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(not satire – it’s coalition Britain!)
A lot of people have been quite rightly asking how the Mid-Staffordshire NHS scandal could have happened.
The answer is actually very simple but extremely under-reported.
The cause was staff shortages due to cost cutting by management.
In other words – austerity.
Strange as it may seem – despite the fact that the scandal happened at a time the Labour government was pouring money into the NHS – the report by Robert Francis QC into the scandal found Mid Staffordshire NHS bosses were cutting costs and staffing levels in a mad dash to win foundation status which is why patients were deprived of even basic care such as food and water.
And that’s why part of the government’s response to the report is really, really bizarre.
They didn’t announce an end to austerity in the NHS.
In fact they announced they’re going to target nurse’s pay.
In other words – more austerity.
More austerity to cure a problem which was caused by too much austerity in the first place.
Is there nothing the government doesn’t think a good dose of austerity couldn’t cure?
Cancer? World hunger? Loneliness?
Austerity to cure austerity.
This government is getting more and more surreal by the day.
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Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & POLITICAL JOURNAL.
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Pingback: Austerity caused the Mid-Staffs NHS scandal. Cameron’s answer? More austerity. | Pride’s Purge « kickingthecat
The North Staffs scandal occurred when record amounts of money were being poured into the NHS. The vast majority of Hospitals achieved Foundation status without any problems with quality of care. The North Staffs problem was caused by criminally incompetent management who concentrated on targets which led to an uncaring culture in which patients were regarded as a nuisance.
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Well Clive – that’s pretty much what I say in the article. Only I specify what the report says – the cause of the scandal was “priorities directed at finance and restructuring rather than care”.
This fact is being ignored by both Labour and Coalition supporters for their own separate reasons.
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I do not think it is so much that the government priorities towards saving money and trying to become more efficient is to blame here.
I think the report mentioned that it was much to do with the conduct of a set of self interested individuals, concerned only in their own self promotion and preservation. You get that in all work places but in this case the whole NHS Trust seems to have become dominated by such people and this culture, leading to a general apathy and lack of trust in the management.
I think it is too simplistic to put this all down to money. Greed, incompetance, self promotion, poor leadership and communication are all part of this too. Next time you vist the hospital for an appointment take a while to observe the staff around you and how things are organised.
Watch while one patient goes through the whole process from the receptionist to dispensing the drugs at the hospital pharmacist and explain to me why that patient sees around half a dozen different people in several departments during the visit. During the process something normally goes wrong and communication breaks down between the staff, resulting in potentially serious consequences or more often, just the inevitable three hour visit rather than the 30 minutes it should take.
If you were running that hospital think whether you would you be happy with the things you see. Or perhaps it does not matter because it is taxpayers money paying for it all. The NHS has the best treatments and technology in the world but fails to deliver the benefits of this to all. Mis-diagnosising illness and failing to provide the correct and efficient care still happens on an alarmingly regular basis. I think the problem lies as much within the culture, general apathy and self interest and a system which is more designed to patch up people temporarily rather than find out what is wrong with them..
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Loverat – “I do not think it is so much that the government priorities towards saving money and trying to become more efficient is to blame here.”
Interesting that the word ‘austerity’ has now come to exclusively mean government policies. Actually nowhere in the article did I say it was government austerity which caused the scandal. Indeed, if you read the article again I mention that at the time the scandal was happening, the national government was pouring money into the NHS. It was the local management’s policies of austerity which caused the scandal.
Local austerity yes – but austerity nevertheless.
My (deliberate) use of the word austerity was to show that the use of austerity as a policy in the NHS was alive and kicking well before the present government started applying it.
Apart from that I agree with everything you say.
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More austerity and put the guy in charge of Mid- Staffs hospital in charge of the whole of the NHS! As you say its not satire.. its the Coalition.
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No it happened under Labour, face up to the fact that money is not the answer to every problem. If you have nurses and doctor’s that don’t care no amount of money is going to make them care, as was shown at this hospital. Stop trying to make it out to be the fault of the Coalition, this happened on Labour’s watch and it should have been sorted out while they were in government, but they ignored all the reports that told them what was happening. Shame on them!
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I imagine that you would prefer me to change the comment to “More austerity and keep the guy (who was in charge of Mid- Staffs hospital) in charge of the whole of the NHS!” I completely agree that New Labour should have sorted it out.
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Surely the cure for austerity is privatisation and deregulation.
First starve the public service to cripple it. Then deregulate taking away any safeguards then when problems arise bring in the cure to all the ills you just created with privatisation.
You know. That top down re organisation you said was never going to happen.
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I don’t care what you say, so long as you make sure you don’t make it look as though it is the fault of the Coalition. More money was poured into this hospital than at any time during the period Labour were throwing around money like drunks on a Friday night, so it shows that money was not the problem. The results specifically say that the patients were not given proper care and attention, the only way you are going to cure that is to get people that do care in the job and people who do care go into the job because they care, not for financial reward. People used to think it was a vocation rather than a job working as a Doctor or Nurse and in that respect, they went into the job to make a difference, not to get rich. The problem that needs to be resolved is at what point did that change?
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You’re factually wrong Corrine. The report shows that the hospital was being starved of money despite the national Labour government pouring money into the NHS. That’s a fact that you may not like but it’s a fact nevertheless.
Austerity caused the scandal and the present government’s answer to the problem is – even more austerity.
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If the labour government were pouring money into the NHS where was it going? how can they claim austerity if as you say money was going in?
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Guy – the local hospital management deliberately cut costs and staffing so it would be able to qualify for foundation status.
The money was available – they just didn’t want it.
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Sorry but money is all dumb tory cunts like yourself care about.
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So by this premiss, hospitals that have little staff and can run on the tightest budget are the only ones eligible for foundation status – more madness.
Perhaps they will only take patients like the dug up Richard 111 next.
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As a lot of nursing staff are from agencies and not employed by the NHS it would be difficult to sack them for misconduct when they may already have been replaced.
Above premiss should read premise.
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(Probably not satire)
Hiya Tom,
thanks for your sympathetic coverage of the Staffordshire business. It was good of you to put the blame firmly where it belongs. Oh and thanks for leaving up postings for many days with allegations that Conservative ministers have committed murder. We of course will continue with a similar strategy, using our internet sites that ostensively represent the disadvantaged, but actually act as outlets for for my union’s particular spin. We can do two things at once, accuse the Tories of murder and attack Blair and his mates; after all what did they ever do for us?
In alliance with our allies among the medical profession we have put it about pretty effectively that nurses and doctors were not responsible for anything, and when food and water was withheld, or people allowed to fall; how this could not possibly be the responsibility of the staff on duty?
Fortunately neither the Council of nurses or the medical Council have had to deregister a single practitioner, so all is going well on that front. Of course we will have to sacrifice one or two bureaucrats, they do not have a lot of public sympathy, they are expendible. Our friends in Unison, will of course negotiate pretty good deals for them, £500,000 seems to be the going rate.
You know pretty much where I stand on this issue, the loss of one Labour Party nurse or doctor is too high a price to pay for four hundred dead, and in any case most of the bastards voted Conservative.
I will get back to you with more ammunition,
LOL Charlie W.
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Cheers. Please do get back to me any more information.
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