NHS can get it wrong, Sturgeon admits to patients

Published on Wednesday 4 November 2009 21:14

THE NHS in Scotland sometimes fails to come up to the standards the public deserves, the health secretary admitted yesterday, as patients spoke of their own problems with the service.

Nicola Sturgeon said millions of people treated by the NHS received good care.

But speaking at a conference in Edinburgh yesterday, she said she had to be "open-eyed" to the fact that things could go wrong.

Her comments came during the Patient NHS Alert event, organised by the Scotland Patients Association (SPA) to allow people to voice their concerns about the care received.

The conference was attended by representatives from the British Medical Association, General Medical Council and health boards.

The SPA said the aim was to help the NHS work together with patients to improve the standards of care they received.

Chairwoman Margaret Watt told the conference that she hoped the NHS could learn from the patients whose cases they were discussing.

"We are not saying that all journeys through the NHS are bad or difficult," she said. "These are the few cases that are. We are saying let's learn and get better together and fix it."

The conference heard some emotional stories where patients and their families believed the NHS had failed them, including cases of missed diagnosis, poor care and medication errors.

Ms Sturgeon welcomed the opportunity for patients to come together and use their experiences of the NHS – both good and bad – to talk to healthcare professionals and politicians about their concerns.

She said she had the responsibility to try to act on any concerns raised with her about the NHS to reduce the chances of things going wrong again.

"I can't be in every ward, every GP surgery, and therefore we rely on the skills, the talents, the dedication of the people who work across our NHS," she said.

"Nevertheless, I believe that the buck does stop with politicians and with ministers and therefore I am always interested to hear the accounts of patients' experiences of the NHS."

Ms Sturgeon said she wanted to stress the fact that most contacts with the NHS went well.

"Every day there are millions of people who go through one part of the NHS or another and get good experiences, get treated and cared for by dedicated professionals who manage to deliver for them a good outcome," she said. "That is something we should celebrate."

But she said that everyone also has to be "open-eyed" about the fact that the NHS sometimes got it wrong.

"It sometimes makes mistakes, it sometimes doesn't come up to the standard and the level that people have the right to expect and people do have a right to expect the best."

Ms Sturgeon also discussed the problems her own family had experienced with the NHS, when her grandmother developed the bug Clostridium difficile and died in hospital.

Ms Sturgeon admitted that in the coming years and months the NHS faced some "tough times".

"The flu pandemic will test the NHS over the winter," she said. "Over the longer term the state of the economy and tighter public finances will mean that the NHS has a difficult time over the next few years."

'I was told my broken bones from crash were just bruises'

WHEN Donna Johnston was involved in a serious road accident, she expected her injuries would be diagnosed and treated quickly in hospital.

But instead she said a doctor at Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin told her she was just badly bruised and could go home in the morning.

In fact she had suffered a number of fractures and also a large cut to the back of her head – which had to be pointed out to staff by a police officer.

Ms Johnston was kept in hospital for several weeks after the accident this summer and said she had several problems with the care she received.

But she was forced back to the same hospital just a few weeks ago after almost severing her finger with a hand blender.

Again, Ms Johnston was not impressed by the care she received at the hospital. Her finger developed gangrene and was amputated.

The psychotherapist said: "It feels like telling tales out of school, because I am a health professional and I have been in and around the NHS for more than 30 years.

"If anyone had told me five months ago that I would be speaking at a conference like this, I would have laughed. I would not have believed them.

"I just can't believe that this has happened."

NHS Grampian said: "If this patient has concerns about any aspects of the care she received, we would encourage her to raise these with us so we can investigate and respond to her directly."

My dying son was told: 'You're not the only one on the ward'

A MOTHER yesterday spoke out about the care given to her son as he was dying with cancer.

The man was diagnosed with bowel cancer in September last year and needed surgery to help extend his life.

His mother, speaking at a conference yesterday, said the care he received in hospital in Glasgow afterwards left the family very distressed. "One night at visiting time our son told us he was in agony and asked for morphine while the nurses were on their drugs round, only to be told that he would have to wait as he 'wasn't the only patient in the ward'," she said.

"We were angry that a terminally ill man in a lot of pain had to beg for morphine and wait 45 minutes."

The woman, who did not want to be named, said her son had described the ward as a "hell-hole".

She also said that when he was allowed home, he had to wait outside the house for an hour and a half before the right ambulance staff were available to help him inside.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "Our staff work very hard to provide high standards of care and treatment to our patients but we accept that there are occasional failings."