Outrage at award of £190K damages to Rose Gibb, CEO of NHS hospital where 90 patients died during superbug outbreak in overcrowded, dirty wards.

See BBC News report. In my opinion, this woman should have received a prison sentence, rather than a huge payout.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been found guilty in a Health and Safety case.

HSE warning follows hospital fall
News Distribution Service for Government and the Public Sector

Extract:

"The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is reminding hospitals and other care providers to ensure the safety of their patients, especially from the dangers of open windows.

The warning follows the prosecution by HSE of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust after an incident at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, when a young man was severely injured after falling from a third floor window.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (formerly Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust) was fined £18,000 plus costs of £15,399.05 at Sheffield Magistrates' Court today, after pleading guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

On 28 May 2004 the young man, a patient on Ward Firth 6 at the Northern General Hospital, was found to have fallen almost 12 metres to the ground from a window that had been fitted with a device intended to limit its opening to no more than 10cm which, because it was poorly maintained, did not restrict the window adequately. The patient survived the fall but suffered a number of fractures and serious internal injuries."

It took a very long time to get to court, didn't it? - Over four and a half years! - Why?

The hospital trust at the centre of Britain's worst recorded hospital superbug outbreak which led to the death of 331 patients has escaped prosecution

Superbug hospital escapes criminal charges
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Clostridium difficile contributed to the deaths of the patients over two-and-a-half years at three Kent hospitals a health watchdog report found.

Appalling standards of care, crowded wards, financial problems, a shortage of nurses and poor hygiene all led to the outbreak the Healthcare Commission found in a highly critical report in October.

However after studying that report, Kent Police and the Health and Safety Executive said there would be no charges over the deaths at hospitals run by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Hospital Trust.

Assistant Chief Constable Allyn Thomas said: "Whilst the report makes for grim and at times distressing reading, our review has not identified any information that would indicate a need or duty to conduct a criminal investigation into the Trust at this time."

Relatives of those who died in the outbreak reacted angrily to the announcement.

Steve Stroud, whose 77-year-old stepmother Doreen Ford died in Maidstone Hospital said he was "disgusted" by the decision.

Mr Stroud, husband of former Bucks Fizz singer Cheryl Baker, said: "This is disgusting. Someone has got to be held to account over all these deaths and if it is not the hospital trust, then who the hell can it be?

"Someone really should have to carry the can over this... for no charges to be pressed is really disgusting. I can't believe it".

Baker, described the death of her mother-in-law as "legalised killing".

She said: "The Trust is to blame, I know that, everyone knows it and it makes my blood boil.

"Those patients didn't die by chance, they died because they contracted C diff at the Trust because of poor hygiene and care, so they are to blame, without a shadow of a doubt."

The Healthcare Commission had found the infection probably or definitely killed 90 people and was a factor in a further 241 deaths.

It also criticised the then chief executive of the trust, Rose Gibb, who left before the findings were published and is now reported to be fighting for a payout of several hundred thousand pounds.

But police said the report held no evidence that the deaths amounted to manslaughter."

Beggars belief, doesn't it?- All those deaths. All that suffering. All that sadness. - No-one held to account...

Without accountability there is less likelihood of improvement...