Revolving Doors Favour Sacked NHS Bosses After Bed Sore Debacle

A recent independent report revealed that the board of Liverpool Community Health (LCH) NHS Trust took part in a drive to cut costs which ended up in patients suffering serious harm, including suffering from a significant number of bedsores. Despite the injuries that were caused, the NHS bosses, who earned 6 figure salaries, were removed from their jobs but were then soon offered other similar well paid jobs within the service.

The report stated that the standards at LCH dropped dramatically following the managers attempt to reduce costs by 15% in one year so as to get foundation trust status.

The injuries received due to lack of medical care not only included painful bedsores, but fractured hips too. Also in some cases where teeth needed to be extracted the wrong ones were accidentally removed. Liverpool Community Health (LCH) is a significant provider of health services for elderly people and operates elderly care and dentistry services for up to 750,000 people spread throughout Merseyside.

The previous chairman and chief executive of the Liverpool trust still have jobs, either working directly or indirectly for the NHS. What’s worse is there is no evidence to suggest these individuals were offered these jobs due to any credibility they had built up in the NHS. Regulators, it seems, helped the failed chief executive Bernie Cuthel find a further six-figure NHS job. The Trust Development Authority (TDA), a NHS regulator, found her a job for 12 months at the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust.

In response to this and other unacceptable events that have occurred in the district Health and Social Care arena, Stephen Barclay Minister, has announced a review of the ‘fit and proper person’ test. He wants what is called the ‘revolving door’ controversy monitored more strictly. This is the situation where executives who have failed in their jobs are simply moved into other areas of the NHS with similar salaries. They aren’t made accountable for their actions.

The report said the LCH should not have acted in the way it did in order to pursue foundation trust status as the targets it set damaged health services that should have reached patients. Dental services were cut as well as making fifty district nurses redundant. When staff complained of having a too heavy work load they were bullied.

Do you have evidence to prove that an elderly member of your family, or another relative who had to use the LCH, or similar services at another care facility, suffered from pressure sores as a result of the negligent behaviour of its staff ? If so, you may be eligible to file a personal injury claim against the trust for allowing this to happen.

When your relative is put into a hospital or another care facility they should expect to receive the best treatment available to treat their condition. If this fails due to neglect of patient then this may be a hard and fast case for being eligible for compensation from those responsible.