Now, if the truth be known, I quite like Peter Clark. I think he tries to do a good job under quite difficult circumstances. What amuses me about the nursing profession is this, when bad nursing is proven, few do anything.
Now, this is the evidence on Ward 87. There are actually 2 reports on how substandard the nursing care was and how bad the management was.
The nursing profession aren't all bad. I do though think that government mismanagement and funding problems, increases in paperwork has led to the service being stretched. Ward 87 though had a combination of factors - malicious nurses and poor management. That is quite rare. I have never seen such nurses anywhere else in the NHS. There are simply pockets of bad nurses much like there are doctors. At least RCN stuck up for their whistleblower and they try and do things right. It is much more than the medical profession has done for all their whistleblowers. They tend to be ostriches and hide away denying that serious problems exist when whistleblowing.
I also don't think Claire Rayner's onslaught on the nursing profession is fair. Afterall, there is no independent evidence verifying the tales of the unexpected as touted by Rayner on the Patient Association website. It is notable that no media outlet actually cares about the statistics. Since, I mocked the Patient Associations misleading statistics yesterday, I note the Times has come up with a more softer version of the statistics. It is rather startling that when a doctor touts stories like this, he or she must have an axe to grind and when the public do this, they must be right. To be honest while I have every sympathy for the 16 patients and their relatives touted by the Patients Association, I note the same demands for evidence and independent inquiries are not required. Any member of the public can go to a newspaper, present their perception of what happened and it will be believed and published. In reality though, the public have a completely different perception of bad care, they often misinterpret the care given by doctors. They are only a handful who will take the time and evidence base their allegations. There are therefore dangers in relying on subjective reporting. The fact is that the Patient Association does not show that 1 million patients are subjected to neglect. The facts are that they provide the tales of 16 patients and use the Inpatient Survey Results done by the NHS to justify their 16 cases. Extrapolating these figures and misleading the public is simply unforgivable.
The bottomline is that we all have 16 or more cases to tout around. Not all of us extrapolate that figure to 1 million patients.
The Patients Association attempted to mimic the Death by Indifference document for Learning Disabilities. The good thing about Death by Indifference is they did not make wild allegations and statistical extrapolations.
And then there is Ward 87. Now Ward 87 had case after case after case. Its reign of neglect continued since 10 years before me and 7 years after me. Well, there are two independent reports. There is a damning report from the nurse who assessed it but no one thought to do a broader data study.
During the main drafting of the 2001 report both the NMC and the RCN were present. It is now 2009, no charges have been brought against any of the nurses. After gruffing and whining that they couldn't find the nurses, a decade or more later, the NMC have sat down to read the report and investigate Ward 87. So we should remember that this isn't just me saying " ah the care is poor" or filling in a survey, its really about other nurses saying how bad the situation was.
This isn't an obsession as everyone would like to believe. It is really about accountability. It is about the fact that despite two damning reports, the powers that be simply sat around, sagely nodded and moved along. So every year since 2005, I have communicated with the NMC in about April each year. This is partly to observe how long accountability takes and it is also to monitor their attitude to poor care. In summary, I can say the NMC is probably grossly careless with their complaints. They were though very keen to take up Undercover Nurse and strike her off the Register and they did that in record time. In the meantime, the malicious vindictive nursing staff on Ward 87 continue to work in the NHS.
Now, this is the evidence on Ward 87. There are actually 2 reports on how substandard the nursing care was and how bad the management was.
The nursing profession aren't all bad. I do though think that government mismanagement and funding problems, increases in paperwork has led to the service being stretched. Ward 87 though had a combination of factors - malicious nurses and poor management. That is quite rare. I have never seen such nurses anywhere else in the NHS. There are simply pockets of bad nurses much like there are doctors. At least RCN stuck up for their whistleblower and they try and do things right. It is much more than the medical profession has done for all their whistleblowers. They tend to be ostriches and hide away denying that serious problems exist when whistleblowing.
I also don't think Claire Rayner's onslaught on the nursing profession is fair. Afterall, there is no independent evidence verifying the tales of the unexpected as touted by Rayner on the Patient Association website. It is notable that no media outlet actually cares about the statistics. Since, I mocked the Patient Associations misleading statistics yesterday, I note the Times has come up with a more softer version of the statistics. It is rather startling that when a doctor touts stories like this, he or she must have an axe to grind and when the public do this, they must be right. To be honest while I have every sympathy for the 16 patients and their relatives touted by the Patients Association, I note the same demands for evidence and independent inquiries are not required. Any member of the public can go to a newspaper, present their perception of what happened and it will be believed and published. In reality though, the public have a completely different perception of bad care, they often misinterpret the care given by doctors. They are only a handful who will take the time and evidence base their allegations. There are therefore dangers in relying on subjective reporting. The fact is that the Patient Association does not show that 1 million patients are subjected to neglect. The facts are that they provide the tales of 16 patients and use the Inpatient Survey Results done by the NHS to justify their 16 cases. Extrapolating these figures and misleading the public is simply unforgivable.
The bottomline is that we all have 16 or more cases to tout around. Not all of us extrapolate that figure to 1 million patients.
The Patients Association attempted to mimic the Death by Indifference document for Learning Disabilities. The good thing about Death by Indifference is they did not make wild allegations and statistical extrapolations.
And then there is Ward 87. Now Ward 87 had case after case after case. Its reign of neglect continued since 10 years before me and 7 years after me. Well, there are two independent reports. There is a damning report from the nurse who assessed it but no one thought to do a broader data study.
During the main drafting of the 2001 report both the NMC and the RCN were present. It is now 2009, no charges have been brought against any of the nurses. After gruffing and whining that they couldn't find the nurses, a decade or more later, the NMC have sat down to read the report and investigate Ward 87. So we should remember that this isn't just me saying " ah the care is poor" or filling in a survey, its really about other nurses saying how bad the situation was.
This isn't an obsession as everyone would like to believe. It is really about accountability. It is about the fact that despite two damning reports, the powers that be simply sat around, sagely nodded and moved along. So every year since 2005, I have communicated with the NMC in about April each year. This is partly to observe how long accountability takes and it is also to monitor their attitude to poor care. In summary, I can say the NMC is probably grossly careless with their complaints. They were though very keen to take up Undercover Nurse and strike her off the Register and they did that in record time. In the meantime, the malicious vindictive nursing staff on Ward 87 continue to work in the NHS.
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