News that patients are dying in hospitals, mental health services and primary care trusts because safety measures have been ignored has caused alarm among community health campaigners.

Preventable hospital deaths fuel mistrust

Reports by The Guardian newspaper that hospitals are killing and injuring patients by ignoring orders from the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) will fuel distrust in the services community activists warn. 

Data published by the NPSA last year showed that there are now on average four deaths a day of patients in psychiatric wards. Their figures showed that 1,282 people in England died in what it calls "patient safety incidents in mental health settings" in the period 2007-08.

Another 913 patients, more than two a day, suffered what is termed severe harm, or permanent injuries, in such incidents.

With statistics showing that detention rates of black people under the Mental Health Act at an all time historic high, there are concerns from community activists that these failing will hit this group hardest.

‘We know that there are a lot of people in the community who are in detained under the Mental Health Act on a section, which means that they cannot leave even if they wanted to. To learn that patients are dying of because of professionals negligence is alarming.  The whole point of being taken to hospital in the first place is because they are supposed to be places of safety where people can recover, this news will not encourage people to support their loved ones in seeking help when they need it,' a community activist told Black Mental Health UK.

Health alerts ignored

A report by the charity Action Against Medical Accidents (AvMA) , published this month, has revealed that health providers have routinely ignored alert issued by the NPSA to prevent health staff accidentally harming patients.

Entitled ‘Implementation of the Patient Safety Alerts ' it details results of a Freedom of Information Act Request made to the Department of Health on information held on the ‘Central Alert System' on ‘Patient Safety Alerts'. 

Patient Safety Alerts are issued by the NPSA about known problems that have repeatedly caused harm or killed patients and which are avoidable. They contain actions to be completed by a set deadline.

This reports shows that 251 (63%) of trusts had failed to comply with at least one alert. Only 146 (37%) declared that they had ‘completed' all required actions in all alerts or that there was ‘no action required'. This document also sheds light on how 29 trusts had not complied with 10 or more alerts. 11 of these are ‘Foundation' trusts.

The way medicines are dispensed to patients from the community detained in mental health settings have been of serious concern after findings highlighted in the David Bennett Inquiry report showed that black patients are routinely over medicated.

The report shows that ‘Safer Use of Injectable Medicines' (Deadline 31st March 2008) had still not been complied with by 67 trusts. Like most others, these alerts had been sparked by a number of avoidable deaths. Only 2 of the 57 alerts were declared as either ‘completed' or ‘no action required' by all trusts.

Negligence costing NHS millions

‘It is impossible not to conclude that lives are being put at unnecessary risk, and it is likely that avoidable injuries or deaths are still being caused as a result of trusts not complying with patient safety alerts,' the report said.

Questions have also been raised about the effectiveness of the national health regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC). It had not contacted a single trust identified by  the AvMA's  report  published earlier this year in February 2010 as not having complied even with multiple alerts, to encourage compliance or to explain themselves.

‘I'm shocked at just how widespread the extent of non-compliance is among NHS care providers, and that so few have taken the necessary steps to improve patient safety. These valuable alerts can do so much good, if acted upon. But AvMA's report shows they have too often failed and, sadly, that the NPSA appears to have no teeth,' Tim Palmer, a medical negligence specialist lawyer with Pennington's solicitors told The Guardian.

The cost of these mistakes is costing more than human lives, figures published by NHS Litigation Authority for the year 2005-2006 show that the cost of clinical negligence in England  as £560 million. Commentators from the community say that this money would be better spent on improving patient safety.

The AvMA published figures showing indicating that the number of medical errors tally at around one million a year in English hospitals and a Department of Health report estimates that there are approximately 850,000 medical accidents in England each year, which could have been avoided.

 

Source: by Zephaniah Samuels http://www.blackmentalhealth.org.uk