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Hunt points finger at the nursing union over scandal at Mid Staffordshire



The Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal was partly the fault of the main nursing union, Jeremy Hunt claimed yesterday.

The Health Secretary launched his scathing attack on the Royal College of Nursing after it criticised his plans to improve compassion in the NHS.

Mr Hunt said the RCN, which attacked a move to make all student nurses spend a year doing menial tasks, had been criticised for being more concerned about their members than patients.

He told the RCN to be ‘very careful’ and pointed out that a damning report into Mid Staffs – where up to 1,200 patients died from neglect – said the union had failed to listen to nurses’ warnings of unnecessary suffering.

The Francis Report said the RCN had been ‘ineffective’ because it had defended senior ‘bullying’ nurses responsible for appalling care.

Attacking Mr Hunt’s proposals for student nurses to work on the wards before starting their degrees, RCN president Andrea Spyropoulos said the ‘stupid’ idea risked taking the profession ‘back a hundred years’.

But Mr Hunt said: ‘The Royal College of Nursing have got to be very, very careful. They missed what happened at Mid Staffs.


The Francis Report levelled some very serious criticisms. It said that they basically allowed their trade union responsibilities to trump their responsibilities as a royal college to raise professional standards.

‘Before they start criticising the Government for accepting recommendations that are going to improve compassionate care throughout the NHS, they need to answer those very, very serious criticisms.’


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The Government wants student nurses to spend a year as healthcare assistants, for washing and feeding elderly patients and assisting them to the toilet. But so far there are no details on how hospitals will be able to supervise them.

Yesterday the Prime Minister promised to push ahead with the plans, saying they were ‘absolutely vital’.


He said: ‘It’s going to be controversial, but in the end the sort of health service we want is not just about making sure we’ve got the facts and the figures and the money and everything else spent well, it’s... so when our elderly relatives go in there, we know they’re going to get a really good quality of care.’



At fault: The Royal College of Nursing, whose members took part in the protest against cuts at Staffordshire hospital last week, is partly to blame for the Mid Staffs scandal

The Francis Report warned that the RCN had ‘done little’ to act. One whistleblower, Helene Donnelly, said she tried to raise concerns about the A&E unit only to find the union was defending two senior nurses she said were bullies. She became too afraid to walk to her car after a shift in case she was attacked by colleagues.

LABOUR ADVISER UNDER ATTACK



Ed Miliband’s new health adviser Sir John Oldham came under attack last night after it emerged he has previously dismissed those angry at the Mid Staffs scandal as a ‘lynch mob’.


Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: ‘Labour is still in denial over its responsibility for Mid Staffs, and this appointment shows they have learned nothing from the tragedy.

They have not accepted that their tick-box culture is responsible for the events.’

At the height of the scandal in 2008, RCN general secretary Peter Carter visited Stafford Hospital and praised nursing care as being of ‘exceptionally high standard’.

Mr Carter admitted yesterday there were ‘failings on our part’ but said the RCN hadn’t ‘missed Mid Staffs’ adding: ‘We’re not a regulator.’

The Francis Report warned that the scandal could be repeated. Yesterday a survey of more than 8,000 nurses by the RCN found that two-thirds believe neglect could happen at their own hospital.

One in four is too scared to raise concerns about patient safety and a further one in four said when they had tried to raise concerns their bosses had done nothing.


Forty-six per cent had tried to raise concerns about patient safety in the past six months. Of these, 44 per cent said fears of ‘victimisation’ or ‘reprisal’ would make them think twice about whistleblowing in future.

DYING MAN DISMISSED AS DRAMA KING



Medical neglect: Ronald Tatchell

A doctor dismissed a grandfather as a ‘drama king’ hours before he died in agony, an inquest heard yesterday.


Ronald Tatchell, 66, was recovering after a back operation when his abdomen became swollen and tender.


Although Mr Tatchell was in extreme pain, staff failed to diagnose that he was suffering from internal bleeding and he was wrongly given blood thinners.


The coroner ruled that father-of-two Mr Tatchell, a retired bailiff, died of medical neglect and a surgeon who reviewed his treatment said he had been the victim of a ‘whole system failure’ by staff at Llandough Hospital in Cardiff. Health chiefs apologised to his family yesterday and promised an investigation.


The inquest heard that Mr Tatchell, of Bridgend, South Wales, had been recovering well last October when his condition suddenly deteriorated.


Staff nurse Rhian Grapes told the coroner Mr Tatchell couldn’t move his legs and ‘felt something pop’. ‘I told the senior house officer who referred to him as being a drama king,’ she said.


Senior house officer Dr Olamide Eso denied the claim. She said. ‘That’s just not how I would speak about my patients.’


The inquest heard that ward manager Sally Lewis became so concerned she went over Dr Eso’s head. He was given blood, but died from shock as a result of the haemorrhage.


Surgeon Declan O’Doherty, who carried out a review of the treatment, told the hearing: ‘The whole thing was just dysfunctional. There’s been effectively a whole system failure.’


Cardiff assistant deputy coroner Christopher Woolley ruled that Mr Tatchell died as a result of neglect by hospital staff.

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