tackle hard-to-reach surfaces such as curtain rails, light fittings, vents and grills. Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has launched a major recruitment drive to take on 51 qualified nurses and 32 health assistants across Stafford and Cannock hospitals. The posts are expected to be taken up across the trust over the next four months to work in the medical and surgical divisions. The trust is currently being investigated by the Healthcare Commission amid fears about its unusually high death rates. It follows numerous complaints from residents, who joined together to set up the Cure the NHS group to call for improvements in care. The group was spearheaded by Milford resident Julie Bailey, whose mother Isabella died at StaffordHospital following numerous health problems. Miss Bailey complained about her mother's treatment at the hospital, saying there was a shortage of staff, patients were going hungry and many wandered around half-dressed. Trust chief executive Martin Yeates said a review of staffing levels would take place. The trust is investing £1.15 million to draft in extra staff and has held four recruitment days so far. More events are being planned over the next few months. Helen Moss, the trust's director of nursing and governance, said: "The recruitment of these new nurses and healthcare assistants will help us meet the high standards we aim for." Service users have welcomed a proposal to keep Tamworth Day Centre open for another two years - but still fear for the facility's long term future. County council care chiefs have drawn up a list of draft proposals following their 'conversation' with service users, the first of which is to 'retain the day centre and develop its role and purpose'. "We are over the moon with the decision - very pleased - but would have liked it to have been permanent," said day centre user Stella James. Health officials initially put the problem down to "teething difficulties" after the creation of a new adult assessment unit at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire. Now councillors have acted on a stream of complaints from the public to demand an end to what has been called the chaos in the emergency department. AMBULANCE STAFF MIGHT GET STAB-PROOF VESTS A risk assessment and review of health and safety issues revealed that 121 members of staff reported being assaulted between April 1, 2007, and February 29, 2008. Of those, four were attacked with some sort of weapon. The weapons ranged from a television remote control, a kettle and a false leg. Julie Bailey led members of the Cure the NHS group in a protest outside a council of governors meeting at the site last week. Emotions ran high as they crowded into the meeting to tell stories of their relatives' plight while in hospital and to call for boss Martin Yeates to be more open and transparent. The Newsletter exclusively revealed in December that Miss Bailey set up the Cure the NHS group after her mother Isabella Bailey died in the hospital. She was so horrified by her mother's treatment that she refused to leave her alone and slept in a chair next to her bed. She said there were not enough staff and on several occasions she helped to feed other patients while others walked around half-dressed. On another occasion her mother was almost forced out of bed by a violent patient, who also pinned a nurse against the wall. She called for other people with similar experiences to contact her and was deluged with calls. Miss Bailey, who booed chief executive Martin Yeates, told the meeting: "The management seems to be failing. We keep being told that steps are being taken to put things right, but it is still happening. People are still dying. It is an outrage." Toni Brisby, chairman of the trust, told the campaigners: "We can't not listen to what you say. We are genuinely grateful to you and I think we need to look again at the complaints. "I think we are listening to what is being said and we now all need to meet and talk about this properly to try and find a way forward." And nurse Sandra Barrington added: "I could cry at some of your experiences and I am sorry for what you have been through. "I am proud of being a member of staff at the hospital because we do care. The board of directors want to address this in the proper way and work together as governors with you to ensure this doesn't happen again." The protest follows an announcement last week that Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, is being investigated by the Healthcare Commission amid fears about its unusually high death rates. The investigation is focusing on patients admitted to the trust as emergencies. It will also look at quality of care across the trust, in particular to older people, after patients raised concerns. Speaking after the meeting Miss Bailey said: "I want to meet with the hospital as soon as possible, I am prepared to work with them. We will not give up fighting. None of us here have personally got anything to gain, we just want care to improve so that other families do not have to go what we have been through. "I would also urge people to have their say during the Healthcare Commission investigation." Concerned residents have until tomorrow to contact the Healthcare Commission to comment on the investigation. They can arrange a telephone interview or arrange to meet an inspector face to face by contacting the Healthcare Commission helpline on 0845 6013012. Watford House Residential Home had been given a shocking low grading after a new inspector visited in September.But director Frederic Street staunchly defended the Shenstone Wood End home, which was visited again on Monday by another new inspector. "Every report prior to 2007 was 'good', so you can imagine how shocked we were when we went straight down to the bottom," he said. A crew from ITV's Tonight programme travelled to TrenthamGardens last weekend, to record Mr Melville at a sponsored walk to raise money for a drug health chiefs had refused to pay for. It was to be part of a documentary highlighting how the Tarceva he needed for his lung cancer is routinely available on the NHS in Scotland, but not south of the border. ON SATURDAY, the campaign bidding to improve the NHS held its first ever meeting. We have now met each other and shared experiences of Staffordshire GeneralHospital. Many of us have witnessed the same neglect that still haunts us. We have seen things we cannot settle, knowing we wake in dread of ever having to encounter that hospital again. Others ill, patients themselves needing care, helping those more in need than themselves. Ashamed, at the lack of care and compassion they have seen older vulnerable patients suffering. Some still grieving for those they have watched fading and failing through lack of care, still raw but strong within for justice for their loved ones and for others, still to suffer within that hospital. They came and shared their experience. The insiders have joined us, those who have tried to speak out. They are aware of the injustices, lack of independence and transparency within our hospital. We have several supporters who just care about the human rights of vulnerable people, the concerned. Some have loved ones who may soon become dependent on the hospital care, or lack of it. Our campaign wasn't launched to upset people. But it has; they are anxious and they have every right to be. We also have support from some of the 160, who Helen Moss refers to in any response. They have complained and believed their complaint wasn't in vain. Through the launch of the campaign they now find the horrors they witnessed in the past or saw their relative suffer is still happening. We have heard your apologies and excuses and nothing has changed the abuse of our most vulnerable members of Staffordshire continues. They are being denied their most basic of needs within our local hospital. The chief executive Martin Yeates, has a duty of care to patients. He is failing in these duties,he's responsible and is paid for this responsibility. Our MP David Kidney has a vested interest for ensuring vulnerable people have their human rights within Staffordshire. What are you doing? Are you doing anything? Mary Potts lost her battle against breast cancer on Friday, after playing an inspirational role in attempts to make the wonder drug more widely available. Family and friends today paid tribute to the 50-year-old mother-of-two, who they described as "an inspiration to everyone". Staffordshire County Council is asking service users, relatives, staff and the public if it should keep the centres open, close some or shut them all and transfer residential care to the private sector. Susan Woodward, cabinet member for social care and health, said the 'full and proper' survey would be open, transparent and keep residents and their families fully informed. However, Yvonne Hossack, the solicitor representing several service users and families opposed to the council's Changing Lives proposals, said she was concerned the authority had already decided to close the homes and that the consultation exercise was merely a sham. The council is writing to the 396 residents and 982 staff who use or work at its 21 care homes - including Hillfield House in Stretton, and Horace Pritchard House, in All Saints Road, Burton - to explain how their views will be gathered between now and the end of July. Residential, respite and integrated day care centres will be involved in the first wave of the process, which will be extended later in the year to include stand alone day services such as the Burton Day Centre, in Waterloo Street. Each home will host a 'consultation event' for users and relatives' which will start with a council presentation outlining the authority's vision of social care in the future. The consultation be undertaken by private consultant Agencia - employed at an undisclosed cost to the taxpayer - which the council claims will ensure the exercise is open and transparent. It will let residents and users give their opinions individually, in groups, by telephone or in writing before compiling a report and submitting it to social care chiefs before September. Staff will be consulted on the same days but at separate meetings to comply with the council's duty to consult employees about decisions which could affect their future roles. Ms Woodward said: "We have always said full and proper consultation will take place, and we are now at that stage. "We are all extremely mindful of the sensitivities involved with this and we are committed to ensuring this process is as fluid and smooth as possible. "Residents and their families will be fully informed of the process to allay any fears they have and to set straight any misinformation." A council spokesman said closing homes and transferring residential care to the private sector would improve the standard of care, but insisted no decisions had been taken. However, Ms Hossack said: "My concern is they are having a consultation having already made a decision - budgetary, political and in principle - to close homes. "We will be looking for an assurance from the council that it is open to decide not to close any home or any facility once the results of the consultation are in." Large signs will be put up at the entrance to every ward at the town's Queen's Hospital, reminding visitors to use alcohol-based hand gels before entering. Staff at the Belvedere Road site will also be empowered to personally approach anyone seen not using the gel - which is now located next to every bed - when they come to see loved-ones. Reminders stating "don't forget to wash your hands" will be printed on every cubicle curtain at the hospital, so staff don't spread infection as they travel around the wards. Patients will be encouraged to reprimand doctors and nurses who do not 'scrub up' prior to treating them. The hospital also intends to spend around half-a-million pounds on new beds, designed to reduce bedsores - a common way many patients become infected with MRSA bacteria or Clostridium difficile (C-Diff). At a meeting of the hospital's board of directors yesterday, chief executive Paula Clark also revealed that Government infection control experts had also been invited to Queen's to offer advice with infection control. The Department of Health team inspected the hospital last week and is expected to report its findings in the New Year. It is anticipated that the new signs will be in place by March, although bosses say the new superbug-bashing regime will be effected immediately. The news comes after Queen's experienced its second outbreak of MRSA during this financial year - making it unlikely to reach Government targets for 2007-08. Ten cases of the disease have been confirmed since April - with the Department for Health only allowing each hospital a total of 12 cases annually. Reported cases of C-Diff at the hospital are also still well above target - despite a significant drop in reported cases. The hospital saw fewer than five cases of the illness - an acute stomach condition - in September and 10 - the allowed monthly quota - in October. But between April and August this year, there was an average of 18 reported cases of the illness per month at Queen's, which is currently bidding for Foundation Status. However, the figure is down on the first half of 2006-07 - where as many as 35 cases of C-diff were being confirmed each month. Reporting to the board, consultant microbiologist James Paton said that more isolation rooms were going to be introduced to contain C-Diff and specialist cleaning products known to kill the disease were also being introduced. "The number of MRSA cases at Queen's Hospital is 29 per cent down on the same time last year and C-Diff is 36 per cent down," he said. "We have made a lot of progress but we still have a way to go." The figure, revealed in a county council report, is identical to the sum Labour chiefs promised to 'invest' in the service when they announced the proposals 11 months ago. Under the plans, 500 staff will lose their jobs and 200 of 310 residents will face upheaval. The council's finance director Andrew Burns lifted the lid on the potential bill in a document outlining the 2008-11 medium term financial strategy, set to be considered at a meeting today. He said that, although 'every effort' would be made to retrain and redeploy staff affected by the proposals, commonly known as Changing Lives, redundancies were 'inevitable'. "A worst case estimate suggests this could involve costs of around £19 million," he said. "These will be spread over seven years and, coupled with cash flow implications, will cost around £3.5 million per annum." His revelation has come only weeks after his political masters decided to push ahead with plans to close 14 homes for the elderly and 10 centres for the disabled under the most sweeping overhaul of the county's social care system for generations. Following a three-month consultation, Labour chiefs decided to keep one Burton care home, Hillfield House, in Hillfield Lane, Stretton, but shut another, Horace Pritchard House - and its day centre, Edna Lewis House - in All Saints' Road. As part of the shake up, 500 jobs will go and 200 of 310 residents will face upheaval; 75 will go to private nursing homes, 125 will receive private help - possibly in one of eight new supported living schemes - and 110 will be given the chance to stay in one of the council's remaining seven care homes, five of which, including Hillfield House, will become dedicated dementia care units. On January 31 last year, the council, announcing its plans as a 'multi-million pound investment in social car', said an additional £19 million would be 'channelled into investing in new services and meeting new demands'. Staffordshire County Council has advertised for a head of communications and complaints and two communications officers in the national Press. Critics claim the move proves those behind the county council's 'Changing Lives' programme has its priorities wrong and have called for the money to be spent on existing services instead. However, the authority has hit back, saying it is not recruiting additional staff but restructuring the department as part of the policy change and that this will save up to £10,000 a year as a result. The advertisement says the council has created a new team within the directorate to reflect the importance it places on communications. It says the head of communications and complaints will get £39,132 to £40,803, and the two communications officers, one internal and the other external, £23,175 to £26,928. Lichfield Tory MP Michael Fabricant said: "The council has gone mad. It's reacting desperately from one self-made crisis to another and it's costing the taxpayer a fortune. Spending this when care homes are facing the axe is an obscenity. The Labour council has lost the plot." He said the authority should focus on delivery instead of spin. Elaine Kirkham, co-chairman of elderly care campaign group Staffordshire RAGE, said: "It's very interesting considering the council has had a freeze on recruitment in that directorate. The two things don't stick." She said the move also jarred as the authority had begun negotiating over redundancies, was considering cutting workers' pay and had temporarily employed four bosses at great expense. Yvonne Hossack, the solicitor representing care home residents, said the recruitment drive appeared to be a 'peculiar' way for the cash-strapped council to spend its money. But Susan Woodward, the authority's politician responsible for social care, said: "It's ridiculous to think a busy organisation should not have people dedicated to communications." She admitted the council's performance in media liaison had 'not been as it should be' regarding the controversial Changing Lives arrangement. An authority spokesman said every council directorate had a communications department and the unit serving social care and health would be the smallest bar one. The new posts were not additional but the result of restructuring and would save between £5,000 and £10,000 a year. ADRIAN JENKINS - Burton Mail - Article Published - 07/03/2007 CAMPAIGNERS battling controversial plans to scrap Burton's residential homes and day centres have taken their fight to the Prime Minister. 24 January 2008 |    |
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