Showing posts with label nhs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nhs. Show all posts

Saturday 17 October 2015

Junior doctors' contracts: BMA being misleading - Hunt

Junior doctors' contracts: BMA being misleading - Hunt


Five junior doctors have given their take on the contract issue

The health secretary has accused the doctors' union of misleading junior doctors over changes to their contracts in England, ahead of a rally later.
Doctors are expected to march in protest at the changes which they say will lead to a drop in their salaries.
Jeremy Hunt said the proposals would benefit doctors by reducing their maximum weekly working hours.
The BMA denied it had misled its members and said the rally in London would be a wake-up call for ministers.
The government has indicated it will impose the new contract next year in England. Scotland and Wales have both said they will maintain the old contract; Northern Ireland has yet to decide.

Analysis


Junior doctors protest in Westminster
Image captionJunior doctors took part in a protest in central London earlier this year

By Hugh Pym, BBC health editor

There is a sense that Jeremy Hunt's patience is wearing a little thin. His latest interview is in effect an attempt to sidestep the BMA and appeal to the wider body of junior doctors in England.
But the BMA's response is that the thousands of doctors who will protest on Saturday in London and Nottingham will demonstrate the strength of feeling and unity behind the campaign against the controversial new contract.
The question is how ministers will respond to the weekend's protests and the BMA's continuing planning for a ballot of members on industrial action.
Mr Hunt told the BBC: "I think it is incredibly disappointing, the way that the BMA has misrepresented the government's position.
"It's caused a huge amount of anger unnecessarily; we don't want to cut the pay going to junior doctors, we do want to change the pay structures that force hospitals to roster three times less medical cover at weekends as they do in weeks and that means that there's a 15% greater chance of you dying if you are admitted on a Sunday, compared to being admitted on a Wednesday."

'Good deal'

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that a reduction in overtime rates at weekends would be compensated with extra basic pay.
Mr Hunt said he wanted to remove financial penalties "that force hospitals to roster less at weekends" and was willing to negotiate over safeguards that will stop doctors from working too many hours.
"This is a good deal for doctors. We are reducing the maximum hours a doctor can be asked to work from 91 to 72 hours [a week]. We're stopping doctors being asked to work for five nights in a row."
Mr Hunt also called on the BMA to return to the negotiating table.

Jeremy HuntImage copyrightPA
Image captionJeremy Hunt says changes to contracts will improve patient care

The BMA is demanding that the government withdraw its threat to impose the new contract in England from next year.
Dr Johann Malawana, chairman of the BMA junior doctors' committee, said Mr Hunt needed to listen not just to the BMA but to junior doctors themselves.
"The fact is we want a contract that is safe for doctors in terms of maintaining safe, clinical care and delivers a safe NHS for patients," he said.

'Financially unviable'

Commenting ahead of the rally in central London, Dr Malawana said the gathering would be "a wake-up call for ministers".
"The health secretary has accused junior doctors of misleading the public over the impact of his changes, yet at the same time he continues to conflate junior doctors' legitimate concerns and the government's rhetoric on seven-day services.
"The truth is that the junior doctor contract is in no way a barrier to seven-day services, with the vast majority of junior doctors routinely providing care to patients 24/7."
Dr Dagan Lonsdale, a specialist registrar working in intensive care medicine, said the thousands of doctors who will be demonstrating saw the proposed contract changes as "unsafe for patients and unfair to doctors".
"I already have a situation where I have to pay out fees for my training," the 32-year-old told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"If I am one of the doctors who loses out in this new contract, then again for my wife and I it becomes financially unviable for us to remain as doctors.
"Now that's not me being greedy, that's me just saying that the pennies coming in won't match the pennies coming out and I will have to leave medicine, that's a fact."
Gavin Brittain, a junior doctor in Greater Manchester, told the BBC: "We feel that the contract removes a couple of vital safeguards that are currently in place, that would lead to us working longer, unsafe hours.
"That might then lead to us becoming more tired, and as we all know, tired doctors are more prone to make mistakes and at the end of the day, mistakes can cost patients' lives."
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Wednesday 20 February 2013

Jeremy Hunt


Jeremy Hunt warns NHS trusts over 'defensive culture'

Gary WalkerGary Walker broke an NHS gagging clause when he spoke to the BBC

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Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned NHS bosses against allowing a culture that is "legalistic and defensive" in dealing with staff who raise concerns over patient care.
In a letter to all English NHS trusts, Mr Hunt highlighted fears that "gagging" clauses were being used to "frustrate" such whistleblowing.
A climate of "openness and transparency" is essential, he said.
It comes after one former NHS trust boss broke a gag to talk to the BBC.
Gary Walker, former chief executive of United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT), said he had been forced out of his job and gagged from speaking out about his concerns over patient safety.
'Positive move'

Analysis

Andrew HoskenBBC Today programme
The row over secret gagging clauses has focused attention on the man at the top of the English NHS, Sir David Nicholson.
His position was already being questioned in the wake of a highly critical report on the Mid Staffordshire Hospitals scandal, where hundreds of patients may have died from neglect and abuse.
However Sir David escaped personal censure from inquiry chairman, Robert Francis QC.
Following the report, another 14 NHS trusts have been placed under investigation.
What makes the gagging row potentially so toxic for Sir David is one of those trusts, the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, has been trying to enforce Gary Walker's gagging clauses with the threat of legal action.
Since Mr Walker broke cover, more people are asking whether Sir David and other senior NHS civil servants can bring about the cultural change and openness Jeremy Hunt and many others consider essential.
In his letter, Mr Hunt called for the NHS to "recognise and celebrate" staff who had "the courage and professional integrity to raise concerns over care".
The health secretary insisted that "fostering a culture of openness and transparency" was essential in creating a climate "where it is easy for staff, present and former, to come forward with any concerns they have relating to patient safety".
Mr Hunt also warned NHS bosses against the "institutional self-defence that prevents honest acknowledgement of failure".
"I would ask you to pay very serious heed to the warning from Mid Staffordshire that a culture which is legalistic and defensive in responding to reasonable challenges and concerns can all too easily permit the persistence of poor and unacceptable care," he said.
Mr Walker, who was sacked in 2010 for gross professional misconduct for allegedly swearing in a meeting, told the BBC he had no choice but to sign an agreement linked to a confidentiality clause in April 2011.
He said he was gagged by the NHS from speaking out about his dismissal and his concerns over the quality of care at the trust.
After breaking the order, lawyers for the trust then warned him he would have to repay £500,000.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Saturday, Mr Walker applauded Mr Hunt for "clearly taking a personal interest" in his case and the issue of gagging orders.
"I think that's a very positive move."
"I don't think it's simply about the Lincolnshire Trust," he added, calling for Mr Hunt to investigate the "chain of command" that led to the gagging, which he said included the Department of Health, the East Midlands Strategic Health Authority (SHA) and the Lincolnshire Trust.
"I don't think Mr Hunt can investigate his own department so I think he should be looking for someone exceptionally independent from all of this."
'Suppressed and bullied'
BBC Radio 4 Today programme reporter Andy Hosken said Mr Hunt's letter could spell the end of the National Health Service gag if the NHS trusts' chairmen to whom he wrote actually followed the advice and guidance contained within the letter.
Our correspondent said the letter was certainly a warning shot across the bows of the trusts. It appeared the use of these gagging clauses was widespread in the NHS, he added.
Meanwhile, Dr Phil Hammond, chief medical correspondent at Private Eye magazine joined calls for NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson to stand down.
He told BBC News: "We need to change the culture, we have to change the people at the top. David Nicholson has to go and that's the one constructive thing that Jeremy Hunt could do.
"Unless you have accountability at the top, you won't get it at the bottom."
Health Minister Lord Howe: "It is the right and the duty of any NHS employee to raise concerns"
A spokesman for the East Midlands SHA said it had always acted "appropriately and properly" in the "interest of patients".
And ULHT has said the allegations that they had tried to stifle debate about patient safety issues were "incorrect".
ULHT is one of 14 trusts in England currently being investigated for high death rates, in the wake of the Stafford hospital scandal, where hundreds are believed to have died after receiving poor care.
It emerged on Friday that police and prosecutors are now studying a damning report into failures at Stafford to see whether any criminal charges should be brought against staff.

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Saturday 9 February 2013

Stafford Hospital scandal: Jeremy Hunt calls for police inquiry


Stafford Hospital scandal: Jeremy Hunt calls for police inquiry

Jeremy HuntJeremy Hunt said the police and the General Medical Council should review the evidence

Staffordshire NHS scandal

The deaths of patients at Stafford Hospital should be investigated by the police, the Health Secretary has said.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Jeremy Hunt said it was "absolutely outrageous" that nobody had been "brought to book".
Staffordshire Police said it was currently "studying the report's full contents."
It said it had previously investigated two cases at the hospital but found no evidence to bring prosecutions.
"This was a public inquiry that was designed to help us understand why the system didn't pick up what went wrong but I think it is absolutely disgraceful with all those things happening, whether it is doctors, nurses or managers, nobody has been held to account," Mr Hunt told the newspaper.
'Duty of care'
He said that it was not for politicians to decide whether people should be prosecuted but that evidence should be reviewed.
The findings of the public inquiry into failings at Stafford Hospital were published on Wednesday.
Helene DonnellyNurse Helene Donnelly left the hospital trust in 2008
The 12-month inquiry, which cost £13m, came after a higher-than-expected number of deaths at Stafford hospital between 2005 and 2008.
The report by Robert Francis QC strongly criticised hospital managers and the Department of Health.
Helene Donnelly worked as a staff nurse in the casualty department at Stafford Hospital and raised concerns about patient care about 100 times in six years.
She said there had been a culture of neglect at the hospital and that she was in favour of the evidence being looked at.
"As a nurse who went through it and saw some terrible things, I think there does need to be some accountability certainly with some of the nurses I spoke out against," she said.
Staffordshire Police said two cases of misdiagnosis had been formally investigated following patient deaths but no evidence was found to suggest the hospital had been negligent in its care.

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Staffordshire NHS scandal

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FEBRUARY 25TH, 2010

Why Burnham Didn’t Want An Inquiry

Guido understands that Andy Burnham is about to be in some deep trouble. Yesterday he said he“did not believe that a lengthy, adversarial inquiry would be in the best interests of health care in Staffordshire.” Today it has emerged that in 2007, as a Junior Health Minister, he signed offon one of four stages of the Mid-Stafford Hospital’s elevation to Labour’s coveted Foundation Trust status. This was despite four formal alerts about the hospital’s dangerous practises. The rest they say is history.
No wonder Dave was asking about this at PMQs yesterday. Guido just got off the phone with Julie Bailey of Cure the NHS, a local group campaigning for a full inquiry into the case, who said she had to go because “we’re just about to start filming” as Andrew Lansley was on the way.
After Burnham’s “tired and emotional” outburst at Lansley last week for the death tax posters, Guido senses he may be dodging Nokias by the end of the tea time news…
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Friday 8 February 2013


Stafford Hospital: Does NHS boss have case to answer?

Sir David NicholsonSir David Nicholson has been chief executive of the NHS for the past six years

Staffordshire NHS scandal

For a man who is so renowned for keeping a tight control on the health service, the past few days have been undoubtedly uncomfortable for NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson.
Campaigners have been calling for his resignation from his £270,000 post following the public inquiry into the failings at Stafford Hospital.
And on Thursday he found his picture splashed on the front pages of two national newspapers.
Both included critical articles about his role in the scandal.
But what is the evidence against Sir David?
Anybody in charge of an organisation that has just had its culture criticised in the way the public inquiry did with the NHS would find themselves being asked questions.
But what makes Sir David even more vulnerable is the fact he had contact with Stafford Hospital when he was a regional NHS boss - as has been documented in the the 1,700-page report.
In fact he was on the panel that appointed a new chief executive for the hospital in the second half of 2005. The panel chose Martin Yeates, the man who would subsequently order a deep round of cost-cutting at the trust that contributed to the "appalling" levels of care.
Sir David actually became interim chief executive of the health authority that oversaw Stafford Hospital in August 2005. At the time, a number of health authorities were being merged and Sir David had been leading a neighbouring once since 2003.
The inquiry report makes clear that even at this time it was apparent that the Mid-Staffordshire Trust, which ran the hospital, had problems with finances and management structures.
Plain Mr Nicholson, as he was then, met with Mr Yeates and the chairwoman of the trust, Toni Brisby, soon after he took charge, to discuss what was being done.
Documents from the time show he was concerned about the performance of the trust and wrote to the trust to say so.
A letter back to him from Ms Brisby convinced him that new leadership at the trust was engaged with tackling the problems. The inquiry questioned this, suggesting the letter could be interpreted as the trust being in denial.
Top job
But Mid-Staffordshire was soon someone else's problem, as Sir David left the West Midlands in June 2006 to take up the reins of the NHS in London.
Within months he was on the move again after being appointed to the top job, chief executive of the whole health service in England,
The next time Stafford Hospital loomed large on his horizon was in the summer of 2007.

“Start Quote

What has been found to be wrong here cannot be cured by finding scapegoats”
Robert FrancisInquiry chairman
It had been put forward for foundation trust (FT) status - elite status that gives hospitals freedom from government control.
A Department of Health committee recommended the trust was in a fit state to be put forward for FT status.
Without any objections forthcoming, it was left to Andy Burnham, then a junior health minister, to sign off the relevant paper work and pass the application off to Monitor, the body that makes the final decision on FT status.
The following summer Sir David again found himself discussing Mid-Staffordshire in a meeting with the Healthcare Commission, the NHS regulator, which had just started an investigation into the trust following concerns about high death rates.
He is reported to have told officials from the regulator to beware of the Cure the NHS campaign, the group set up by local patients upset about the care provided by Stafford Hospital, suggesting they were "simply lobbying" as opposed to representing widespread concern among patients using the hospital.
Sir David denied using the phrase, leaving the inquiry to conclude that it was not possible to determine exactly what was said after all this time.
But the inquiry report did warn that care needed to be taken in these sort of situations to "avoid the impression that the Department of Health was seeking to influence an independent regulator".
'Cultural leader'
By March 2009 the Healthcare Commission published its findings on Mid-Staffordshire. They were devastating, lifting the lid for the first time on what had been happening.
A year later an independent inquiry was adding more harrowing detail to the picture. According to those who were close to him at the time, both reports are said to have shaken and upset Sir David.
The public inquiry also raised questions about the power the Department of Health wielded over the health service.
Of course, this will be influenced by ministers as well as senior officials such as Sir David.
The inquiry report described the department as a "cultural leader" but said the evidence did not suggest it was an organisation that bullied.
Instead, it concluded that "well-intentioned decisions and directives... have either been interpreted further down the hierarchy as bullying, or resulted in them being applied locally in an oppressive manner".
None of this was enough to convince inquiry chairman Robert Francis QC that Sir David - or anyone else for that matter - should go.
Mr Francis stressed in his statement to the media immediately after publication of the report that the blame game should be avoided, saying: "What has been found to be wrong here cannot be cured by finding scapegoats."
But this is not enough for Julie Bailey, the woman who set up Cure the NHS after losing her mother at Stafford Hospital.
She is adamant Sir David, who has apologised for what happened, should lose his job.
Ministers though are sticking by him.
As well as being chief executive of the NHS, he is also the head of the new NHS Commissioning Board, which will take charge of the health service from April.
As one government adviser put it: "Even if there was an appetite to get rid of him we couldn't afford to. We have a major restructuring on our hands and growing financial problems.
"He is the man who has a grip on the system. Without him we would be in real trouble."
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