I’ve been following the recent, tragic story of poor Mrs Kathleen Mobbs of Dawley. Frail and elderly, Mrs Mobbs was admitted to Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital as an emergency, yet waited seven hours for a doctor to assess her.
She died from undiagnosed cancer.
Events took an even more worrying turn as five concerned nurses risked their jobs, giving damning evidence at her inquest.
They admitted they were struggling to deal with ever-increasing numbers of emergency patients yet ever-decreasing resources and manpower.
And with each news report on the spiralling situation, I’ve had to bite my tongue a little harder, because I’ve just had my own unpleasant experience of how wrong things are going in our hospitals.
Mine happened in the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, another under the care of chief executive Mr Tom Taylor. I’d like to bet that given a chance to speak freely, RSH staff would describe the same chronic problems throughout their hospital too.
Rheumatoid Arthritis ensures I spend much of the year in and out of hospital, and this year’s been no exception. In spring I was on a ward at RSH being treated for a dislocated hip (my speciality) and some infected, RA-related wounds on my hands.
Late one night I was transferred onto another ward. Wheeling me into the lift, the porter explained that Accident and Emergency staff desperately needed to admit a patient but there were no beds. I had been shuffled.
Fine, I thought, a change of scenery, barely noticing the posters, stuck on the ward doors.
But when I overheard a nurse, asking the patient in the bed opposite for a sample so she could be isolated in case of infection, I started to worry.
And rightly so as it turned out the whole ward was, in fact, shut to new admissions due to an outbreak of Norovirus, the sickness and diarrhoea superbug. Not so firmly shut, though, that management couldn’t try to squeeze another patient in, and to hell with the consequences…
And they could have been dire. I’m immuno-suppressed, meaning not only is my immune system compromised by my condition but also by the toxic drugs I’m prescribed in a bid to control it. The upshot is, I’m virtually defenceless in the face of infection.
Had I caught Norovirus, an easy recovery would have been far from guaranteed – infection is the monster that chases me through my worst nightmares.
Luckily, I’m not half as careless with my health as RSH management appear to be, and discharged myself, at 1am. Ward staff tried to find me another bed on another ward, but by then I’d been exposed to a highly infectious superbug, and none would have me.
If only managers were half as conscientious as their nurses, maybe we’d stop hearing of disasters like the bitter end poor Mrs Mobbs suffered, and disasters-waiting-to-happen like being knowingly exposed to a hospital superbug by the very people entrusted with my health care.
- Tom Taylor, chief executive of The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “Ms Suddaby has contacted the Trust about the issues raised in the article. Following an investigation of her concerns, I have written to her to apologise that the arrangements for her transfer were not fully explained to her beforehand. Our Infection Control Team has confirmed that whilst there was a diarrhoea and vomiting bug in other parts of the ward, this was not the case in the annexe to which she was transferred. As mentioned, this should have been discussed fully with Ms Suddaby before any decision was made to transfer her, and this should only be done with the patient’s full knowledge and co-operation. I would like to take this opportunity once again to apologise that this did not take place, and reassure her that we use all feedback from patients to continue to improve policies and procedures in our hospitals.”
See Also:
7 Comments
I often wonder how many officials of NHS trusts have private treatment provided as a fringe benefit [ or perhaps to keep numbers small, how many do not ]. If their contract tied them to treatment on the NHS in their own hospitals there might be a dramatic improvement in conditions.
Report abuse
This is a tragedy indeed, but maybe hospitals could cope better if A & E weren’t so scared to turn away patients with silly ailments. Recently I split my head open and needed treatment, yet it was obvious that the person who followed me through the process had merely sprained their ankle. What is wrong with visiting the doctor?
Triage nurses need to be stronger and have more powers, without fear of any comback when a patient is turned away.
Report abuse
We have got an ever increasing elderly population.
We have also got an ever increasing population of people who live with on going serious health threatening conditions.
Patients are assessed by nurses as well as doctors and have to be dealt with in order of priority of their needs. this means if their needs are great but someone elses are greater then this sort of unhappy but hardly disasterous situation can happen.
I would never complain when people are trying to do their very best for me or someone else in need.
We do expect too much from a fragile but envied NHS which is staffed by people who expose themselves to risk from infection, violence from drunks and emotionally distraught patients every time they go into work.
I hope you feel ashamed that you mistrusted the what sounded like proper care you were given and assume that you will be paying for private treatment in future.
Report abuse
our entire family thats brothers sisters and respective children have an agreemant that under no circumstances will we be admitted to Telford or Shrewsbury Hospitals, as the only way out of these two in our experience is feet first!, there track record speeks for itself.
Report abuse
On a personal level, I have undergone an operation at RHS and day patient care at Telford and, as such, can only speak highly of these experiences. Maybe I was lucky, however, I wonder, of all the patients treated at both hospitals, what is the percentage that were “unlucky” I suspect it would be quite small. I think Ms Suddaby, with her compromised immune system was quite right to be concerned as only she knows the implications of infection and this could have been avoided with greater communication between the hospital staff and the patient.
Report abuse
[as only she knows the implications of infection]
If I read correctly the hospital said that Ms Suddaby was transferred to an annexe.I have no doubt that things were explained to her at the time that she was making her self discharge but she refused to listen. Hopefully her bed was quickly filled by someone in greater need.
I am very confident that Ms Suddaby is not the only person in the country with her condition and the hospital are well aware of her particular needs as they are the other hundreds of patients they care for.
Hospitals have problems with infections partly because people are surviving with more complicated conditions than ever (most cancer patients have suppressed immune systems) and I can only assume that Ms Suddaby was not as ill as some in so far as she discharged herself and has lived to make her complaint.
Report abuse
Commenting on hygiene at Shrewsbury hospital, my son was admitted with a broken leg and was in casualty, the x-ray room, the plaster room and finally the ward (not forgetting all the corridors along the way) and not one member of staff offered to clean the muck and dirt off his hands. I had to ask on the ward and was presented with a bowl and damp cloths to do the job myself! I was capable of doing this but I wasn’t the one responsible for the well being of the other patients in the hospital!!
Report abuse