NHS Accused of Cover-Up Culture’ Is Leading to 'Avoidable' Deaths

Now, when things go wrong for an NHS patient, fatally wrong, we have a right to know the truth afterwards, don't we? Transparency is absolutely vital because that is how we learn, we learn from our mistakes, but a

culture

of

cover

-up leads to

avoidable

deaths

in the NHS with hospitals not learning from their mistakes and that, according to the Health Service Ombudsman, Rob Barons claims that some people's medical records are actually being manipulated after their death to

cover

up errors that doctors have missed. careers because they have been brave enough to step forward and say look, this has happened and they have been fired.

Someone who knows all this very well. Tanya Linan, whose baby Ashton was still born in 2012, was one of 45 babies who should have survived if they had received the right care according to an investigation into maternity and neonatal services at the East Kent Hospital trust where Tanya was being cared for. joins us now along with Rob Baron, the Health Service Ombudsman, it's your last day, good morning to both of you, Robert, it's your last day. Good morning as Health Service Ombudsman for England, but you are going out with a bang. I mean, it's basically saying there's a massive

culture

of cover-up.

People are too afraid to speak. Medical records are being manipulated. you say you are not a naive person but after 7 years on the job you are seeing too much evidence of this absolutely, eh I'm not saying it's universal across the NHS but there are unacceptable cases of it and one There are too many and too many examples and it's something that needs to be addressed and I'm not just saying this at the end of my term, I've been saying it for the last five years, but not enough people have heard what Where is this coming from?

It depends on the circumstances but it happens at all levels so when a trust makes a mistake in my experience too often and we investigate we are independent investigators we don't inform ministers we inform Parliament when when a trust investigates there is a tendency to be very defensive and putting their reputation before the need for patient safety and when that happens there is pressure on people not to disclose at the clinical level at the administrative level? What has really happened? What are they afraid of? What are you afraid of? It will happen to the trust. Say that if the truth comes out right, the NHS lives off its reputation.

Confidence - We have seen in the last 24 hours a national survey showing that only 24% of people have confidence in the way the NHS is currently run and that means many people are not sure they will. get a good service and trust managers and leaders have too often adopted the mistaken view that if you keep quiet everything will be fine, then what has happened in unacceptable ways, in some very significant cases, is that trust leaders trust have told people that they want to reveal what has really happened with preventable

deaths

, there are 11,000 preventable deaths in the NHS every year, they have said that it is not acceptable for you to do that and it is a disciplinary matter if you continue on that route and A large number of doctors, good and honorable doctors, have been referred to the General Medical Council.

Sometimes the GMC has not been told that there is a disclosure, a whistleblowing issue there and this is no way to run a health service. Tanya, it is absolutely shocking what happened to you at East Kent Hospitals trust that you were overdue with your lovely baby, you knew there was a problem didn't you? What was the response of the midwives, the doctors, the nurses? dismissive, they told me I was exaggerating too much, I was too excited, and they rejected me several times. I was even sent to the hospital when I lost all hope with the community midwives.

I went to my GP, which is really unusual when you're already there. Almost two weeks later, the family doctor wrote a letter saying that you have to go to the hospital and deliver your baby right now today, and even I was sent home that day saying that there was no place for me, and that there was no place There was no room the next day and there would be no room over the weekend so I would have to wait another 5 days. What did you feel was wrong? um. It was very bad. He had a lot of pain.

I felt uncomfortable. um. I had nausea and diarrhea I had very bad headaches um my GP um hinted to me that he thought I had preeclampsia um which is dangerous I think I had it and what happened um so I went and went into labor over the weekend week um I showed up at the hospital on Sunday morning November 4th, only to be told again that I was overreacting and didn't need to be examined, they could 100% guarantee I wasn't in labor and sent me home because it was scheduled for the next one. day for my induction so I went home but later that day I couldn't feel my baby move anymore so I went back to the hospital where they told me I was going to have to be brave because his heartbeat wasn't there . more and then I was in 18 hours of active labor before a consultant came and told me that unless they did a c-section I was going to die so they took me out and then they delivered my son and his son was still born.

I was stillborn, yes, and what did they tell you about what would have happened if the team had responded to your initial concern? What should have happened in your case? So after the Auto Cup investigation, I finally found myself being listened to and they totally agreed. that if I had been admitted and cared for from when I first presented or even from when the GP suggested I was born, Ashton would be perfectly healthy, there was nothing wrong with him, um, and you know, all of this would have been completely avoided. the way he was, he was presenting the way he was lying inside, yeah, and the other one was talking about a total breakdown in communication even after this had happened and you were there and and and and the operation was ending, there were nurses coming in singing .

Happy birthday, yes, there was a lot of miscommunication during my birth, so, you know, I was there for 18 hours in the room, trying to get it out, but people came in who hadn't been told I was having it. a stillborn baby, it's a completely different state of mind, we were in that room crying and trying to say goodbye to our son um and people were coming in and almost saying come on, pull yourself together, you need to get a hold of yourself and there's a real lack of communication um and also afterwards uh it was so bad that I had to stay in the ward for a couple of days um obviously without my baby, everyone else has theirs, you can hear them crying and it was horrible, it was the worst moment of my life.

All my life and I've had people tell me, come on, pull yourself together, you'll be fine, sit down, don't lie down, all day long, there's no prepared understanding for the trauma I've had to go through and I think the never-ending fight for answers . but being constantly rejected, which is what a lot of people experience, doesn't help you heal, to this day I suffer from PTSD nightmares and it really impacts your entire life, it's just hard to think of an example of more multiple failures where lessons could and should have been learned, yes the key issue for the NHS is to learn from the mistakes it has made, that is what a compassionate professional body should do and there is not enough of that so Bill Kirkup who has looked at maternity issues across the country produced a report a couple of years ago saying that almost nothing had been learned from their time looking at maternity deaths in the north west of England all that time ago there were brilliant doctors across the NHS who They are under a lot of pressure, wonderful nurses, doctors, managers, but unless communication is better, unless people are told what is happening and they don't feel intimidated to ask, this is a big problem, the complainers tell me I didn't feel like I could push the doctor and sometimes these people are patronized in an unacceptable way to push them away I have to change what you're saying this morning it's so important people should absolutely feel empowered to reject, speak up, ask for a second opinion, in fact, Martha's rule. coming of course Tanya, thanks for sharing your experience.

I'm so sorry, it's absolutely horrible, you know, beyond words. I encourage you to come and analyze it in that detail. Thank you An NHS spokesperson said it is absolutely vital that everyone working in the NHS feels they can speak up and have their concerns acted upon. They made additional background checks to prevent directors involved in serious mismanagement from joining another NHS organization and, when NHS staff raise concerns, they can be monitored by an independent. non executive who can hold the organization to account that is the official response we have a statement from the hospital also involved in this Sarah Hayes from East Kent Hospitals has said our thoughts are with mlum, we are very sorry for the failings in our care and we are working with families to continually improve.

Well, remember all the details if you need support in any of those situations on itv.com because I know it affects several of you. Thank you very much to both.