shocking image

The family of a 45-year-old mother have released a shocking image which they say shows her curled up in agony after she was "abandoned" by medics at a hospital linked to a series of scandals.
Margaret Lamberty's family say they plan to sue the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, alleging that doctors and nurses failed to diagnose her treatable condition and then did not respond to her calls for help.
The grandmother-of-eight died of multiple organ failure triggered by blood clots in her bowel on April 30 after collapsing at her home in Stoke-on-Trent.
Her daughter Laura, 28, said the family repeatedly warned doctors Mrs Lamberty had a history of blood clots when she was admitted to the hospital with chronic stomach pains three days earlier.
Laura said doctors overlooked their warnings and failed to conduct the correct tests.
"My mum was failed by the doctors and the nurses. She was abandoned in a side room while she died in agonising pain," Laura said.
"It was horrific for her and the worst thing I have ever had to see. We told the doctors over and over again she suffered from blood clots but they simply ignored us.
"We are determined to get justice for mum and find out the truth about what happened. No one should go through what she did."
Her family claim that in the days before her death she was left in blood-stained sheets for 24 hours and forced to wait half an hour for a nurse after buzzing for help.
Laura, from Chell Heath, Stoke-on-Trent, said she took the pictures of her mother lying on the hospital floor to show doctors how much pain she was in.
She said : "Before she was admitted to hospital, mum was fit and healthy.
"But then she was cradling her stomach in a ball on the floor, she was in so much pain. She has been taken from us and we want to know why.
"I just wish the doctors would have taken her seriously and then maybe she would still be here."
The mother-of-four's death is the latest in a series of scandals to hit the £400m hospital.
Last November 81-year-old Lillian Baddeley's family alleged she died after catching four superbugs at the hospital.
Several months earlier an inquest heard how two premature babies died due to a "breakdown in hand hygiene" at the hospital.
According to NHS whistleblower Julie Bailey, Mrs Lamberty's case is not unique in the UK medical system.
Mrs Bailey, who has set up campaign group Cure The NHS, said: "Time and time again patients are not being listened to.
"Very often patients, and their families, know what is wrong with them but medics do not listen to them.
"Too many times we see medics dismissing patients concerns and failing to listen to what they are saying.
"It is appalling that this family felt so desperate they were forced to take a picture of their mother in such terrible pain."
Mrs Lamberty's family have now submitted a letter of complaint to the hospital
A spokesman for the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust told Sky News: "The Trust attempted to contact the family of Mrs Lamberty earlier this month. We recently received correspondence from Mrs Lamberty’s family and we will again be attempting to contact them to discuss their concerns.
"The Trust would like to offer its sincere condolences to Mrs Lamberty’s family."

shift away from big centralised hospitals

New NHS chief executive Simon Stevens said hospitals serving smaller communities were sustainable

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Smaller community hospitals should play a bigger role especially in the care of older patients, the new head of the NHS in England has said.

In an interview in the Daily Telegraph, Simon Stevens signalled a marked change in policy by calling for a shift away from big centralised hospitals.

The health service chief executive said there needed to be new models of care built around smaller local hospitals.

The NHS said he was not suggesting the return of 50s-style cottage hospitals.

In recent years the health service has emphasised the benefits of centralised services.

This has paid dividends in areas such as stroke care and major trauma where significant benefits have been gained by concentrating specialist care.

But this has raised questions about the future of the many smaller district general hospitals across the NHS.

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In the interview in Friday's paper, Mr Stevens said they should play an important part in providing care, especially for the growing number of older patents who could be treated closer to home.

He said: "A number of other countries have found it possible to run viable local hospitals serving smaller communities than sometimes we think are sustainable in the NHS.

"Most of western Europe has hospitals which are able to serve their local communities, without everything having to be centralised."

Hospital closures

Ashby District Hospital and Poltair Hospital will close, while Lowestoft Hospital no longer has inpatient beds

Simon Stevens' support for smaller hospitals comes as, in some parts of England, such hospitals close.

On Tuesday the closure of Ashby District Hospital in Leicestershire was announced.

A commissioning group said the 16-bed hospital needed £900,000 of repairs and was underused, and said it wanted to provide "more services closer to people's homes".

Earlier this month a health trust said Poltair Hospital in Cornwall would close, saying the "cost of backlog maintenance work to meet current standards is too expensive".

But West Cornwall Health Watch said the decision was based on"dangerously unproven assumptions" and West Cornwall MP Andrew George called it a "backward step".

Lowestoft Hospital in Suffolk closed its 25-bed inpatient facility at the end of March and the main hospital building is due to close later this year.

The hospital's north wing is to be redeveloped to offer services including phlebotomy and outpatient clinics.

But Lowestoft Coalition Against the Cuts said many elderly people would suffer owing to the closure of such "excellent local hospitals".

Mr Stevens said elderly patients were increasingly ending up in hospital unnecessarily because they had not been given care which could have kept them at home.

Mr Stevens also told the Telegraph:

• The NHS needed to abandon a fixation with "mass centralisation" and instead invest in community services to care for the elderly
• Waiting targets introduced by Labour became "an impediment to care" in too many cases
• The European Working Time Directive damaged health care in the NHS, making it harder to keep small hospitals open
• Businesses should financially reward employees for losing weight and adopting healthy lifestyles

An NHS England source said Mr Stevens was saying that smaller hospitals had a part to play in shifting services into the community, not that there would be no closures of local hospitals in the future.

Helen Tucker, vice president of the Community Hospitals Association, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme Mr Stevens' comments were "great news", sending a "good, strong message that small is beautiful".

A "balance is needed" with centralised specialist hospitals, she said, but smaller institutions were "the hospitals that local communities really value," she said.

Mr Stevens, a former adviser on health to Tony Blair, will outline his vision for the NHS in a major speech at the NHS Confederation conference in Liverpool on Wednesday.

Analysis

By Dominic Hughes, BBC health correspondent

The review looked at the care given to over 6,500 people

In recent years the health service in England has emphasised the benefits of centralised services.

So those suffering from a stroke or a heart attack might be taken to a specialist centre rather than the local hospital.

But with only limited resources, the future of smaller district general and community hospitals has been less clear.

Now Simon Stevens, the new chief executive of the NHS in England, says they should play an important part in providing care - especially for older patents who could be treated closer to home.

That might mean they take over GP services or community care.

But what he is not calling for is a return to 1950s-style cottage hospitals nor is he saying that no hospitals will close.

It is more subtle - that the debate in the NHS has focused too much on centralisation and there is still a place for smaller local hospitals.

Chris Ham, the chief executive of the King's Fund think tank, told the BBC the plans could lead to "much more joined up, coordinated care that many older people need".

He added: "We know much of the demand for hospital care these days is for routine acute care for growing numbers of older people.

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We know much of the demand for hospital care these days is for routine acute care for growing numbers of older people”

Chris HamKing's Fund

"What they want is a really good, local, accessible hospital, there for them when they need it.

"This message is quite right, it will be welcomed by many people."

'Recalibrating'

Ruthe Isden, from charity Age UK, said Mr Stevens' comments were "very welcome to us" and she looked forward to hearing more details in his speech next week.

Speaking to BBC News, she said his views signalled a change in tone in the way the NHS is moving.

"In recent years, there has been a lot of thinking about specialist care but we also need to think about wrap-around, community care.

"This is a recalibrating of the way we think about these issues."

She added: "We need to invest in services which look at the holistic needs of the elderly. Things like social care, making sure they don't get lonely and that they are given opportunities to exercise.

"It's a case of not just seeing medical care as the answer to everything."

Katherine Murphy, the chief executive of the Patients Association, said: "For older patients in particular, the prospect of having to travel great distances to get to hospital can be daunting and inconvenient.

"Elderly people need to be treated close to home, with an emphasis on compassion, privacy, dignity and respect.

"In addition, there is a need to have a workforce in place that is trained to look after older people."

Mr Stevens took up the post of chief executive of the NHS in England after 11 years working for private health care firms in Europe, the US and South America.

The Scottish government said it was working to improve "intermediate care" as a "bridge between hospital and home".

Northern Ireland health minister Edwin Poots commissioned a review which said services should be provided "in the community, closer to people's homes where possible".

He said "significant progress" was now being made

people in A&E lying in corridors

Hundreds of thousands of patients are being sent home from hospital in the middle of the night despite a promise to limit the practice.
During the past two years at least 300,000 people, many of them elderly, have been discharged between 11pm and 6am to relieve pressure on wards.
An investigation by The Times in 2012 revealed that patients were being woken and removed from their beds, even if they had no way of getting home. Some were left in night clothes, with no medication or paperwork, and in vulnerable or dangerous situations.
At the time, health chiefs promised that patients would be moved at night only in exceptional circumstances, but new figures obtained under a freedom of information request show that the practice remains just as widespread.
More than half of the NHS trusts that responded reported that the number of patients sent home at night had increased during the past three years. Almost 60,000 of the patients were over 75. The true number of patients discharged overnight is likely to be much higher because less than half of England’s 160 NHS trusts responded to the data request by Sky News.
Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association, said: “These figures are truly shocking. It is simply unacceptable that patients are being discharged from hospital late at night.
“We are particularly concerned that tens of thousands of these patients are aged over 75. For older people, spending time in hospital can be extremely distressing and disorientating.
“Patients need to be treated with care, compassion and dignity. For the many older people who live alone, being discharged after early evening shows not only a lack of care and thought, but can actually be dangerous.”
Nadra Ahmed, chairwoman of the National Care Association, said that elderly patients were returning home or arriving at care homes in disarray.
“They come out very often without the appropriate papers that would give information and the history of what has happened to them. Often they will come out without the appropriate medication, because the hospital pharmacy has closed, and there is no cross-referencing to what medication they’re already on.
“You’re also discharging them into the hands of night staff at care homes, when the manager or owner may not be there, so it’s creating an unplanned and chaotic atmosphere. They may find it disorientating and very distressing. We keep hearing these platitudes that things are so much better now. But I’ve heard of people being discharged with no clothes on, just a blanket around them, or wearing soiled incontinence pads that haven’t been changed. We’re not a third world nation.”
Two years ago, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the NHS, demanded that all hospitals review how they discharged patients, describing the practice of sending elderly people home in the middle of the night as unacceptable.
He said: “By and large the NHS is coping reasonably well, but there are times of peak admissions where there are real, significant pressure on beds. But the answer to that is not chucking people out in the middle of the night.”
Two months ago, he added that moving patients within hospitals at night struck at the heart of NHS efforts to “treat all patients with respect and compassion”. He ordered hospitals to review night-time ward transfers and stop all but the essential.
Dr Mike Smith, chairman of the Patients Association, said: “They have got people in A&E lying in corridors, they have got to be admitted and they have no beds. It’s for the convenience of staff and the person they are admitting but at the gross detriment to the person they are chucking out.”
NHS England said: “Discharging patients at night without appropriate support is unacceptable. The decision to do this should always be based on what is best for the patient