TWO Greater Manchester hospitals have been named among the worst in the country in a national report – sparking a furious row.
The trusts that run Wythenshawe and Tameside hospitals were both given patient safety scores of just 4.8 out of 100 by independent watchdogs Dr Foster. Hospital bosses reacted angrily, accusing the report of ‘unfair labelling’ and questioning its use of data.
The two trusts were among 12 in England put in the lowest possible category for patient safety.
The report used factors including death rates, infection and staffing.
Nine of the 12 were recently rated as good or excellent by the official regulator, the Care Quality Commission.
Tameside General was also found to have the third highest patient death rates in the country by the Dr Foster report. Bolton Royal was second, with only Basildon having a higher mortality rate.
University Hospitals of South Manchester (UHSM), which runs Wythenshawe, dismissed the Dr Foster report.
A spokeswoman said: “Dr Foster paint a picture of Wythenshawe which we the staff, our patients and the public will not recognise.
“In their last report, Dr Foster rated UHSM in the top ten safest hospitals in the country, based on low mortality rates.
“Mortality rates at UHSM are even lower this year, yet the same hospital is now being catapulted to the bottom of the national league table.”
UHSM also rejected Dr Foster claims that six patients were left with ‘foreign objects’ inside them following ops last year.
The trust said the figures used were for patients treated for op blunders at other hospitals.
A Royal Bolton Hospital spokeswoman said: “We have already begun to implement a robust action plan to understand why this has happened when our actual number of deaths has fallen steadily. Dr Foster themselves have praised the hospital’s commitment to improvement and its achievements over the last year.”
Tameside Hospital’s medical director, Dr Tariq Mahmood, said mortality rates had been falling over the last three years.
But he added: “We are monitoring it daily and won't be satisfied until we see rates that are at, or below, the expected levels.”
The Dr Foster report also highlighted local success stories, naming Trafford General the best medium sized hospital in the country with fewer deaths than expected and a good safety record.
Roger Taylor, director of Dr Foster, stood by the data usedHe said: “Some of these findings are very worrying. It is obviously not satisfactory that such variations in care exist, but it should be recognised this is a problem that is being addressed.”
The Care Quality Commission – the official health regulator – said some of the Dr Foster data was ‘flaky’.
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the care quality commision was yet another body set up by the government to carefully doctor (sorry for the pun) the stats to make them all look good.
they do the same with schools, police, crime and immegration.
we just ignore these bodys as we all know that the true figures are much worse!
My mother - who sadly died earlier this year - received first-class treatment from everyone at Wythenshawe Hospital, and I thank them all for their care, consideration and compassion she was shown during her battle with cancer.
The NHS is not perfect - it's a huge entity and things will go wrong - but the overwhelming majority of staff, at all levels, should be given the respect they are due.
I can only hope that this report will have some positive effect on the hospitals concerned. The fact that UHSM have dismissed Dr Foster's report is a concern in itself - I am sure that many patients have had a trouble freee stay at Wythenshawe hospital, But I can assure you that many, many patients have had complaints. I have been involved with a group of ex-patients & patient families who have all had bad experiences at Wythenshawe & have been unable to get any help or feedback to their problems - these bad experiences vary from 6 month wait for appointments to the elderley gentleman patient who fell when staff refused to help him to the bathroom, Why can't UHSM admit their failings, then they can begin to correct the problems; if they contiue to ignore the failures in parts of the hospital, then things will never improve.
Retro Medieval England and hygiene is back.
These figures show that Bolton is not very good at saving lives. However, it has regard to different priorities: it is outstandingly politically correct. First you have to pay a huge amount to park there, assuming you can find somewhere to park. The first thing you receive on going inside is a form asking for your race and sexual orientation. The whole atmosphere is reminiscent of that described by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his novel CANCER WARD set in the Soviet Union. Of course, most of the doctors and nurses are excellent in themsellves, but they are dictated to by administrators servile to the politicians.
Scoring only 4.8% out of 100% is very disturbing. The hospital might want to dismiss the report claiming that patients and staff don't recognise the comments in the report, but isn't that the curx of the problem? Maybe it's time the hospital managers started to recognise what is going on, especially when things go wrong, and start by accepting, even the bad news, that things are not as good as they should be! Our campaign at www.wythenshawehospital.com highlights our experience and the fact that we have been waiting 5 years to get to the bottom of what happened to the late Barbara Finegan. So Wythenshawe Hospital are you going to grasp the findings in the report and do something to improve patient safety or brush things under the carpet?
Its OK everybody UHSM has dismissed the claims by the report so everything must be OK!
‘There’s none as blind as those that cannot see’ Now who said that?
Maybe if the BMA dealt with bad doctors a little quicker the money would have been there to ensure these hospitals were up to standard!
Mm, Dr Foster, a private company that sells hospitals information and courses on how to become better, more efficient hospitals says some hospitals aren't very good. Fancy that.
I live in the Tameside area and i can tell you there are a lot of very concerned elderly resident who are very afraid of becoming ill and requiring hopitalisation.
Can the Pennine trust tell me when the are going to start instilling confindence in the their hospitals, whereby elderly residence ...and the rest of the local population for that matter can feel at ease with any treatment they made need, now or in the future?
My father died in Tameside Hospital earlier this year, all I can say is he couldn't have been cared for any better, however 2 years he was treated like a piece of s**t by one sister until I challenged her and once she realised what I was talking about with complaint structures etc she suddenly became nice within 2 seconds of having been a witch. The problem with Tameside hospital and many many more is its a lottery who you get looking after you, some staff like I have said on these pages about Police give 150% all day every day others simply cant be bothered which when dealing with life and death matters is gravely worrying. I have heard horror stories about the Hospital as well as glowing stories including relatives, friends, and friends relations and they all boil down to the quality of care and attitude of Staff, some sisters at Tameside Hospital unfortunately see themselves as Emperors and to me have that many years service they feel untouchable, to me sisters and above should like the Police at Inspector level and above be moved around NHS in the area so they dont become too complacent, they should be monitored as to how many complaints about their ward and staff and if required be forced to resign not ticked off and then allowed back on the very ward to demonise the patients.Turning to cleanliness of hospitals the waiting area at Tameside is the pits but is this way because the people who sit there waiting allow their kids to tip drinks up, leave half eaten sandwiches, newspapers the like, toilet areas quickly become disgusting because the users dont treat the facilities correctly. These problems are hard to solve because unless you have a cleaning team on 24 hour duty which would cost a fortune the areas as I mentioned become dirty very quickly. Similarily the staff at A & E at Tameside are so rude from my experience its beyond belief, they have no inter personnel skills, appear poorly trained and again have probably been in the position for years and se the public attending as a general nuisance, this leaves the Management of the Hospital to answer a lot of questions but they can not be held responsible for the individual actions of a Docotr, Nurse, or otherwise, look at Harold Shipman he was evil but it wasn't the fault of the NHS albeit they should have picked up his drug addiction problem from his days in Todmorden. The problem personnel at Tameside Hospital and other Hospitals know who they are and their colleagues know so lets sift them out and get action taken. If necessary let the M.E.N have a suggestions box anonymously OK the odd morn will be malicious as in every walk of life but if the same names keep cropping up it will kind of tell the scrutineers something needs to be done.
How many of you here have actually made use of these hospital trusts' services?
Although I live a very short walk from Tameside Hospital, I would rather travel to Stepping Hill than use the sub-standard service at Tameside.
When I have been forced to use it, it takes hours to be seen, let alone treated.
And most of the time, the treatment consists of 'We don't know whats wrong with you, go home.'
The MEN should also publicise the local Positive aspects of this report
lets give some praise to
Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust
Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust has emerged as this year’s winner of the Dr Foster award for medium-sized trust of the year
The Dr Foster Hospital Guid has named Trafford as the best Trust of the Year for our size because of our excellent record on patient safety and the significant reduction in mortality rates.
They were also the only trust in the North West to be placed in the top-performing band for patient safety and one of just 14 in England to score this highly.
Well done to all the staff
I was working in Tameside in 1989/'93 & was unfortunate enough to have to go to Tameside Hospital to seek treatment for an eye complaint
The doctor who attended me could barely comunicate in english, was completely baffled by my complaint & finally asked me to make another appointment for a further examination in a years time. He then quickly disappeared.
I got out of there 'smartish'. Completely demoralised & wondering what had happened to the wonderful NHS that I once boasted about to my Australian friends.
I suffered with the 'sore' eye until my return to Australia where the complaint was diagnosed, treated & cured. All under the Australian NHS.
It appears that Tameside Hopital hasn't changed in all of those intervening years.
Why is North Manchester General Hospital not on the list?
pluto, manchester
30/11/2009 at 19:19
Planet Pluto. Pluto Roman equivalent of Hades, God of the underworld Tartarus AKA Hell. It is nice to know that mortality rates are down. Keep up the Good work.
Proper Sentences
30/11/2009 at 18:22
Wow, a couple of "proper paragraphs" would have been helpful!
Whilst our Tameside MP continues to focus on Iran.Israel and Hezbollah because of his role as Chair of the Labour Friends of Israel,and his constant questions on that subject in the House of Commons,his Constituents whose lives are threatened by his Constituents Hospital horrendous failures will continue to be threatened not by Iran or Hezbolla but by the local Hospital they depend non.
Its a scandal no Tameside MP is vigorously ensuring those at fault in the NHS are dumped as they would be in the commercial world.
Squire of Newton, Tameside Hosptial isn't run by Penine Trust! I would have thought as a local resident you would have known that! I have been a patient in Tameside Hospital on a few occasions and have found the over-worked, under-paid staff try their bery best with the rescourses available to them. If the government are so concerned why don't they spend the moeny improving services at the "named and shamed" hospitals instead of wasting it getting people in to tell us all what we already know, the NHS is being run on a shoe-string,there are no nursing staff because the government believes they are not needed to nurse patients. Trust are set unrealistic targets, budgets are cut left right and centre, and the press don't help matters by scare-mongering patients who have no option but to use their local - failing - hospital!