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Showing results for tags 'Criminal behaviour'.
Found 179 results
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News Article
Trust apologises for saying patient’s sexual assault ‘didn’t happen’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A hospital trust has apologised to a mental health patient who reported being sexually assaulted in its A&E department – after it emerged in a safety review that staff wrote ‘this has not happened’ and dismissed her claims of the attack. The victim was admitted to West Suffolk Hospital’s emergency department following an overdose in January last year. While waiting in A&E for a mental health assessment from a specialist team employed by Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust, she reported being sexually assaulted by a male patient who had also been admitted to A&E. Yet a review into the incident, published several months later and shared with HSJ, reveals that after the victim reported the attack to a nurse, the staff member recorded “this has not happened”. They stated that the male suspect in the cubicle next to her had not left his bed and was under constant observation. However, the patient safety review, drawn up after a serious incident probe was launched, adds that this statement was “incorrect, as the [male] patient was not under constant observation”. “There were witnesses to this incident, and CCTV, and yet it was not escalated until I contacted the trust myself to complain,” the victim said. She added that she pursued the complaint, which resulted in a serious incident probe that took several months to conclude, “to prevent others from being failed” in the same way. She said she was left “shocked, confused and furious” to discover staff had dismissed her assault and claimed the male suspect had not been admitted for an assessment on the day of the attack. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 7 February 2022 -
News Article
Leak reveals details of mortuary sex assaults inquiry
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The inquiry into sex offences carried out in a hospital mortuary will consider whether the trust board ‘received sufficient assurance’ about the issues raised by the assaults, documents shared with HSJ show. The draft terms of reference for the independent inquiry have been shared with the families of women and girls abused by maintenance supervisor David Fuller for comment. The inquiry will take place in two phases. The first phase – which will concentrate on Mr Fuller’s actions in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust – will look at his initial employment and access to the mortuary and other areas, and whether processes were appropriate. It will also in this phase “consider whether the trust’s board received sufficient assurance on the issues raised by the case”. But it will also seek to identify any evidence of “other inappropriate or unlawful activities” by Mr Fuller elsewhere on trust premises. It will review any evidence of concerns around his behaviour, and how the trust and the private contractors who later employed him addressed them. In a letter to the families, inquiry chair Sir Jonathan Michael says it is intended that the evidence sessions will be held in private “primarily to protect and safeguard the dignity and anonymity of those people that Fuller abused” but also to encourage people to be “candid”. It is unclear whether families or their legal representatives will be able to attend these private sessions – other than when they are giving evidence – and to raise questions. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 28 January 2022 -
News ArticleNHS officials who accepted £70,000 in bribes to promote prescription drugs visited GP surgeries to “switch” patients’ medication, a court has heard. Paul Jerram and Dr David Turner have been accused of arriving at surgeries claiming to be on official business and changing a patient’s medication – a practice known as “switching”. James Hines QC prosecuting, told a trial at Southampton Crown Court that the two men had used their positions with the medicine management team of Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and that if the doctors at the surgeries had known it was “not an official visit, they would have not allowed them to [make the changes]”. “They were effectively using their position with the NHS to farm out the services of the medicine management team and they received money to do so,” the court was told. Mr Hines QC said: “The prosecution case is that it is completely improper for an NHS professional secretly to promote a particular drug within the NHS to his fellow NHS healthcare professionals when he is in effect in the position of a paid influencer for the pharma company that manufactures that drug. “That is what was happening on the Isle of Wight for some years. “If it is your job within the NHS to review medication and drugs, and make recommendations or suggestions for alternative medicines to fellow NHS healthcare professionals, you are acting improperly if you secretly accept money from pharma companies, either directly or indirectly, to promote a particular medicine. Read full story Source: The Telegraph, 27 January 2022
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News ArticleHundreds of nurses, paramedics, health and care workers have been disciplined over allegations of sexual assault, including incidents involving child sexual abuse, The Independent can reveal. It comes as the government begins a year-long inquiry into the sexual abuse of dead patients by “morgue monster” David Fuller. Charities claim the true scale of the issue is likely to be hidden by “vast underreporting” while safeguarding experts say there is no “uniformity” in how NHS trusts handle such cases. The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), which regulates just under 300,000 workers including paramedics, occupational therapists, psychologists and physiotherapists, has taken action on 154 occasions following 293 investigations carried out into allegations of sexual assault or abuse since 2012, according to figures obtained by The Independent. Fifty-three clinicians were struck off, 20 were cautioned and a further 29 were either suspended, had restrictions placed on their practice or agreed to be removed from registration. More than half of the actions followed allegations of sexual abuse of a child patient. Separate data from Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), which has more than 700,000 registered nurses and midwives. shows action was taken 113 times in the past four years against nurses and midwives who did not maintain professional boundaries; in more than 80 per cent of those cases, the clinician was struck off. Read full story Source: The Independent, 21 January 2022
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News Article
Paramedics jailed for stealing medication from dying patients
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Two paramedics have been sentenced to five years in prison for stealing medication from terminally ill patients. Ruth Lambert, 33, and Jessica Silvester, 29, of the South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb), preyed specifically on people receiving end-of-life care packages, Kent Police said in a statement. The pair, who live together at Gap Road in Margate, accessed addresses of patients in the east Kent area through their work and posed as nurses to gain access to patients’ homes to steal morphine and other painkillers. They worked in tandem, one researching the addresses and sending details to the other who would visit and steal the medication, police said, with victims being targeted in Thanet, Canterbury, Whitstable, Faversham and Herne Bay. Evidence gathered from the pair’s mobile phones showed they had also conspired to steal from Secamb by taking medication from ambulances when on duty. Detective sergeant Jay Robinson, from Kent Police, described the offences as “an astonishing abuse of position”. “Many of their victims have since passed away and will never know that justice has been done,” he said. “Our investigation was carried out, knowing we had to represent those victims and do the very best for them.” Dr Fionna Moore, medical director for Secamb, added that Lambert and Silvester’s behaviour was a “clear and targeted abuse of their position and does not reflect the commitment and integrity of our staff”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 January 2022 -
News Article
Liver-branding transplant surgeon struck off medical register
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A surgeon who burned his initials on to the livers of two patients during transplant surgery has been struck off the medical register. Simon Bramhall, 57, admitted using an argon beam – used to stop livers bleeding during operations and to highlight an area to be worked on – to sign “SB” into his patients’ organs in 2013 while working at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth hospital. On Tuesday, a review by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) concluded Bramhall’s actions were “borne out of a degree of professional arrogance” and that they “undermined” public trust in the medical profession. Bramhall, of Tarrington, Herefordshire, was first suspended from his post as a consultant surgeon in 2013 after another surgeon spotted the initials during follow-up surgery on one of his patients. A photograph of the 4cm-high branding was taken on a mobile phone. During his sentencing hearing in 2018, Bramhall was told one of the victims suffered serious psychological harm as a result of the branding. The surgeon later told police he branded the organs to relieve operating theatre tensions following difficult and long transplant operations. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 11 January 2022 -
News Article
Safety fears found at home where gran was killed
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A watchdog found there were safety concerns at a south-east London care home weeks after a resident killed a woman in her bedroom, it has emerged. Alexander Rawson, 63, beat 93-year-old Eileen Dean to death at Fieldside Care Home in Catford on 3 January. Inspectors visited the care home on 26 January after the murder of the grandmother-of-five triggered alarm about patient safety. Inspectors concluded that the home failed to record dangers properly and residents "were not always safe". Mrs Dean suffered catastrophic injuries after she was attacked by Rawson with a walking stick, about two weeks after he had been moved into the home from a mental health unit. According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the report said: "People were not always safe. The provider had not ensured risks to people were always documented and mitigated. "Risk assessments and care plans contained conflicting information which could potentially lead to people being exposed to harm." Specific concerns were also raised to the watchdog about the home's "risk management processes." The 63-year-old was sentenced to indefinite detention in a secure psychiatric unit on Monday. Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 November 2021 -
News ArticleA trust will not face a second prosecution over the death of a baby seven days after a chaotic birth at one of its hospitals, unless new evidence emerges. Kent police had been looking into incidents at the maternity services department of East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust. These incidents include the death of Harry Richford, who was born at Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Hospital in November 2017. A coroner found a string of failures in his care amounted to neglect. The trust pleaded guilty to failing to meet fundamental standards of care and was fined £733,000 in a case brought by the Care Quality Commission earlier this year. But detective chief superintendent Paul Fotheringham, head of major crime at Kent Police, said: “After careful consideration and following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, we took the decision that a criminal investigation would not be undertaken at this time as there is no realistic prospect of conviction against any individual or organisation based on the evidence currently available." In a statement, Harry’s family said: “We are disappointed that Kent Police, in collaboration with the CPS special crime unit in London, have not been able to take forward a charge of corporate manslaughter for Harry at this time. They have assured us that they will keep an open mind on this matter, and any other appropriate charges as and when new evidence is brought before them. “We believe that the Kirkup inquiry and investigation may allow them to revisit a raft of charges on behalf of harmed babies in east Kent in due course. Only when senior leaders are properly held to account, will there be lasting change.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 December 2021
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News ArticleA major acute trust has confirmed the health service inspectorate has begun a criminal investigation into three incidents at its hospitals. University Hospitals Birmingham FT told HSJ the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has started a criminal investigation into incidents involving potential errors around the provision of anti-coagulant medication. The trust received a letter from the CQC this month informing it that the regulator has begun the investigation under regulation 22 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (regulated activities) regulations 2014. The incidents happened at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and Good Hope Hospital — the trust’s two main sites. Regulation 22 says: “In order to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of service users, the registered person must take appropriate steps to ensure that, at all times, there are sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, skilled and experienced persons employed for the purposes of carrying on the regulated activity.” The CQC launched a prosecution into East Kent Hospitals University FT this month for failing to meet fundamental standards of care. The regulator also successfully prosecuted University Hospitals Plymouth Trust in September after it pleaded guilty to breaching the duty of candour. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 23 October 2020
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News ArticleAn anaesthetist who had been drinking before an emergency caesarean that led to the death of a British woman should serve the maximum three years in jail if convicted and should be banned from working as a doctor, a French prosecutor has demanded. Helga Wauters is on trial in Pau, south-west France, for the manslaughter of Xynthia Hawke in 2014. She is accused of starving Hawke of oxygen for up to an hour after pushing a ventilation tube into the wrong passageway. Orlane Yaouang, prosecuting, described the scene in the operating theatre when Hawke turned blue as “carnage” and spoke of the “surreal situation” in which the panicked hospital staff called the emergency services. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 October 2020
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News ArticleSeven individuals face prosecution for alleged ill-treatment and wilful neglect of patients at a hospital for people with severe learning disabilities. The alleged offences took place at the psychiatric intensive care unit at Muckamore Abbey Hospital in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Prosecution follows ongoing police inquiries A police investigation into claims of abuse at the hospital has been ongoing since 2018, following reports of inappropriate behaviour and alleged physical abuse of service users by staff. Read full story Source: Nursing Standard, 19 April 2021
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News Article
Hospital trust pleads guilty over baby death
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An NHS trust has admitted failing to provide safe care and treatment for a mother and her baby boy, who died seven days after an emergency delivery. Mother Sarah Richford said it brought "some level of justice" for baby Harry's death in 2017. Lawyers for the East Kent Hospitals Trust pleaded guilty to the charge at Folkestone Magistrates Court. The trust said it had made "significant changes" and would "do everything we can to learn from this tragedy". Mrs Richford said: "Although Harry's life was short, hopefully it's made a difference and that other babies won't die". She added: "If somebody had done this before Harry was born he may be alive today." The prosecution by the Care Quality Commission followed an inquest in 2020, which found Harry's death was wholly avoidable and contributed to by neglect at Margate's Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital. The inquest found more than a dozen areas of concern in the care of Harry and his mother, including failings in the way an "inexperienced" doctor carried out the delivery, followed by delays in resuscitation. Coroner Christopher Sutton-Mattocks criticised the trust for initially saying the death was "expected", adding that an inquest was only ordered due to the family's persistence. Read full story Source: BBC News, 19 April 2021 -
News Article
US physician gets 59-year sentence for unneeded patient surgeries, $20M fraud
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A Virginia gynaecologist has been sentenced to 59 years in prison for a fraud scheme that caused insurance programmes to lose more than $20 million, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Javaid Perwaiz was sentenced after being convicted last November of 52 counts of healthcare fraud and false statements related to a scheme in which he performed medically unnecessary surgeries, including hysterectomies and improper sterilisations, on his patients. From about 2010 to 2019, Dr. Perwaiz often falsely told his patients that they needed the surgeries because they had cancer or could avoid cancer, prosecutors said. Additionally, evidence showed Dr. Perwaiz falsified records for his obstetric patients to induce labor early to ensure he was reimbursed for the deliveries and violated Medicaid's required 30-day waiting period for elective sterilisation procedures by backdating records to make it appear that he had complied with the waiting period. Dr. Perwaiz also billed insurance companies for diagnostic procedures that he only pretended to perform at his office, prosecutors said. "Motivated by his insatiable and reprehensible greed, Perwaiz used an arsenal of horrifying tactics to manipulate and deceive patients into undergoing invasive, unnecessary and devastating medical procedures," Raj Parekh, acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, stated. "In many instances, the defendant shattered their ability to have children by using fear to remove organs from their bodies that he had no right to take." Read full story Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 18 May 2021 -
Content Article
The Surviving in Scrubs campaign, created by Dr Becky Cox and Dr Chelcie Jewitt, gives a voice to women in healthcare to raise awareness and end sexism, sexual harassment and sexual assault in healthcare. In this blog for the hub, co-founder Dr Chelcie Jewitt tells us more about the campaign. -
Content ArticleIn 1999, the pivotal report “To Err is Human” by the Institute of Medicine led to sweeping changes in healthcare. This report outlined how blaming individuals does not change the underlying factors that contribute to medical errors. It also stated that blaming an individual does little to make the system safer – or prevent someone else from similar errors. It is unusual for a nurse to be charged criminally, when there is no intent to harm a patient. However, the recent trial in America of nurse RaDonda Vaught could set a precedent for future medical errors to be treated as criminal cases. The case may ensure that for every step that has been taken forward in patient safety, we have now taken two steps backwards. This article from Human Factors 101 looks at the case of RaDonda Vaught, the criminal trial and conviction, and discusses the impact this will have on healthcare.
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Content ArticlePreventable harm, from the systems of care intended to improve health, continues to occur at an unacceptable rate in the United States. Healthcare systems have an opportunity to learn and improve from each episode of preventable harm. Accordingly, every preventable patient death or injury must energise our efforts to prevent future patient harm. The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) believes that criminal prosecution of healthcare providers will make the work of preventing harm more difficult since it continues to shift the focus away from system improvements. They have released a position and policy statement outlining the rationale for opposing criminal prosecution and, equally important, recommends that all healthcare systems and organisations aggressively act, now, to improve their culture, processes, and training to reduce errors of all kinds and, specifically in light of recent events, medication errors. Some specific actions are recommended as examples of what can be done. Individual healthcare professionals should be mindful of their role in preventing errors and reporting errors that occur as well as taking action to encourage and enable their organization to improve the flaws in the systems in which they work that lead to harm to patients.
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Content ArticleRobbie Powell, 10, from Ystradgynlais, Powys, died at Swansea's Morriston Hospital, of Addison's disease in 1990. Four months earlier Addison's disease had been suspected by paediatricians at this hospital, when an ACTH test was ordered but was not carried out. Although Robbie's GPs were informed of the suspicion of Addison's disease, the need for the ACTH test and that Robbie should be immediately admitted back to hospital, if he became unwell, this crucial and lifesaving information was not communicated to Robbie's parents. At the time of Robbie's death, the Swansea Coroner refused the Powells' request for an inquest claiming that the child had died of natural causes. However, the Powells secured a 'Fiat' [Court Order] from the Attorney General in 2000 and an inquest took place in 2004, fourteen years after Robbie died. The verdict was 'natural causes contributed by neglect' confirming that an inquest should have taken place in 1990. Since Robbie's death, his father Will Powell, has mounted a long campaign to get a public inquiry into Robbie's case.
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Content ArticleElderly people in care homes in Cornwall were abused and neglected while failings led to reports of concerns not being investigated, a new Safeguarding Adults Review has found. The Morleigh Group, which operated seven homes in Cornwall and has since shut down, was exposed in a BBC Panorama investigation in 2016. A new Safeguarding Adults Review which was commissioned as a result of the TV show has been published making a number of recommendations to all agencies which were involved in the case. The review was completed in April 2019 but has only just been made public - Rob Rotchell, Cornwall Council Cabinet member for adult social care said that this was due to the number of agencies being involved.
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Content ArticleHarold Shipman was an English doctor who killed approximately 15 patients while working as a junior hospital doctor in the 1970s, and another 235 or so when working subsequently as a general practitioner. Is it possible to learn general lessons to improve patient safety from such extraordinary events? In this paper, published in the US Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, it is argued that it is not possible fully to understand how Shipman came to be such a successful and prolific serial killer, nor to learn how the safety of healthcare systems can be improved, unless his diabolical activities are studied using approaches developed to investigate patient safety.
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Content Article
WHO: Prisons and health (2014)
Claire Cox posted an article in Prison setting
This book outlines important suggestions by international experts to improve the health of those in prison and to reduce both the health risks and risks to society of imprisonment. In particular, it aims to facilitate better prison health practices in the fields of: human rights and medical ethics communicable diseases noncommunicable diseases oral health risk factors vulnerable groups and prison health management. It is aimed at professional staff at all levels of responsibility for the health and well-being of detainees and at people with political responsibility. -
Content ArticleThe prison population of England and Wales is around 86,000 prisoners. This report by the NHS Benchmarking Network summarises the results of an audit that has taken place across Health and Justice Commissioning services, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and NHS England Specialised Commissioning to quantify the extent of prisoners waiting for assessment and waiting for transfer to mental health facilities (secure and non-secure services).
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Content ArticleThis document sets out the partnership agreement between: The Ministry of Justice Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service Public Health England The Department of Health & Social Care and NHS England. It sets out the basis of a shared understanding of, and commitment to, the way in which the partners will work together.
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Content ArticleLast year, 63 healthcare professionals in England were found stealing controlled drugs and/or providing care whilst working under the influence of controlled drugs. By law, designated bodies must have a Controlled Drug Accountable Officer (CDAO). This is a case study demonstrating the role of the CDAO and safety of controlled drugs.
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Content ArticleReporters in the US from the Houston Chronicle and NBC News spent nine months examining more than 40 cases and spoke with more than 100 attorneys, doctors and current and former state employees. Their reporting reveals that some doctors have diagnosed child abuse with a degree of certainty that critics say is not supported by science. This article, the first in a series, was published in partnership with NBC News.
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Content Article
Letter from America: a Fall tradition to learn from
lzipperer posted an article in Letter from America
‘Letter from America’ is a Patient Safety Learning blog series highlighting fresh accomplishments in patient safety from the United States. The series will cover successes large and small. I share them here to generate conversations through the hub, over a coffee and in staff rooms to transfer these innovations to the frontline of UK care delivery.
