Hundreds back internet call for bosses to quit

February 08, 2010

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Liz Degnen with a picture of her mother Betty

Five hundred people have signed up to an internet campaign to shame Tameside General bosses into resigning.

Liz Degnen’s mother Betty, 79, was admitted to the hospital a year ago with a routine stomach problem. She died six weeks later after catching C. difficile,

Betty’s family kept a round-the-clock vigil at her bedside throughout her time in hospital, helping her to eat and drink.

They took her laundry home to wash – not knowing they could have been spreading the deadly superbug.

The hospital has apologised for ‘shortcomings’ in Betty’s care

In just a few days hundreds of people signed up to the Facebook group Liz has set up calling for chief executive Christine Green and the Directors of Tameside General Hospital to be sacked.

Liz, 50, from Hadfield, said: “I have had a fantastic response since setting up the Facebook group. People have been calling for change for years and this is a way for us to say that we deserve better. It is very sad reading the messages people are leaving about how poor care has affected them and their loved ones but it is good that people know what is going on.

“We have got to the point where we need a clear out of the management and a through and open inspection - it is the only way to restore public confidence.

“We have heard so many promises about how things are going to improve over the last few years but we have not seen any real progress.”

Betty, who was originally from Manchester, lived in Gamesley, Glossop during her retirement. The family believe her condition went downhill because she was given penicillin, which she was allergic to.

Liz said: “She was very independent, very active, but within hours of getting to hospital she aged and changed. It was terrifying to watch. Our biggest worry now is for the patients who don't have relations to look after them and stick up for them.”

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Charles Harris, Mottram in Longdendale (08/02/2010 at 15:17)

Medical and nursing professionals throughout the North West know this hospital as the worst in the Region.How many of Tameside's GPs would go here or send any member of their families here for anything let alone major surgery.Too many of the consultants in major areas like anaesthesia did not received their specialist training in the UK but they are the best that this hospital can get because good British-trained doctors do not wish to risk their professional reputations by working in Tameside General Hospital.

The Strategic Health Authority does nothing because the leading Adminstrators have watertight contracts such that it would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to pay each of them off.

The MPs.Messrs Purnell,Hayes and Gwynne do seem to be finally paying attention to what they have been being told for years by constituents.

The only good solution would be for this Tameside Trust to be merged wholly with the Central Manchester Trust or Stepping Hill who manage Tameside's Urology Services superbly because surgery and anesthesia take place in Stockport.

The dilemma is that many of the Tameside consultants and nursing staff simply are not good enough to join the teams elswhere.Hence anaesthetists redundant for some reason from the Bury,Rochdale,Oldham & North Manchester Pennine Trust ended up in Tameside.

With GP services in Tameside that gave us Dr Shipman - the last thing the people of Tameside need is an NHS hospital that is feared.

This hospital is not good enough to stand alone - it desperately needs a takeover by healthcare professionals from a neighbouring trust who will give Tameside a hospital the people CAN trust.

Bemused of Tameside., Dukinfield (08/02/2010 at 23:25)

Well sais Charles Harris.
I live in Dukinfield with my partner and 2 young children, and hope with all my heart that we never have to stay in that hospital.
I have to give credit though to their Childrens A&E - quick treatment and lovely area. (although a Sonographer did tutt when my 3 year old cried being xrayed on a dislocated elbow!)
The Gastro-Ent department has it's good points too, although a particularly obnoxious 'guest consultant' was very very ignorant towards me because I had researched my condition and he lost the discussion about my treatment - he actually threw my file and said "You can't help some idiots". Same consultant SHOUTED at me during an endoscopy - I gagged while he was putting a tube down my throat - how dare I !!!!!!
FTR, my view turned out to be correct and I am now fully recovered and discharged from even check-ups, with advice from the Gastro-Ent dept, excluding his suggestion for treatment.

Peter Burns (08/02/2010 at 23:31)

to suggest that staff are only employed at tameside because they are not good enough to be employed elswhere is sheer stupidity.

Charles Harris, Mottram in Longdendale (09/02/2010 at 09:34)

Tell us more Mr Burns.....we are all agog to know what you know but the rest of us do not...what hospital appointments panel do you sit on?

Peter Burns (09/02/2010 at 22:13)

My wife happens to work at Tameside, she is an excellent nurse trained to a very high standard. We have recently re-located back to the area from the Isle of Man and she turned down 3 jobs at other hospitals to be near home. I myself will be starting to train as a mental health nurse next year and have also applied for bank work as a HCA at Tameside. I am aware that the hospital has a bad reputation but some of the staff there are trying to make a difference to the place. I am sure that everybody is aware of the expression that a certain substance always floats to the top, the nurses at grass roots are trying but are useually having to deal with managment that are not always as experenced or as qualified as they are.

Jon Lord, Tameside (10/02/2010 at 18:08)

Regarding Comments by "Charles Harris, Mottram in Longdendale"

"Tell us more Mr Burns.....we are all agog to know what you know but the rest of us do not...what hospital appointments panel do you sit on?"

Charles, you do at some times, make intelligent comments but in this case ... if you have nothing sensible or constructive to say .. the above type of reply does not further the cause any .... sarcasm is after all the lowest form of wit and you are slandering the efforts of genuine workers at the Trust !

Charles Harris, Mottram in Longdendale (11/02/2010 at 14:56)

To Messrs Burns & Lord.

I have no doubt that at any one time there are excellent nursing and medical staff working in Tameside General Hospital who encounter the difficulties with managers that Mr Burns mentions.The problem is that too few of them stay at the hospital for any length of time.

I fear that Mrs Burns may quite quickly find ,depending on the department she will be working in, that standards at Tameside General are not those of Noble's Hospital on the IOM.

When there is a failure to recruit and retain good staff,the ward work still has to be done and the only recourse is to use "bank" - temporary - staff hired from agencies at much higher cost than the hospital's own employees.Budgets become rapidly stretched and that is when problems arise of inadequate staffing levels that lead to just the complaints especially in care of the elderly, that Tameside General is notorious for.And this "floating" population of "bank" staff also are unlikely to have the same committment to the hospital and the patients that ensures standards of work.

It can be dispiriting for good staff to be misdirected by nurse managers and others who have carried nothing heavier than a clipboard for years and continue to be paid very large salaries with no censure for inadequacy.

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