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Friday, November 17, 2006

From Rosemary Moore , a Carer and Campaigner from Surrey


Dear Jill

I think you are right to insist on proper answers before agreeing to have a personal meeting.

There are a lot of other things going on of course with S&B (as with all the Trusts) - the front page of a local paper today had a big story about the closure of the mental health unit at Ashford Hospital with a picture of a woman who is campaigning against this. She is one of the North Surrey reps on the FoCUS group so this should come up at the next main FoCUS meeting on 28 November.

We also have the ongoing inquiry into Daniel Gonzalez, the man from Woking who killed four people in London and is now in Broadmoor.

And today at the Old Bailey the "plea and case management" hearing for John Churchill from Surrey, who killed John McKenna within days of being discharged from the Abraham Cowley Psychiatric Unit in Surrey.

I have set up a blog for John Churchill to follow the progress of his case and to make sure that the information about him comes to public attention NOW.

Best wishes

Rosemary in Surrey



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from Des Curley

I would just add that the family of Denis Finnegan have said they want the officials responsible for John Barrett's health care sacked and that there are similar calls over another Care failure death where Maudsley Hospital staff turned away Andrew Howllett after he complained to them of hearing voices urging him to harm himself and attack other people and admitted he had a knife. Howlett later stabbed his neighbour Michael Gallagher to death in a totally unprovoked attack.

A Maudsley hospital spokesperson described the care Howlett received as "approproriate".

I think sacking a few Chief Executives to drive home public concern about widespread system failure and their dismissive attitudes towards it would be far more appropriate.

posted by simply human @ 1:19 pm   Listen to this article Listen to this article 8 comments

8 Comments:

At 2:47 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

We've reached a very important crossroads re. Care failure deaths - either we need to just accept them as a routine occurence and the official excuses and limited liability for them as facts of life or we should stop faffing around and call for real punitive action to be taken against NHS MH Trusts , executives and their workers if they fuck up in this way.

The current situation profits high flying NHS earners like Stuart Bell, Fiona Edwards and Christine Carter, at the expense of the Finnegan, Gallagher, Howlett, Barrett & Gonzalez families.

If these well paid arrogant and incompetent executives were running dog kennels do you think anyone would be entrusting them with their pets?

'Oh , we're sorry, 3 more dogs escaped again today and were run over, abused by or attacked other people and had to be put down .
Another drowned in the washing machine , that was your dog, but dont worry as your pet received the appropriate treatment and care at all times and we are not responsible for our views let alone actions as you'll see from the legal disclaimer at the bottom of all our official Surrey & Borders Rabid Kennel Trust correspondence so fuck off and we look forward to you entrusting us with your pets again as we have a monopoly of pet services, and a culture of not even acknowledging never mind learning from or paying for our lethal mistakes '.

2:42 PM

 
At 2:51 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Des

Thanks for putting my message to Jill on a separate message but could you edit out the duplicated bits, please! It seems to have copied twice. Could you also make it clear that the added bits are yours and not mine. I don't disagree with what you've said but these are not my comments and it looks as if they are. I'd prefer it if you posted them as a response to my message.

Best wishes
Rosemary in Surrey

 
At 4:05 pm, Blogger simply human said...

Rose.

You buried the John Churchill info in comments so I blogged it and yes I could and should have made it clearer that the additional comments posted in lined off different format underneath were mine - but , hey come on , you've had permission to blog on this board under your own right for months so if you want more editorial control the answer is very simple and would make my job easier- just exercise it.

 
At 5:09 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Des, I don't want editorial control, this is your blog. I just want the duplication of my message deleted.

Best wishes
Rosemary in Surrey

 
At 7:08 pm, Blogger simply human said...

Rose,

Lol:) Your comment was cut and pasted into the Blogger editor and this sometimes corrupts text however I deleted what I thought was duplicated paragraph when you first asked but obviously didnt spot it all.

But cut the sniping , this isnt simply ' my blog' , you have the ability to blog as well as comment here ( thats all I meant by editorial control ) but choose not to so it was left to someone else to blog your John Churchill blog info up front where people would notice it.

 
At 9:26 am, Blogger simply human said...

"Mental Health Alliance response to publication of Barrett Inquiry report Commenting on the publication of the John Barrett Inquiry report, Mental Health Alliance Chair Andy Bell said:

"This Report demonstrates that what often lies behind the rare and tragic cases such as the murder of Denis Finnegan is that mental health services can fail those in their care and that there is no need for the Government to be granted broader powers of compulsory detaining people in the guise of protecting the public, as they are currently seeking with reform of mental health legislation. The answer lies in investing in better services, that give staff the support they need to do their job and are more responsive when patients say they need help. It is a hard truth that sometimes professionals make mistakes and no system in the world can prevent that happening in every instance."

We have the worst of all possible worlds here, a system that's so ridden through with anti-liability it simply cant/wont accept any real responsibility for anything and a useless over-funded MH charity cabal which constantly tries to shoehorn the facts into its own self-serving politically correctness.

 
At 6:24 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would go further than the sacking of the CEO's..after all the buck should stop with them..and they get paid very well for their responsibilities.

I would also have something on record (legally binding) so they can't just move to another Trust and carry on with their blinkered and dangerous management careerings.

There are many Trust managers who screw up big time and are allowed, actually encouraged, to take a senior or higher post in the NHS. That sucks, big time. I call it corruption.

Mandy

 
At 5:27 am, Blogger simply human said...

Thats a very good point Mandy . A lot of people object to naming and shaming tactics but the situation has gone too far within MH.

For example the Trust that failed to act when Andrew Howlett told them he was hearing voices urging him to harm himself and others and said he had a knife turned away another MH service user after he had broken into my home - he smashed and tried to climb in through huge plate glass kitchen window - trying to escape someone or something he thought was trying to kill him.

I was peering out of the window at the time trying to figure out what was going on and got showered with glass . The staff at the Ladywell Unit decided this man - who was lucky not seriously injure himself climbing through the jagged broken plate glass window - was not a danger to himself or anyone else.

He got arrested two further times that night, once for trying to jump through a shop window, and yet the Ladywell Unit staff maintained he still did not pose a threat to himself or others.

People moved out of my building because this guy, who nobody knew, lived next door and people feared what he might do if he was left to his own devices as he officially was.

I had to stay because the window wasnt secured properly. I was alone at night when the guy broke in, it was frightening although it all happened so quickly I didnt realize how shaken I was until afterwards.

The guy was climbing through the window, all the kitchen knives were on the window ledge and the phone was in the other room.

We were ignored by services for the whole weekend. On the Monday I threatened to go to the press if local services didnt act and they finally did.

This was the second time I had to threaten services in this way over this man as a few months earlier he had knocked on my door and asked if I could help fix his boiler and I went in to discover the guy didnt have an electricity supply and he was sleeping on the floor of an empty flat wrapped in a coat.

No-one would force an animal to live like that but this guy had been dumped in the property by local services. I threatened to go to the press and within an hour the electricity company, a heating plumber and a gaggle of social workers were knocking on the guys door.

I attended a SLAM Trust Board meeting where the relations between police and SLAM staff were discussed and tried to raise what had happened only to get blank stares from the Board members who were being told these relations were good when I knew the police were really pissed off with the Ladywell Unit staff and that they were being left with responsibility for people who were ill a lot of the time.

The Chief Executive of the South London & Maudsley NHS MH Trust is Stuart Bell, I believe this man is largely responsible for the death of the man Andrew Howlett murdered and I think he remains a danger to both the general public and patients.

Fiona Edwards would also do very well to consider the sort of culture she is encouraging at Surrey & Borders as here the lies and excuses are being made over mere employment issues but encouraging staff to lie, make excuses and be lazy may serve the interests of Fiona's Trust at the moment but the same lies, excuses and laziness behind the Gonzales case certainly did not.

Christine Carter knows at first hand from the Barrett case that the lies, excuses and laziness of staff were all part of the problem there too.

Mr Bell should go because his staff have been routinely turning away people who have been a danger to themselves and others and this has cost the lives of patients and members of the public. His staff turned away the psychotic man who broke into my home 3 times in one night and I want the families of Andrew Howlett and the man he stabbed to death to know just how routinely Mr Bell's staff repel people who are brought to the wards by police or ask for help themselves.

I want them to know so that Mr Bell isnt able to argue that this was a one off. I want the family of the victim to be armed with the information that their son, brother, father, whatever, died needlessly because Mr Bell was more worried about shutting the Maudsley Emergency Unit down than taking care of patients who posed a threat to themselves and others.

I am also raising this issue with Simon Hughes MP in the hope that he will take political action to ensure that public and patient safety becomes a priority for the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust under a new Chief Executive who doesnt have blood on his hands.

This is fair comment.

 

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