Or Not. What's your experience?
Isleworth Resident John Hunt wrote in response to the CEO of West Middlesex Hospital, Dame Jacqueline's letter in the Hounslow Chronicle on 13th July. As it was not published in the Chronicle we're publishing it here.
Dame Jacqueline (13th July) wants "to put the record straight and to reassure our local community that we are determined to ensure that we continue to be a 'first class hospital for our community' ".
Methinks the lady doth protest too much. Sounds like doctoring records (*) and too much false assurance. Her quotation marks suggest that she knows that the West Mid. is NOT first class. But perhaps she believes that it's still good enough for us locals. (Does she have private health insurance?)
It certainly was far from first class in 2003 when my mother died there; nor from 2004 to 2008 when I was a member of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum; nor when one of the Forum members died there in 2008.
Nor am I aware that Hounslow LINk (the Local Involvement Network which replaced the PPI Forum) has received reports of any improvement.
Has Dame Jacqueline already forgotten the discussion at the West Mid. just five months ago with Dr. Vince Cable which I attended with other LINk and Forum members? The same problems continue, with no evidence of any effort --or even any will-- to combat them: and any staff who dare to complain are reportedly bullied. Does Dame Jacqueline just want to hang on, hoping for a nice farewell settlement?
I am aware of other cases since February: patients acquiring pressure sores or losing 10 kg while in the West Mid.; another, repeatedly discharged prematurely, admitted three times in as many weeks; yet another discharged with a recommendation for referral for palliative care, as allegedly not eating -- or perhaps just not being fed properly!
First class hospital? Florence Nightingale might have thought so. But hardly by modern standards.
John Hunt
(*) I raised the issue of falsifying records last year, twice, with the Nursing and Midwifery Council: but they chose to ignore it. They were slated earlier this month in two reports, following inspections by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence. -- See links at www.nmc-uk.org/Press-and-media/Latest-news/NMC-responds-to-CHRE-reports/
August 10, 2012