All staff need to ensure they have training reinforced and don’t put ID bracelet on patients without first confirming their ID, especially important in A and E where it is so busy. Recent visit to an A and E department in north east London, where a member of staff started putting the wrong names wrist badge on my mother’s arm within 5 minutes of us arriving by ambulance. As I was standing next to her i immediately pointed it out, and it got corrected. However, the member of staff could have avoided this near miss - by just asking either my mother or I to confirm her name . It’s not rocket science - common sense - but clearly needs training to reinforce .
It’s interesting that this received so much more coverage due to a few directly attributed deaths or harm when we know how much harm continues to occur from corridor care in the ED and around the hospital, but it is a population harm, like smoking. And caused by, and endorsed by, the Department of Health.
The NHS has no mechanisms in place to learn and embed learning when things go wrong. There is even underreporting of adverse incidents. The unaccountable culture in the NHS - NHSE, ICBs and Trusts harms patients. If politicians cared about patients then NHS Chairs, Board NEDs & Executives should be held accountable. The NHS litigation bill is sky rocketing. Need NHS leaders personally responsible & Board Chairs, NEDs & Executives to have custodial sentences for the harm they reside over and usually cover up with corporate manslaughter with patients not only harmed but also killed unnecessarily by the NHS. If there was financial mismanagement these directors would be prevented from directorships- why not in the NHS? Avoidable patient harms & deaths doesn’t matter in the NHS culture and the families & relatives have to live with the consequences. If only politicians had insight about NHS culture!
Given my recent experience with a relative at a Trust, a Trust that is frequently self-praised by its own Board, yet castigated by staff, patient surveys, CQC and clinical incidents, I am shocked there are not more.
Not one single bed had the correct name, beds were swapped with patients in them, within the same ward and without anyone attending to the basics. It was left to patient relatives to clean off the names of previous bed occupants.
To be clear, this is not the lack of staff numbers as there were plenty. but nothing was obvious in terms of them being trained, skilled or any visible onsite leadership. This was a HDU!!!!
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