I was told the whole story of Mid-Staffs by a former work colleague whose wife worked somewhere in the public sector.
Foundation status was the aim of Mid-Staffs, it's akin to Academy status for a school. They get full control over their budget etc if they can demonstrate financial competence.
Given a lot of trusts run a deficit which is all down to the local mix of treatments required, their costs and how much they will get paid via the national tariffs (the price the government pays them for carrying out medical procedures, which is fixed and often below actual costs), the trust had to make cost savings to gain foundation trust status.
Guess how you make cost savings? you reduce the staffing levels on the wards in hospitals. So they got their foundation status, but at a huge cost of human life. People didn't even get the basics like water to drink, people were drinking out of vases.
This happened under Andy Burnham, which is why I find it laughable people think he'll be a future Labour leader or PM. In parliament after Labour left government he was always asking questions about the contaminated blood scandal in the 1980s because he wanted to give the Tories a good kicking, while not giving any notice to his own scandal.
Just think what would have happened had Labour have not introduced foundation status in 2003.
My lovely Mum died 15½ years ago up the DGH. Funny how a name change seems to make it all better, isn't it?
She arrived up there one evening by Ambulance. I can't honestly say what she went in with. During the course of the 3 weeks she was in, she developed Pnuemonia, she also had Bronchitus. She eventually became so poorly, she couldn't walk, so a catheter was inserted. My memory is a bit blurred as to what ward she went on, bit like my eyes right now remembering everything.
To start with, she was able to sit up and have a cup of tea and a natter, but as the Pnuemonia took hold, she had to be given oxygen to help her breathe. She lost her appetite, so to try and get her to at least eat something, I would take her favourite cakes in, these she managed after a fashion. Along with a cup of NHS tea, she was managing. Eventually she stopped eating and drinking by herself due to being so poorly. All diet,fluids and medications were put on the over the bed table and left for patients to ''do it themselves''.
I was working in St.Georges kitchen at that time, so would finish at 3pm everyday and walk up the DGH and stay till the end of visiting. I think myself and my sisters were the only ones giving my Mum personal care, When she could walk, we'd help her have a shower etc. Then when she had difficulty, one of us would give her a full wash while on the bed. I even had to empty the catheter every time I went up, due to it being overflowing. The one time I mentioned it to a member of staff, he brought what looked like a washing bowl and emptied it into that.
Underneath her bed were used dressings - plasters etc. ECG stickers, fluff and dirt, the same stuff was under that bed when she passed away 3 weeks later. I knew the head of Housekeeping, due to her working at St.Georges at one time. So I rang her and made a complaint. She happened to be on holiday. She finally got back in touch about two weeks later, saying that she had just been up to the ward and that under the bed was spotless. Told her it would be, Mum had been gone for 2 weeks.
No, there weren't enough staff to cope, still isn't, their Agency/Bank Nurse expenses must be astronomical.
If I didn't have to go up there in the course of my job, I wouldn't.
Would I like it closed and demolished, not now, but I would have gladly laid the dynamite 15½ years ago.
