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Showing posts with label HSE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HSE. Show all posts
Catherine McGinty ✒ Review follows Inishowen man's complaint about conduct of Emergency Department staff.

Inish Times
9-February-2022

An Ombudsman-ordered external review of Letterkenny University Hospital's complaint handling process is currently taking place, Inish Live can exclusively reveal.

In a statement to Inish Times, the HSE confirmed the Office of the Chief Operations Officer and Integrated Operations was undertaking a review of Letterkenny University Hospital's complaint handling processes, with the cooperation of the Saolta University Health Care Group.

According to the HSE, the Office of the Chief Operations Officer will issue a report on the review to the Ombudsman on or before the deadline of April 1, 2022 and publication of the review will be at the discretion of the Office of the Ombudsman.

The review of Letterkenny University Hospital's complaint handling processes was one of the actions ordered by the Ombudsman in response to a complaint made to his office by Moville man Enda Craig.

Mr Craig's complaint to the Ombudsman against Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) centred on the manner in which he was treated by a staff member in the early morning of May 11, 2019, while he was a patient in a cubicle in the emergency department.

Continue reading @ Inish Live.

External Review Of LUH Complaint Handling Underway

Catherine McGinty ✒ Ombudsman orders review of LUH's complaint handling process.

Enda Craig vindicated by Ombudsman


Inishowen man, Enda Craig, was accused of abusive and threatening behaviour by Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH).

Enda Craig vindicated by Ombudsman

The Ombudsman has now found the Moville man innocent of all allegations.

...

Speaking to Inish Live, Mr Craig explained he had made a one-page complaint concerning abusive behaviour, against a senior staff member of the emergency department (ED) in LUH, on the night of May 11, 2019.

I was, in turn, accused of abusive and threatening behaviour of the ED staff on the night in question, in a 25-page response from the hospital's manager and director of nursing. LUH's response contained a 'detailed' examination of the hospital's CCTV video footage in which it was claimed that I had, among numerous other reprehensible actions, threatened the Clinical Nurse Manager (CNM) and deliberately trespassed into the plaster room, where ongoing medical procedures to patients were in progress. However, when I accessed and examined a copy of the hospital's CCTV footage, no images whatsoever were found to corroborate any of these vile allegations. In fact, they did not exist.
Continue reading @ Inish Live.

Vindicated ✑ Accused Of Abusive And Threatening Behaviour By LUH

Caoimhin O’Muraile ✒ As we are all acutely aware over the last year and longer a terrible pandemic has infected mother earth.
 
COVID-19, or SARS – COV 2, reportedly began in China and spread its deadly wings outwards taking less than three months to cover the planet.

In the twenty-six counties the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom which, for now, covers the six-counties have constantly told us how well these services have done in coping with the crisis. 

The staff of both agencies have done remarkably well under very dangerous, life threatening conditions leading to public rounds of applause for the staff working in both services and no sane thinking person could deny this gesture of respect for these employees. However, no rounds of applause can compensate for a pay increase, which was/is deserved even before this pandemic, yet the impression I get [cynically I admit] is perhaps when/if this is all over and the health unions approach the employers for a substantial pay increase, they may be told – words to the effect of; you have had a round of applause, what more do you want, could this happen? Let’s hope I am wrong. 

In the twenty-six counties, some time prior to the pandemic there was a moratorium on nursing recruitment and budget shortages which affected (affects) the efficiency of the health service. Hospitals could not employ more nurses because they had not the budget to do so. In London, according to the journalist, John Pilger, a reliable source, the NHS carried out a dummy run back in 2016 of how they would shape up in the event of such a pandemic. The failings within the NHS were highlighted, shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was apparent, bed shortages, staffing levels all came to the fore, yet nothing was done to rectify these deficiencies. 

At its formation back in 1948 the NHS had a bed capacity of 400,000 – thereabouts – today, for a larger population, that capacity is around the 130,000, possibly less! Various governments dating back to the sixties have implemented cut backs and will continue to do so in the UK once this present crisis is under control. Look at the amount of private health care companies now advertising their services on British television, Nuffield, Babylon, Spire Health Care, Layla Health Care to name only a few all claiming to be assisting the NHS. Perhaps the word assisting should be changed to “replacing” the NHS!

So, have the two health services coped? No, they have not! They have effectively managed one virus, COVID-19. If a person was/is a cancer patient, a renal patient, a liver patient somebody who suffers cardiac problems and many other serious illnesses they have been neglected. People have died of cancer for want of needing treatment and could not get it simply because everything has been thrown at COVID-19. This, by any definition is not coping - a patient suffering other illnesses have more chance of finding rocking horse shit on a beach than getting an appointment with their consultant! The truth is both services have not coped due to staffing levels, which in all probability will continue to be cut back on, a shortage of beds and equipment which, in the case of the NHS there are no excuses they knew their shortcomings and still did nothing to rectify them.

In the twenty-six counties Sinn Fein, if they ever get into government are pledged to the introduction of a fully funded, single tiered nationalised health system with treatment free at the point of need. It is to be modelled on the British variant introduced by the Labour Government of Clement Attlee in 1948 and was funded from general taxation. This was at a time when government policy was aimed at full employment so taxes were coming in and Keynesian economic policies which benefited the nationalised industries, including the NHS were government, Labour and Conservative, policy. Full employment is a major factor in funding such a service. 

Sinn Fein may have their own ideas as to how this service should be funded and they assure us it has all being fully costed. However, in the UK today much of the NHS funding comes from private enterprise, which raises the question; is it any longer a truly National Health Service? Yes, treatment is generally free at the point of need, a factor which is slowly being eroded, and visiting a GP is still free. The thing about this is, treatment is not free as such because people have already paid for it through taxation. Nevertheless, the NHS is still, though a shadow of its original self, a fine service at least for the time being! Sinn Fein must look at the NHS and study not the areas of brilliance and the government progressive policies of the Attlee administration, but the flaws therein which have evolved thereafter, partly due to the door being left ajar to allow such flaws to be exploited by private companies. 

If or when Sinn Fein become the leading party of government in the twenty-six counties, and assuming their policy of launching a single tiered nationalised health service is still in place [difficult to predict with them, what happened to the 32 county-socialist-republic?] they should look at the mistakes, if that is what they were, of the Atlee Government. 

The first error was not forcing GPs into becoming employees of the new NHS. GPs resisted the new health service with a vengeance, as I am sure they will here, and the then Health Minister, Aneurin Bevan, against his better judgement and personal beliefs came to a compromise with the GPs. General Practitioners were not to become employees of the NHS but rather independent contractors to the service, they would be paid so much per patient by the NHS in return for treatment for all free at the point of need. This potentially allowed privatisation to come in later on a larger scale as the GPs were already private concerns. It set a precedent. This was part of the settlement in 1948 when the NHS was established. Today, NHS England and Wales, Scotland and the six-counties differ slightly but still offer treatment free at the point of need, is responsible for paying practices for their services. GP practices are paid on the basis of the number of patients on their list, £152 per patient at the moment.

Consultants working for the NHS are also free to work in a private practice alongside their NHS work which obviously may and does lead to a conflict of interests. More money can be made through private consultations, despite the rules stating categorically there must be no conflict of interests between NHS and private work. This also happens in the twenty-six counties, as revealed on an RTE documentary some time ago, where consultants were doing private work at the expense of their HSE responsibilities.

If Sinn Fein ever find themselves in a position to establish a fully funded, single tiered nationalised health service they must take precautions against this sort of thing happening, otherwise the entire project could be undermined. One way would be to force by diktat GPs to surrender their private practices and come under the new health service umbrella. They would become state employees and no longer be able to charge non-medical card patients. In fact such items as medical cards would no longer be needed under a truly “free at the point of need” service. They would be paid a wage, a decent wage, and the job would come with a superannuated index linked pension in line with other public employees.

This may be a little dictatorial for the now non-revolutionary Sinn Fein so they may wish to take the softly approach, giving GPs the option of coming into the new system, while still being allowed a limited latitude to do private work providing their commitments to the public health service are fulfilled. However, such an approach is open to abuse, as the documentary on RTE showed. The next measure they could take is to train up a new generation of doctors who wish to become GPs making them all state employees, with a pension and a surgery provided by the state. Charging patients would be illegal and treatment “free at the point of need” would become the order of things. 

The private business GPs would have no patients, apart from the very wealthy, and eventually would die a death. After all who would go to a GP and pay money they could perhaps not afford, when they could attend a state employed equally good, and younger, GP and receive treatment free? The problem with the last option is, it takes years to train a Doctor so some form of legislation, perhaps in the “national interest” might have to come into force. Perhaps the banning of private health care could be considered, thus making the GPs come into the fold. Distasteful as these may be, a Sinn Fein Government or any other party committed to a single tiered public health service must consider.

Another area which must come under the umbrella is that of the pharmaceutical companies. In order to stop the conglomerates undermining the health service they must be taken out of private hands. At the moment these companies charge what the hell they like for medicines, often the prices are ridiculously high. That must stop, and the only way to do that is by putting these companies under government control. The high street Pharmacies must also be looked at, particularly the larger ones which have chains of shops, Boots for example is there a need to put them under government control? Or perhaps a policy of price and profit control could be the answer. The point I am trying to make is no section of health care must be allowed to undermine the service by personal greed. All dental and optical care must also come under the umbrella of the new service.

Before the outbreak of this pandemic the British Government commissioned the Naylor Report. This was an independent report by Sir Robert Naylor (March 2017) for the Secretary of State for Health. The object was/is “to raise funds so that new models of NHS care can be put into practice through forty-four Sustainability and Transformation Plans.” The report sites underinvestment, always the case when something is to be privatised, run the industry down making it inefficient and uneconomical. The report recommendation, which was endorsed by then British PM Theresa May, is to raise money through: “NHS property disposals, private capital investment in primary care and allocations from the treasury.”

In lay terms this means the Naylor Report will compel the NHS to sell land and property, old disused hospitals etc, in conjunction with private companies who will put up money to “maximise the value of the estate and share in any profit made.” The clue is in the latter, “share in any profit made”. Should the NHS Trusts “not commit to ‘maximise’ property disposals then they ‘would not be eligible to access public capital funding.” Research by the British Labour Party revealed much of this property still in clinical use is “on the list to be sold off.” 

This means NHS hospitals still fully functional will be sold off to private companies. The Naylor Report also wants private concerns to construct and maintain “primary care facilities and charge the NHS rent on those facilities!” This is a far cry from what was intended back in 1948 and is a backward step towards pre-World War Two universal private health care in the UK. What, for example under the Naylor Report, is to stop a private company buying up at a very low cost an obsolete hospital, renovating it and opening up again as a private hospital? Nothing says they cannot do this. Would it not be better, if governments are committed to the NHS, as they continually mislead people into believing they are, to put money into such hospitals and reopen them as NHS institutions instead of allowing private companies to move in and profit out of people’s ill health?

In the UK, and because the NHS has always been a mixture of public and private provision, there has always been a way in for the private sector to take over. In the days of the post-war consensus this was not an immediate problem because both major parties of government, Labour and Conservative, were committed to the NHS. This changed in 1979 with the election of the right-wing anti-consensus government of Margaret Thatcher. For the first time since its formation the NHS came under overall serious threat, and still is. To prevent this happening in the twenty-six counties Acts of the Oireachtatas, then by popular vote of the population added to the constitution should happen safeguarding the new nationalised single-tiered publicly funded health service from any future government changes. This way it would, in future be unconstitutional for any right-win Fine Gael or Fianna Fail Government to reverse the health service back into private hands.

For many years the HSE lagged behind the NHS in quality and delivery of care to patients, which does not mean the doctors and nurses in the NHS were/are better at their jobs than those in the HSE. It simply means the NHS due to the structures of a publicly funded service is better equipped to facilitate the staff to carry out their duties. This is still the case though the gap is narrowing but not because the HSE is improving, but moreover the NHS is deteriorating. Even while the pandemic has been ravaging the planet further cuts in the NHS are no doubt in the pipeline. The NHS has been run down by various British Governments since the sixties and accelerated after 1979 to suit the ever-changing needs of British capitalism, now part of the huge global capitalist picture. Perhaps when the unionists in the six-counties hold up the NHS as a shining example against Irish unification people should remember the NHS, if this trajectory is continued may not be around, certainly in its present form, for many more years.

Should Sinn Fein ever be in a position to implement their policy to replace the present health system with a publicly funded [through progressive taxation] health service they must be aware of the mistakes the Attlee Government, if mistakes be what they were, leaving the door ajar for future privatisation of their “jewel in the crown” the NHS. The Atlee Government in the UK had the Second World War as a background to implement their moderate socialist agenda, including the NHS. The politics of Britain [the North of Ireland was different] evolved into the “post war political consensus” meaning both parties, Labour and Conservative, were committed to the moderate nationalisation programme and the NHS. 

The only political consensus in the twenty-six counties is that of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail conspiring together to keep Sinn Fein out of government and if this successfully continues the Irish National Health Service that party envisages will never come to pass. Perhaps looking back at the flaws in the British model, and with the gift of hindsight, Sinn Fein should look at the Cuban model of health care, or perhaps a mixture of both. The Cuban way would require much restructuring of the economy and the means of production from private to state ownership, which might mean Sinn Fein bringing about the thirty-two-county socialist republic they once promised! 

In order to fund a public health service, the economy would have to undergo some changes. No longer could the so-called free market be allowed to dictate the direction the economy takes, much more government intervention would be required to facilitate the health service and, therefore, people’s quality of health. Either way if health care provision is going to improve in the twenty-six counties some sort of nationalised, single tiered health service is required. Will Sinn Fein bring this about or, like the 32 county socialist republic, will the idea like chaff in the wind, just disappear?


Caoimhin O’Muraile is a Dublin 
based Marxist and author. 

The HSE + NHS Have Coped? SF Plans For A Nationalised Health Service For 26 Counties!

Enda Craig recounts his experience at the hands of HSE bureaucracy after he made a complaint about the manner in which he had been treated. 

This issue concerns a one-page complaint by me against a staff member in the Emergency Department of Letterkenny University Hospital for alleged abusive behaviour.

LUH responded with 25 pages which contained several descriptions of CCTV images. None of them were found to exist on the footage which attempted to portray my behaviour as that of a thug.

This 25-page response also contained a misleading Clinical Incident Report (a legal document), as well as numerous uncorroborated statements and unfounded allegations all of which were intended to paint my behaviour as that of a thug who engaged in 'staff abuse and threatening behaviour'.

In fact, these were untrue accusations that, in my view, sought to protect the reputation of the hospital and its staff so that my written complaint would be dismissed out of hand.

Vilification Of An Innocent Patient By A Consultant In Letterkenny University Hospital
 

This video clip of an interaction between myself and a Clinical Nurse Manager was interpreted by a Senior Consultant at Letterkenny Hospital, who stated:

At 01.58 hours, you approached the CNM from the side and leaned over her desk where she was sitting at work from your elevated standing position. You pointed your finger at the CNM and into her face for a protracted period from 01.58, lasting 34 seconds. The CNM is seen to recoil backwards and lift her hands in a defensive manner.

On appeal LUH admitted that the statement "The CNM is seen to recoil backwards and lift her hands in a defensive manner" was wholly inaccurate and never took place in the first instance. This was simply used by the Senior Consultant in an attempt to vilify an innocent patient who stood up for his rights and made a genuine complaint against a member of staff in the ED department. Senior management backed the Consultant to the hilt and refused to discuss it.  

A piece in Donegal Live by Catherine McGinty from the Inish Times headed, 'Complain against Letterkenny University Hospital at your peril' - reported that:

A Donegal man has called for for an urgent public enquiry into the patient complaints procedure of Saolta University Health Care Group, which comprises seven hospitals including Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH).
Enda Craig, from Carnagarve in Moville in Inishowen made the call following what he claimed were attempts to “vilify and discredit” him when he made an official complaint regarding LUH's Emergency Department. It centres on CCTV footage which Mr Craig obtained following a Freedom of Information request to LUH.
Having viewed the CCTV footage, Donegal TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn told Inish Times: “I have looked at the CCTV footage of the incident and it does appear to me that there are questions to answer.”
 
Senior management in the hospital stated that I should never have been given a copy of the CCTV footage.

Lucky me.

⏩ Enda Craig is Donegal resident. 

Hospital Complaint And A Shameful Vilifying Response

Anthony Connor in a press release from Direct Democracy Ireland hits out at the state of the health service claiming claims that:

so-called new politics, is failing the people

Failing The People

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