Tuesday 31st May - Panorama.

[Champ]

I seem to be saying 'could you imagine' a lot at the moment but the thought of seeing a family member treated like that

[lifetime fan]

I seem to be saying 'could you imagine' a lot at the moment but the thought of seeing a family member treated like that

 

 

They were all someones son/daughter, brother/sister, aunt or uncle.

 

Only by thinking someone is not a worthwhile human could you do that to a person.

[lifetime fan]

40 safeguarding alerts in 2 years and 76 admissions to A&E in 3 years from the hospital and no one is asking questions.

[Champ]

Oh, fuck, C, I didn't know about the hospital admissions...

[lifetime fan]

Oh, fuck, C, I didn't know about the hospital admissions...

 

 

That is for everything, epileptic seizures, injuries, self-harm, lacerations and for a fall.

 

Whilst I was there a young woman had her arm broken in a restraint. She'd had it broken in a restraint the year before I started too.

[lifetime fan]

More than 2 admissions to A&E a month and nearly 2 safeguarding alerts a month.

 

But two middle managers at the council get the sack whilst the top bosses carry on as normal with massive salaries.

[Champ]

Strikes me that health professionals alertness (if that's a word) to Adult Protection falls way short of their response to potential Child Protection

[lifetime fan]

 

 

The sentencing of 11 care workers who pleaded guilty to maltreating five patients at a private hospital will begin on 22 October.

 

The defendants were detained after secret filming by BBC Panorama at Winterbourne View, near Bristol.

 

Sentencing was fixed after staff member Michael Ezenagu, 29, from London, pleaded guilty on Monday to two charges of ill-treating a patient.

 

The other defendants pleaded guilty at previous hearings.

 

Wayne Rogers, 31, of Kingswood; Alison Dove, 24, of Kingswood; Graham Doyle, 25, of Patchway; Jason Gardiner, 44, of Hartcliffe; Daniel Brake, 27, of Downend; Holly Laura Draper, 23, of Mangotsfield; Charlotte Justine Cotterell, 21, from Yate and Neil Ferguson, 27, of Emerson Green all admitted ill-treating patients in their care.

 

Sooaklingum Appoo, 58, of Downend, and Kelvin Fore, 33, from Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to wilfully neglecting patients in their care.

 

Judge Neil Ford QC, the Recorder of Bristol, said the sentencing hearing could last up to five days.

 

All 11 defendants are currently on bail with the condition that they are not allowed to work or seek work with vulnerable people.

 

A recently published report into abuse at the hospital said fundamental changes were needed in how the care of vulnerable adults was commissioned and monitored.

 

The report also revealed concerns were raised about the "poorly managed" hospital before the abuse was uncovered in a secretly-filmed investigation.

 

The safety of dozens of patients was raised but the NHS was only informed about a handful of cases.

 

South Gloucestershire Council said it "fully accepted" the findings and Castlebeck, which owns the hospital, said the criticisms in the report were being "actively addressed".

 

 

BBC News - Winterbourne View: Sentence date set for care workers

[lifetime fan]

Brilliant piece in the Irish Times this week.

 

 

 

Blind search for profits behind care home abuse

FINTAN O'TOOLE

 

EVEN IN a euphoric Olympic week, a headline like “Mentally disabled adults abused at Christian Brothers’ home” would have grabbed the attention. It might even have ranked as a scandal – a term RTÉ was applying yesterday to some messing over a reception for our Olympians.

 

 

But Christian Brothers or nuns have nothing to do with the abuse inflicted on mentally disabled adults at Winterbourne hospital in Bristol. It was owned by a private equity fund led by Denis Brosnan, with investors including Dermot Desmond, JP McManus and John Magnier.

 

Last week, an official report into Winterbourne was published, after 11 former members of its staff pleaded guilty to abusing patients. It describes the “elation of those exercising merciless power” over extremely vulnerable people with mental disabilities, including severe autism: sadistic teasing, taunting patients with names like “gimp”, kicking, poking of eyes, slapping on naked buttocks, dousing with cold water, pouring mouthwash over a patient’s head and into her eyes, forcing wet wipes into a patient’s mouth, head-butting a patient with such force as to break his nose, and instilling constant fear of “harm and degradation”.

 

There is no suggestion that Denis Brosnan or his fellow Irish investors knew about or condoned this monstrous behaviour. When BBC’s Panorama revealed the story last year, Brosnan declared himself “shocked and appalled at what happened”, and I have no doubt this is true. Yet, he and his fellow investors bear the same kind of responsibility for the abuse at Winterbourne as the Catholic Church in general bears for the abuse at any specific industrial school in Ireland.

 

That responsibility is twofold. In the first place, just like the church, the businessmen set the ethical parameters within which the abusive institution operated.

 

In the case of industrial schools, that ethic was the absolute and unaccountable power of the church. In the case of Winterbourne it was the absolute and unaccountable priority of profit.

 

Winterbourne was described internally in 2011 as “one of the best performers within the group – from a financial perspective”. The patients were nice little earners, bringing in an average of £3,500 a week each. Asked how much of this was actually spent on their care, hospital group Castlebeck refused to say, citing “commercial sensitivities”.

 

Commercial sensitivities were the only kind at work here. Among the things that were not priorities for Winterbourne’s owners, according to the report, were “the supervision of patients”, “the complaints and concerns of patients and their relatives and visiting professionals”, or “the frequency with which restraint practices at the hospital were deployed, or even their legality”.

 

There was just one real priority: making as much money as possible. “It is clear,” the report says, “that at key points in the wretched history of Winterbourne . . . key decisions about priorities were taken by Castlebeck Ltd which impaired the ability of this hospital to improve the mental health and physical health and wellbeing of its patients. Castlebeck Ltd appears to have made decisions about profitability, including shareholder returns, over and above decisions about the effective and humane delivery of assessment, treatment and rehabilitation.”

 

Substitute “church power” for “profitability” and you have a familiar story. Just as familiar is the failure to respond to warnings about what was going on and refusal to fully co-operate with an official inquiry. Castlebeck did nothing when concerns were raised by various outside bodies or when a member of staff blew the whistle. Until the BBC intervened, it was, as the report damningly puts it, “business as usual” for Castlebeck.

 

When Panorama made the truth public, the company claimed ignorance: “it has subsequently claimed little knowledge of events in Winterbourne”, a claim the report finds “not compelling”. Castlebeck commissioned an internal inquiry which failed to look at key issues such as the presence of police in the hospital on 29 occasions. It refused to give the official inquiry an unredacted version of that internal report and refused to hand over “documentary evidence . . . concerning complaints, disciplinary proceedings and the concerns of patients and employees of Winterbourne”.

 

Most strikingly, as the report puts it, “Although Castlebeck Ltd took the financial rewards without any apparent accountability . . . the corporate responsibility of Castlebeck Ltd remains to be addressed at the highest level.” In other words, the investors who profited are still refusing to take responsibility.

 

The scale may be much smaller, but the story is not at all unlike that of the church’s corporate attitude to abuse at its institutions – ignore it while you can, express shock, but withhold information and make sure that “corporate responsibility” always “remains to be addressed”.

 

But there is one major difference. The abuse that happened on the church authorities’ watch could be (rightly) pinned on an unpopular, dying ideology – triumphalist Catholicism. The abuse that happened on the watch of some of our great business leaders was down to an ideology that is still in its prime – the sanctity of profit and the belief the market must be allowed free rein everywhere.

 

One story is big news because it confirmed the evil of the old religion. The other is a mere embarrassment because it points to the evil of the new one.

 

 

Blind search for profits behind care home abuse - The Irish Times - Tue, Aug 14, 2012

[lifetime fan]

It chronicled the litany of abuses visited on the patients -- people whose lives could not have been more different to those who owned the hospital.

 

They included Ida, who as a child hid her face in public, dropped out of school, cried and often harmed herself. As an adult she was raped, had an abortion, and was diagnosed with autism, and ended up in Winterborne View Hospital.

 

She told her family how she was forced into a bath, when she didn't want to have one, by a male staff member. Another patient, Don, also autistic, longed to go back home. His family were "desperate to get him out" for a home visit, but were told he would be sectioned if he refused to go back. He was "fixated and talked continually about restraints".

 

 

A third patient, Tom, who left Winterbourne for another hospital before Panorama's undercover documentary, was traumatised by his experiences at Winterbourne.

 

He became so distressed after seeing the documentary that he had to be moved to a secure unit.

 

 

Nursing home czars unaware of their citizens' anguish - National News - Independent.ie

[Skidfingers McGonical]

I can't even begin to get my head around the thought process of those 11 bastards.

 

I also struggle to understand how money can become more important than a persons right to good care.

 

If this isn't a prime example of why services like this should not be privatised then, I don't know what is.

[lifetime fan]

I can't even begin to get my head around the thought process of those 11 bastards.

 

I also struggle to understand how money can become more important than a persons right to good care.

 

If this isn't a prime example of why services like this should not be privatised then, I don't know what is.

 

 

Only by thinking someone is not a worthwhile human could you do that to a person.

[lifetime fan]

Like I said, this wasn't a one off bad apple of a service. The entire company is rotten to the core.

 

 

 

 

Darlington-based care provider, Castlebeck, sacks and suspends staff in mistreatment probe (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

 

 

Darlington-based care provider, Castlebeck, sacks and suspends staff in mistreatment probe

 

8:00am Tuesday 11th September 2012 in News Exclusive By Joe Willis, Regional chief reporter

 

INQUIRY HELD: Whorlton Hall, where two members of staff are said to have been suspended

 

A CARE provider at the centre of a national abuse scandal has sacked or suspended more than a dozen members of staff at residential homes across the region following fresh allegations of the mistreatment of vulnerable residents.

 

Darlington-based Castlebeck confirmed it had taken action after introducing zero tolerance policies to deal with staff who broke the rules.

 

According to a source, senior Castlebeck officials have launched investigations at five of the company’s North- East units.

 

The action taken by the firm is said to have included:

•Five members of staff suspended from Hollyhurst Independent Hospital, in Darlington, following allegations of abuse;

•Two members of staff suspended from Whorlton Hall Independent Hospital, Barnard Castle;

•Several members of staff suspended from Newbus Grange Autism Service, Darlington, amid patient abuse claims. One worker suspended for allegedly taking drugs;

•Three senior members of staff suspended from Briar Court residential home, in Hartlepool , following allegations of patient bullying;

•Two senior members of staff sacked at Chesterholme Independent Hospital, in Hexham.

 

The company said it did not comment on individual cases or matters which were subject to any investigation.

 

However, it did say the allegations put to the company by The Northern Echo contained two inaccuracies, although it declined to say what they were.

 

Castlebeck launched a turnaround plan after BBC’s Panorama programme filmed patients being pinned down, slapped, doused in cold water and repeatedly taunted at the company’s Winterbourne View residential hospital, in Bristol. The episode was first screened in May last year.

 

Following the scandal, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) demanded that the company made “root and branch” changes after visiting all 23 of Castlebeck’s hospitals and homes.

 

Castlebeck this week told The Northern Echo that it had made a public commitment to higher standards and performance at all of its units.

 

The company said suspension was a neutral act and was standard practice across the healthcare sector. It said personnel could be suspended from duty for a range of issues and the action was designed to protect those concerned, and to allow any appropriate investigation to take place without prejudice.

 

Chief operating officer Simon Harrison said: “We have promised to treat any performance issues with zerotolerance, and that is exactly what we are doing.

 

“This is part of our strict policy on providing good and safe care to those who use our services. A small number of suspensions in any service in the healthcare sector is wholly normal.”

 

In a recent progress report on the changes implemented by the company, Castlebeck confirmed that more than a third of its operational managers had been replaced.

 

Last night, Darlington Borough Council, which is a member of the local safeguarding adults board, said it took information about abuse and neglect extremely seriously.

 

A spokeswoman said: “The council is fully aware of the issues in relation to Castlebeck and will continue to work with other agencies to ensure the safety of vulnerable adults.”

 

The CQC said its inspectors had visited all Castlebeck establishments in the North- East in the past 15 months.

 

A spokesman said: “We are aware of incidents reported at these Castlebeck units and have been monitoring their performance closely.”

[lifetime fan]

Where are they sending all the clients? Surely the limited spaces mean other facilities are becoming overcrowded?

 

 

There are hundreds of empty 'beds' throughout the country.

 

High quality provision that actually meets the needs of the individual is an entirely different matter, and costs.

 

Because of the media coverage those being moved will stand a better chance than most of getting a half decent service but let no one kid themselves, if you cut finances to the extent this government are it will affect front line services.

 

No matter what the lying politicians tell you.

 

 

Shows what I know.

 

My faith in humanity really is starting to go.

[Champ]

Shows what I know.

 

My faith in humanity really is starting to go.

And what has happened ?

[lifetime fan]

Lets just say people havn't been moved to suitable, high quality services like they should have been.

 

The exact opposite in fact.

[lifetime fan]

CUNT

 

 

 

You feel bullied do you?

 

Imagine being bullied day in and day out for years and the bloke in charge knew about it, had people complain about it to him, and despite him saying he'd sort it he at best, tried to ignore it or at worst, deliberately didn't say a word and allowed it to continue to for a quiet life.

 

That's bullying.

[lifetime fan]

Keep the evening of Monday 29th October free.

[lifetime fan]

Monday 29 October 8.30pm-9.00pm BBC ONE

 

 

Panorama - Winterbourne View: The Hospital That Stopped Caring

 

 

BBC Panorama exposed the abuse of vulnerable people at Winterbourne View private hospital in Bristol - and shocked the nation. Tonight, as the last abusers have been sentenced, BBC Panorama can reveal exclusive daily care logs from inside the hospital, never before shown secret footage and evidence of possible mistreatment at another hospital.

 

It is the untold story of some of the patients who faced the worst abuse at Winterbourne View.

 

There are allegations a number of patients from Winterbourne View have been assaulted at other hospitals and BBC Panorama follows their troubling journey.

 

Panorama answers some of the questions which Castlebeck, the owners of Winterbourne View, haven’t answered: including details about the high fees charged for some patients, even while costs were being cut. The film exposes significant failures in the management of the hospital and its training regime that contributed to the culture of abuse.

 

National and regional enquiries have examined the abuse at Winterbourne View but still, tonight, Panorama asks whether the patients from Winterbourne View are safe now and whether the most vulnerable people in society are really being protected.

 

 

BBC - Media Centre - Programme Information - Panorama - Winterbourne View: The Hospital That Stopped Caring

[Trucker Paddy]

Bloody hell that's shocking

[lifetime fan]

that the first time you've read this thread mate?

[melons]

I must have missed it, where have they sent the clients? Surely they'd be high profile enough to make the authorities pay more attention?

[lifetime fan]

I must have missed it, where have they sent the clients? Surely they'd be high profile enough to make the authorities pay more attention?

 

 

You'd have thought wouldn't you. I'm ashamed of my profession at times.

[Anubis]

There are allegations a number of patients from Winterbourne View have been assaulted at other hospitals and BBC Panorama follows their troubling journey.

 

What? Are they talking about hospitals they were sent to after Winterbourne?

[Thomo123]

Monday 29 October 8.30pm-9.00pm BBC ONE

 

Panorama - Winterbourne View: The Hospital That Stopped Caring

 

BBC Panorama exposed the abuse of vulnerable people at Winterbourne View private hospital in Bristol - and shocked the nation. Tonight' date=' as the last abusers have been sentenced, BBC Panorama can reveal exclusive daily care logs from inside the hospital, never before shown secret footage and evidence of possible mistreatment at another hospital.

 

It is the untold story of some of the patients who faced the worst abuse at Winterbourne View.

 

There are allegations a number of patients from Winterbourne View have been assaulted at other hospitals and BBC Panorama follows their troubling journey.

 

Panorama answers some of the questions which Castlebeck, the owners of Winterbourne View, haven't answered: including details about the high fees charged for some patients, even while costs were being cut. The film exposes significant failures in the management of the hospital and its training regime that contributed to the culture of abuse.

 

National and regional enquiries have examined the abuse at Winterbourne View but still, tonight, Panorama asks whether the patients from Winterbourne View are safe now and whether the most vulnerable people in society are really being protected.

 

BBC - Media Centre - Programme Information - Panorama - Winterbourne View: The Hospital That Stopped Caring

 

Another day another 'hard hitting' exposé on abuses within the system. Cue more arseholes trying to cover their backsides plus promises of change and that patient care is the number one priority. Unfortunately proper care, with properly trained and experienced staff costs, in this case too much for it actually be worthwhile to actually bother with proper care. We don't want to upset the investors now do we.

 

Healthcare cannot be left to the private sector, I know the health service is pretty shit but at least there is some accountability. If the government cannot put measures in place to control these cowboys then how can we possibly turn over the care of our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers to these parasitic fuckers.