back
|
 |
Cruelty to elderly patients allowed by managers
By: David Charter
The Times, NOVEMBER 16, 2000
HOSPITAL staff who tied elderly patients to lavatories and
shouted abuse at them still did not believe their actions were wrong, NHS
inspectors said yesterday.
A catalogue of cruel practices and management failure was
found at Garlands Hospital in Carlisle, part of the North Lakeland NHS
Trust in Cumbria. The Commission for Health Improvement found that
patients, many suffering from dementia, were tied to commodes, sworn at
and denied food, clothing and blankets.
Although the Trust chairman, chief executive and personnel director had
been sacked, many remaining staff “failed to recognise the abuse as
unacceptable practice”, the commission report said. Managers who were
told about cruelty to patients implicitly condoned or excused the abuse.
Garlands closed last year and the 30 patients were transferred to a new
unit of the nearby Carlton Clinic, also run by North Lakeland NHS Trust.
Peter Homa, the commission chief executive, said his team found a “very
sad, depressing situation” when they inspected the unit in May. “At
the time of our visit we could not be sure that it could not happen
again,” he said. “The culture of this organisation needs to change
fundamentally. There was a systematic failure of management that allowed
the appalling abuse of elderly patients with mental health problems to go
on.”
One reason the Trust overlooked patient care was because it was
“obsessed by achieving financial targets”.
Chris Hallewell, a consultant who consistently failed to spot the abuse,
showed “an inadequate sense of medical accountability in so senior a
figure” but remains associate medical director.
The North Lakeland and Camarthenshire inquiries are the first by
commission since it was set up as an “Ofsted of the NHS” after
scandals like the Bristol heart baby disaster.
Mr Homa praised the courage of five student nurse “whistle-blowers”
who first made the claims in 1996. They reported staff laughing as a
patient struggled to stand after falling twice, a nurse failing to change
the soiled clothes of a patient while dressing him, and a male nurse
flicking a patient’s genitals.
The Trust’s own investigation concluded that “there were some
departures from accepted practice, but with good intention”.
|
