Will lessons ever be learned here?
If you were an NHS hospital, especially one trying to drag yourself out of being a failing hospital put into special measures, and you were offered a free Pulse Oximetry Machine through someone offering to raise the funds to buy one, you'd be grateful, right?
You'd welcome the opportunity to not spend money from your already over stretched budget, right?
Being a hospital coming out of being put into special measures and having been rated poorly for the quality of your care, you'd certainly take the chance to give your staff the latest training and equipment so they could offer parents a simple, painless and relatively quick test to check for undiagnosed CHD in their newborn; thus improving the quality of your hospital's care.... right?
Well, yes you would, dear reader, obviously, but that's because you're a rational person not in complete denial that the service you're offering is below par and failing in its basic remit, despite having been put into special measures for that exact failing!
Unfortunately my local hospital isn't a rationally thinking person! The very failings we faced in the first 3 months of our sons care remain to this day, with no effort being made to improve matters.
Here is the short shrift reply to my enquiry. It completely ignores a lot of other information I put in the initial letter to them detailing our experience and why a pulse oximetry machine would help them improve their level of care, in this one area at the very least.
Hospital name and other names are redacted.
You'd welcome the opportunity to not spend money from your already over stretched budget, right?
Being a hospital coming out of being put into special measures and having been rated poorly for the quality of your care, you'd certainly take the chance to give your staff the latest training and equipment so they could offer parents a simple, painless and relatively quick test to check for undiagnosed CHD in their newborn; thus improving the quality of your hospital's care.... right?
Well, yes you would, dear reader, obviously, but that's because you're a rational person not in complete denial that the service you're offering is below par and failing in its basic remit, despite having been put into special measures for that exact failing!
Unfortunately my local hospital isn't a rationally thinking person! The very failings we faced in the first 3 months of our sons care remain to this day, with no effort being made to improve matters.
Here is the short shrift reply to my enquiry. It completely ignores a lot of other information I put in the initial letter to them detailing our experience and why a pulse oximetry machine would help them improve their level of care, in this one area at the very least.
Hospital name and other names are redacted.
"Thanks for your message and for your offer to donate a Pulse Oximetry machine to [our maternity unit]. Unfortunately
we would have to decline your offer of this equipment. We currently do
not conduct this monitoring as part of our service. However, we will
review this and if this changes in the future, we will contact you
again. Best wishes [name redacted]"
Where to start with this reply! I'm fully aware they do not currently conduct this monitoring; hence the failure to diagnose our son for 3 months until he declined so much he collapsed!
But how is that not a reason to implement it, when one is offered gratis? How is it they can be so entirely dismissive of the evidence, facts and statistics on CHD diagnosis and the massive advantages this machine offers, even when it's obvious?
This hospitals unwillingness to improve their practices astounds me! The complete pig-headed denial, head in sand attitude. How many times after failings are made public does a hospital trot out the standard tripe along the lines of "lessons will be learned". Well, this hospital don't want to learn, thats become very clear over the last 3 years, with numerous offers of help to give their staff better training and equipment.
Failure to diagnose due to lack of knowledge and proper equipment was our 3 month experience of the failures of their midwives to spot the classic CHD indicators, instead blaming our parenting skills!
But how is that not a reason to implement it, when one is offered gratis? How is it they can be so entirely dismissive of the evidence, facts and statistics on CHD diagnosis and the massive advantages this machine offers, even when it's obvious?
This hospitals unwillingness to improve their practices astounds me! The complete pig-headed denial, head in sand attitude. How many times after failings are made public does a hospital trot out the standard tripe along the lines of "lessons will be learned". Well, this hospital don't want to learn, thats become very clear over the last 3 years, with numerous offers of help to give their staff better training and equipment.
Failure to diagnose due to lack of knowledge and proper equipment was our 3 month experience of the failures of their midwives to spot the classic CHD indicators, instead blaming our parenting skills!
No
apology has ever been offered to us for the entirely dismissive attitude to
the health of our son that we experienced, an attitude that missed all
the classic indicators of CHD that their midwives should know!
Given
the fact our hospital was put into special measures nearly a decade ago it amazes me when offers of
free equipment to improve the lives of future babies are declined!
The only good thing about our hospital is its local location to us for when the real experts from Evelina, London come down to use it as a base to see all the CHD children in the area!
The only good thing about our hospital is its local location to us for when the real experts from Evelina, London come down to use it as a base to see all the CHD children in the area!
Other than that it hasn't improved one iota to 3 years ago!
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