Many UK Hospitals Have Foundation Status Despite Substandard Care

Investigations by the Telegraph "show that 22 hospital trusts in the past three years have been given the coveted status despite a range of serious failings including high rates of superbugs, delays treating cancer and heart attack victims, long waits in Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments and lack of proper care for the elderly and the mentally ill."

Hospital Trusts with foundation status have greater autonomy and their senior managers can award themselves huge pay increases. These hospitals include the foundation trust which has the highest death rate in England and also the Mid Staffordshire Foundation trust, where over a period of years hundreds of patients died in appalling circumstances of filth, humiliation, neglect and dehydration, during which time complaints from relatives and others were not acted upon because meeting targets was the top priority, and caring for vulnerable patients was not a priority at all.

Despite these scandalous facts, little seems to change. Whenever there is the usual claim that 'lessons have been learned" it is either a false claim or the lessons are quickly forgotten again. In Britain we have deplorably futile complaints procedures for anything involving hospitals, GPs and healthcare staff in general. Vince Cable, a highly respected MP, drew scathing attention to this when he was answering a question this week on the Any Questions programme on BBC Radio 4. Reforming the complaints procedures is a matter for Parliament, but for the 60 years since the NHS's birth the procedures have only been tinkered with and they remain a national disgrace and are the reason that hospital standards are poor and that medical negligence is so common and is on the increase. I was treated negligently in a foundation trust hospital in 2007 and suffer permanent severe pain and disability in consequence. But I know from experience that making a complaint would be a sheer waste of time and effort and would only cause me further distress.

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

Margaret Wilde www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk