The price of being a courageous Whistle Blower.

Here is another disgraceful story of how NHS whistle blowers are treated; when will they learn that hiding problems under the carpet cures nothing.

Complainers and whistle blowers should be welcomed - it's the people who keep quiet about problems whjo are dangerous;

BBC News
15 January 2015
A whistleblower paramedic has been banned from two hospitals after he spoke out
about overcrowding in A&E.
Stuart Gardner, of West Midlands Ambulance Service, received the ban after
telling the BBC under-pressure emergency units were "not safe".
He said the chief operating officer (COO) of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS
Trust has told him he was "not welcome" on either of its sites.
The trust said the ban was imposed as Mr Gardner's comments had upset staff.
It said its conversations with him were related to "personal upset" his comments
had caused among some A&E staff.

Union bosses are now considering taking legal action in the case.
Mr Gardner told reporters last week that he had seen patients being treated in
corridors at the Worcester Royal Hospital.
He said all he did was "raise concerns" about the location of treatment, and had
not criticised the behaviour of doctors or nurses.
"I was highlighting that issue and saying [patients] should have been on the
wards," he said.
 Mr Gardner said he had seen patients treated in corridors at Worcestershire
Royal Hospital
In light of his comments, Mr Gardner said COO Stewart Messer had banned him from
entering the hospital in Worcester and the Redditch Alexandra Hospital.
Mr Messer e-mailed the ambulance service the night before Mr Gardner appeared on
TV, and warned he would "not be welcome" on trust property if he was "critical
of managers or emergency department staff".
After the broadcast, Mr Messer e-mailed again and wrote: "[Mr Gardner] is no
longer welcome on either of our hospital sites, so can you please ensure that he
does not attend."
Ray Salmon, Unison area manager, said the union was threatening legal action
against the trust.
"Stuart informed the hospital he was going to blow the whistle, they threatened
him, he blew the whistle, they've now excluded him from site," he said.
"It's clear victimisation of a whistleblower."
The trust said it "actively encouraged" whistleblowing and it was "critical" to
preserve good relations with the ambulance service.
"[But] in response to this isolated incident, we have suggested it would be
appropriate for Mr Gardner to address the upset he has caused amongst A&E staff
who are working tirelessly under... extreme pressure," it said.
West Midlands Ambulance Service said it did not wish to comment.
However, the BBC understands it wrote to the trust to inform it Mr Gardner would
continue to be deployed in the same way.
Correction: This story was amended on 16 January 2015 in light of updated
information.
We should all be supporting Mr Gardner in this dispute, his cause is just.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home:  helpmesortoutthenhs.blogspot.com

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

111 Emergency - still an emergency.

This is an article from The Daily Telegraph today – figures are now coming through which prove what this Blog has been saying for over a year.

The old ‘NHS Direct’ phone line was a real help to patients; it offered quick access to experienced nurses who could confidently divert patients away from Accident and Emergency.

The new ‘111’ line is staffed by unqualified staff who use a computer programme to advise patients.

If in doubt? Send them to A and E because you can’t go wrong.

It’s not the whole answer, of course. The real delays are because too many Nursing jobs have been lost, too many beds are empty and too many wards have shut.

The effect of this is that when patients are treated in A and E but need in patient time – there aren’t the beds.

Every one waits, operations are cancelled, simple problems become emergencies.

By  Laura Donnelly, Health Editor

Daily Telegraph.

14 Jan 2015

NHS 111 is to blame for almost all of the last year's rise in Accident & Emergency admissions, one of the country's most senior medics has said.

 

Dr Cliff Mann, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, said it was "absurd" to suggest patients were wrong to go to casualty units, when large numbers were being directed there by the telephone service.

 

Speaking at a session of the Commons health select committee on Wednesday, he said the NHS needed to change its systems so they work better for patients.

 

 

He told MPs that the 111 phoneline, which was supposed to help patients and relieve pressures on hospitals has had the opposite effect.

 

 

"The reason these people are attending these emergency departments is because we told them to," he said.

 

"Of the 450,000 extra attendances in the system in the last year, 220,000 were advised by NHS 111 to come to the emergency department and another 220,000 had an ambulance despatched to them by NHS 111.

 

"If you put those figures together you have more than 95 per cent of the rise in type 1 [major A&E unit] attendances. I don't think we should blame people for attending the emergency department when we've told them to go there. It's absurd."

 

Earlier this month, emergency medicine experts said that when nurses handled calls on the helpline's predecessor, NHS Direct, they had the experience to know when an A&E visit was not appropriate.

 

It came as figures emerged showing that NHS 111 sends an extra 50 per cent more patients to A&E at the weekend, when GP surgeries and other clinics are shut - increasing the strain on already stretched hospitals.

 

Latest figures show A&E waiting times in England are now at their worst levels in more than a decade.

 

Suzanne Mason, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Sheffield said the numbers of patients being sent to A&E after calling 111 was a huge problem.

 

She said ambulance services in some parts of the country had been "brought to their knees" by call handlers, who follow a risk-averse computer symptom checker, that defaults to A&E as a safety-first option.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

 

Home: helpmesortoutthenhs.blogspot.com

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com