Hot on the heels of my tirade yesterday against the Prince of Wales come two news articles which would, sadly, seem to support his allegations.
The first is about this individual, who was erased from the medical register. I think the erasure was right and proper, his conduct inexcusable. But..... The peculiar circumstances of a RAMC regimental Medical Officer will have played a large part in the doctor’s actions and appear not to have been addressed, or even mentioned. An RMO works in an environment totally isolated from other medical colleagues, and surrounded by his other, non medical, officers 24 hours a day. If, as appears to be the case, there was institutionalised violence towards prisoners by the regiment, it would have taken enormous courage and strength of character to have stood alone and challenged this. The consequences to him within the regiment would have been unthinkable, and his position would have become impossible. It is a great shame that he lacked the necessary courage, but also that there does not appear to be any form of support from the higher echelons of the RAMC to medical officers in such situations.
The second is this report about Alexandra Hospital Redditch, which reminds one of Stafford. Many of our colleagues let down their profession and the NHS in these places and I can’t even begin to understand why. I don’t want to make excuses for the actions of the staff involved, they are inexcusable but I have no doubt that, like Stafford, the problems at Redditch will be found to emanate from the top. After all the CE is where the buck stops. I have no doubt that heads will roll at the sharp end. I wonder if anything will happen to this lot.
Penny Venables - Chief Executive - Worcestershire acute hospitals NHS Trust
Circumstances like these are unusual. They came to light after 100 hospitals had spot checks, 98 of which were not like Redditch. So I stand by my assertion that true care and compassion is the norm in the NHS, and that Charlie boy is still a twat.
'I can’t even begin to understand why' - context, my dear Dr Zorro, context.
ReplyDeleteI am sure Dr Keilloh has not harmed a single patient while working as a GP in Yorkshire - while front line staff at the Alexandra hospital would, no doubt, have adhered to a less dysfunctional ethos if the environment they worked in did not quite feel quite so hopeless.
The first question to ask in a bad apple or bad environment scandal is what sort of conditions staff were working in.
Those individuals being put through the mincer as a result of these horrible cases will tell you how shit things were, and how the consequences that arose from them were not entirely surprising - any Jeremy Hunt can see that?