Liverpool Care Pathway - Whatever Happened To Common Decency?

The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

Public Inquiry - Chaired by Robert Francis QC

The Final Report is published today. The report uses such words as "disaster" freely, in the context of hindsight, referencing the disaster the Bristol Inquiry uncovered, to the recommendation that  the Nursing and Midwifery Council needs to be equipped to look at systemic concerns as well as individual ones. It should not have to wait until a disaster has occurred to intervene with its fitness to practise procedures.

As those who have petitioned the N&MC for justice for their loved ones know, like the GMC, it is all a protectionist closed shop; it is the one Trade Union even Margaret Thatcher flinched from confronting.

This is UK Human Rights Blog -

Mid Staffs Inquiry report: Human rights abuses need human rights solutions – Sanchita Hosali

This guest post is by Sanchita Hosali, Deputy Director at the British Institute of Human Rights. A number of 1 Crown Office Row barristers represented parties to the Inquiry, none of whom has contributed to this post.

Hundreds of people have died; others have been starved, dehydrated and left in appalling conditions of indignity, witnessed by their loved ones. Surely this is what Chris Grayling, Justice Secretary, had in mind when he recently cautioned to need to “concentrate on real human rights”?

Yet the rights, legal accountability, and practical benefits of the Human Rights Act are rarely mentioned in discussions about the shocking failures of care such as those featured in today’s Public Inquiry Report in events at Staffordshire Hospital between 2005-2008.

UK Human Rights Blog continues -

Mid-Staffs is a stark reminder of what happens when targets and financial imperatives become the focus and services lose sight of the person. A human rights approach looks at using the law in practice to design and deliver services that place patients at the heart of healthcare, seeking to respect, protect and fulfil their rights.

Will we see the perpetrators appear at The Hague to answer for their human rights abuses? Unlikely. The Executive Summary says -

The disaster of Stafford Hospital occurred in an NHS acute hospital provider trust, and it is the lessons to be learned from that which I have been asked to identify
...a factor in the pressure leading to this Inquiry was a wish to see people brought to account, whereas if an inquiry is to fulfil its main purpose it has to identify lessons to be applied.

Human rights? Yes, certainly, Human Rights. But whatever happened to common decency...?