Welcome to “YOUR” blog

Yes, this is “YOUR” blog.

This is where you can have your stories published about the care you or your loved ones have had while in hospital.

This is where you can interact with others on the subject of care within the NHS.

This is where you can view helpful links, and news stories.

This is a blog for you.

You can email me directly on thelast6months@hotmail.co.uk if you would like me to publish your story. Please note, that I may not be able to publish names etc for legal reasons.

You can also email me any helpful links which I can publish on the blog.

Click on to my website http://www.joannaslater.com/ to view The Last Six Months and My Notes

Filed under: Uncategorized

Andrew Lansley and key health figures meet at NHS Whistleblowing Summit

Health secretary Andrew Lansley MP was joined by senior representatives from trade unions, patient groups, royal colleges and other representative healthcare bodies in a Whistleblowing Summit. This Summit was organised by the NHS Employers organisation to identify collective ways to help staff raise concerns and support whistleblowing, which is crucial to the safety and care of patients.

Read more: http://www.healthcare-today.co.uk/news/andrew-lansley-and-key-health-figures-meet-at-nhs-whistleblowing-summit/22043/

Filed under: Uncategorized, healthcare, Hospital, NHS, whistleblowing

FEARS OVER 900 CAUGHT IN HOSPITAL DATA GAFFE

UP to 900 patients with suspected cancer may not have had urgent tests or treatment because of an administrative blunder at Britain’s largest hospital trust.

Read more http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/322725/Fears-over-900-caught-in-hospital-data-gaffe

Filed under: Uncategorized, health, Hospital, NHS

Uproar as obese cannibal killer is to get gastric band on the NHS

It’s beggars belief!!!!!! Nothing now shocks me. How this country can even decide that this monster has the right to go on the waiting list. Shame on the UK…..

Graham Fisher, who killed two women and ate the flesh of one of them, is on a waiting list for the surgery after complaining he was ­overweight and unfit

Read more – http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uproar-as-obese-cannibal-killer-is-to-get-gastric-849157

Filed under: Uncategorized

NHS failings lead to deaths of 24,000 diabetics each year, says report

Government spending watchdog says just half of the 3.1 million people with the condition receive the regular checks they need

Read more

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/23/nhs-failings-causing-diabetes-deaths?newsfeed=true

Filed under: Uncategorized

‘Nowhere to turn’ for patients as cuts hit the community

Published: 14 May 2012

Government plans to move care from acute hospitals to community settings have been branded a “façade” by the Royal College of Nursing , as a survey of community nurses has shown that many are facing cutbacks and spending less time with patients.

Read more from the Royal College of Nursing’s website

http://www.rcn.org.uk/newsevents/news/article/uk/nowhere_to_turn_for_patients_as_cuts_hit_the_community

Filed under: Uncategorized, health, medicine

NHS report warns hospital services in danger of collapsing

Some hospital services are in danger of “collapse” unless radical changes are made to the NHS, a report says.

Read more

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17996407

Filed under: Uncategorized

Heart of a mother

Mothers are a lot like flowers. Each has her own unique beauty and each is designed to bloom magnificently where she is planted. And that’s what this beautiful 3-minute movie is all about!

Please click on the link

http://www.flickspire.com/m/LSTruth/HeartOfAMother?Id=55452

Filed under: Uncategorized

My friend emailed me the below as she was so angry about a phone call her husband received from the NHS hospital he is going to have an operation in. Please read below

Hi Jo

Terry is having an operation on the 8^th May 2012 and is staying in hospital overnight. He has to have another operation on the 22^nd May 2012 at the same hospital. 

 He got a phone call yesterday (30^th April) from the hospital that will be doing his operation, asking that in between the two operations can he come back to the hospital for a MRSA test to see if he had contracted MRSA from his first visit, and if he has contracted MRSA he cannot be readmitted back into the hospital for his second operation. 

I couldn’t believe my ears, they are going to waste time and money doing this, when they surely should be putting the money and time into making sure the hospital is clean, and doesn’t infect their patients with MRSA!

Please put this on your blog.

Thanks

Susan

Filed under: Uncategorized, health, medicine

This maybe a way to get your stories published for the media to read.Talk to The Press – Government NHS reforms.

Dear all, This maybe a way to get your stories published for the media to read.
Talk to The Press – Government NHS reforms.
A daily would like to speak to patients/families of patients who are suffering as a result of the Government’s NHS reforms.
It may be they have been denied a certain drug or treatment, lost the services of a specialist nurse or carer, had a particularly long wait for treatment or been misdiagnosed. Perhaps their benefits have been cut or they are struggling financially due to the cost of travelling to appointments, hospital car park charges etc.
Email georgette@talktothepress.com if you can help.

Filed under: Uncategorized, health, Hospital, NHS

NHS reforms: GPs losing faith, BBC poll suggests

4th April 2012 – The number of GPs who believe that the government’s health reforms in England will improve patient care is falling, a BBC poll suggests.

Read more

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17604351

Filed under: Uncategorized, Hospital, NHS, nhs reforms

Maimed by the NHS: Catalogue of errors revealed as patients are KILLED by drugs meant for others

Daily Mail 30th March 2012 - Officials logged 760 ‘serious untoward incidents’ last year in the NHS

More than 4,000 needed further treatment after doctors gave them accidental injury

£310,000 paid out to people who found out that surgeons operated on the wrong part of their body

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2122872/Maimed-NHS-Catalogue-errors-revealed-patients-KILLED-drugs-meant-others.html#ixzz1r1JjvKwB

Filed under: Uncategorized, health, Hospital, NHS

Health regulator ‘gagged own staff against speaking of failures’

The Telegraph Saturday 31 March 2012 -

 The health and social care regulator gagged its own staff to prevent them from highlighting failures while shutting down a dedicated NHS whistleblower’s hotline, a damning report by MPs has found.

The Care Quality Commission has been criticised for failing to act on concerns of residents being abused by care home staff and reducing the number of inspections to focus on registering organisations instead, a report said.

Read more, click on the link

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9170951/Health-regulator-gagged-own-staff-against-speaking-of-failures.html

Filed under: Uncategorized

MAKE NOTES, WRITE IT DOWN

5:42PM, FRI 16 MAR 2012

Daughter of Bupa care home victim wrote in diary that she ‘failed’ her mother

by Stephen Douglas

 

Pauline Slaughter, the daughter of dementia sufferer Joyce Farrow who died after neglect at a Bupa care home, wrote in her diary that she “failed to protect her mother”.

Dear diary, I’ve complained, and written, and moaned and visited daily. I have failed to protect my mother.

I asked for socks and a blanket for my mother’s room, I was told not to go in there. Eventually I got in and saw water and faeces on the floor”

Filed under: Uncategorized

Comment is free NHS cuts and staff reductions: is it any wonder nurses are so unhappy?

Falling budgets mean people and equipment are not replaced, while paperwork keeps nurses from the job they trained for

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/22/nurses-unhappy-nhs-staff-budget-cuts

Filed under: Uncategorized

Strength in Numbers

Open your mind. “PEOPLE” can help make a major difference in this world. The way is “Strength in Numbers”. People have to stand together for what they believe, and not stand back while others try.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Save our NHS rally: thousands march in health bill protest

The Guardian Thursday 8 March 2012  – Thousands of nurses, midwives, doctors, physiotherapists, and other NHS workers are thought to have attended the rally

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/mar/07/save-nhs-rally-health-bill

Filed under: Uncategorized

The Best Laymen’s description of the New NHS

Dr Ron Singer, retired GP from Edmonton, North London explains in simple language what the government’s health reforms mean for patients and NHS staff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiLhJrZOkAU

Filed under: Uncategorized

Dignity – The Little Things Make A Big Difference

How would you feel?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueLqAJRxKpQ

Filed under: Uncategorized, care, Dignity

NHS reform ‘not fit for purpose’

The Independent 2nd March – The Government’s Health Bill will make family doctors’ work “infinitely harder” and threatens to damage their relationships with patients, a GPs’ leader warned today

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nhs-reform-not-fit-for-purpose-7468463.html

Filed under: Uncategorized

18th Feb – NHS changes: Critics ‘not invited’ to PM’s meeting

Some of the fiercest critics of the planned NHS reforms in England say they have not been invited to a meeting about the changes with David Cameron

Read more on the link below

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17083357

Filed under: Uncategorized, bbc news, nhs reforms

Duty of candour – when something goes wrong on those providing health services – was defeated in the House of Lords

The amendment to place a statutory duty of candour when something goes wrong on those providing health services was defeated in the House of Lords by 36 votes with 198 in favour and 234 against.

http://www.lordtobyharris.org.uk/duty-of-candour-amendment-defeated-with-61-libdems-and-137-tories-voting-against-openness/

Will Powell from Robbies Law Trust quoted as saying – We live in a country where the majority of our politicians take the view that doctors can cause the negligent death of our loved ones and then cover up the death with lies and falsified medical records.

Filed under: Uncategorized

CUMBRIAN HOSPITALS TRUST PAYS EX-BOSS £19,000 A MONTH

How can this be possible? North Cumbria’s debt-stricken hospitals are still paying the salary of their former chief executive who left last June in a deal that will cost the taxpayer more than £450,000.

http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk/news/cumbrian-hospitals-trust-pays-ex-boss-19-000-a-month-1.926032?referrerPath=pictures

Read more on Daniel Sencier’s blog

Filed under: Uncategorized

There were 7,000 complaints to the GMC last year. Only 17 per cent of those by patients were investigated — with only 11 doctors struck off as a result of these patient complaints

Why are we so soft on dodgy doctors?

7th Feb 2012 – Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2097389/Why-soft-dodgy-doctors-There-thousands-complaints-single-year–just-ELEVEN-struck-off.html#ixzz1ljlJp8VO

Filed under: Uncategorized

What’s your news?

Make a comment on anything that you feel you would like to voice an opinion

Filed under: Uncategorized

10 Downing Street

What has been happening since The Mail on Sunday

Dear All,

I was so surprised by the response to “The Last Six Months” when it was published in The Mail on Sunday. The wonderful words of comfort by you all and also the very sad stories that had been shared by you on my blog. Thank you all so very much. The more of your stories we can publish on the blog the stronger we will be.

I sent a letter to the Prime Minister David Cameron  on 9^th June. And I would like to share this with you. I also sent the letter to Nick Clegg and Andrew Lansley Secretary of State for Health on the 10th June. When I get a response I will post it on the blog.

Dear Sir,

I have written a diary about the 6 months that my mother was in hospital.

Parts of my diary was put in an article in the Mail on Sunday 5th June 2011 in the health section 

I also have put my diary on a blog called “The Last Six Months” 

Since the article went live on 5th June I have had over 1400 hits on my blog and I have had over 45 comments and over 40 comments on the Mail On Sunday, all tell heartbreaking stories of loved ones in hospital and the terrible things that happened.

PLEASE READ ALL THE COMMENTS. These stories are still coming in to me via my blog and email. It seems that I have become a voice that people can view all their shocking experiences with. I am shocked of the major response that I got, but now  Every Story Must Be Heard.

THIS CANNOT CONTINUE. YOU HAVE TO MAKE THE CHANGE, as I am sure unfortunately more and more people will add their heartbreaking stories to my blog.

I await your reply

Yours faithfully

Ms Joanna Slater

———————————————————–

Dear All,

I have today 23rd June 2011 received a reply from 10 Downing Street in response to my letter dated 9th June 2011.

I have yet to receive a response from Nick Clegg and Andrew Lansley.

Here is the reply and will keep you posted with more correspondence.

 10 Downing Street London SW1A 2AA                                                                                                                          20th June 2011

From the Direct Communications Unit 

Dear Ms Slater,                                                                                                                                                                           

I am writing on behalf of the Prime Minister to thank you for your letter and enclosed newspaper article of 9 June.

Your correspondence is currently under consideration.

Yours sincerely

James

Correspondence Officer

——————————————————————————————-

1st July

I just received a letter today from James the correspondence officer at No 10 re my letter to Nick Clegg. Strange that it’s the same letter I received back from the letter I sent to the PM.

This James must sure be a very busy man.

Here’s the letter again

 10 Downing Street London SW1A 2AA                                                                                                                          27th June 2011

From the Direct Communications Unit 

Dear Ms Slater,                                                                                                                                                                           

I am writing on behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister to thank you for your letter of 9 June.

Your correspondence is currently under consideration.

Yours sincerely

James

Correspondence Officer

Filed under: Uncategorized

Reply to my letter, not from David Cameron or Nick Clegg. I am not impressed

After publishing my diary “The Last Six Months” on my mothers care in the NHS from life to death, it has opened within me a volcano of ash and debris that exits within the NHS.

I am one of a tiny speckle of ash amongst a magnitude of people fighting for the right to be treated with respect, dignity and ultimate care within our NHS system.

This reply was a standard reply with my details copied and pasted where and when appropriate.

We want action not words copied and pasted a thousand times, lets hope the fight has begun.

Filed under: Uncategorized