NHS Care of Older People
Debate between Baroness Keeley and Clive Betts(12 years, 10 months ago)
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Andrew George
The hon. Lady is making a strong case. On the point about whistleblowing, or protected disclosure, her own research may have shown that when a nurse, for example, suggests to senior management that there is a resource problem on a ward, that does not necessarily enhance their likelihood of improving their job prospects in the hospital. Often, they are told, “Other members of staff seem to manage, so why don’t you?” Does the hon. Lady agree that we need to look at how whistleblowing can be done safely?
Mr Clive Betts (in the Chair)
Order. A lot of people clearly want to speak, and I do not want to stop or discourage interventions, but if they are made could they be brief and to the point so that we can keep things flowing?
Barbara Keeley
It is clear that what I said about culture must apply right through to things such as whistleblowing. It is a sad aspect of this case that none of the people involved with Mr D’s care or with dealing with the complaint could even rescue the situation by handling the complaint reasonably.
I understand, and we must be clear, that this case represents the NHS at its worst, but it did happen, and it happened to my constituent. I have never had a case as bad as this one again, but I have had others that have given me cause for concern, and I am currently pursuing cases with similarly bad aspects on behalf of constituents. Sometimes, however, there are cases where everything goes wrong and all the problems I have mentioned come together.
MPs’ interventions and the intervention of the ombudsman can remedy the injustice of such inadequate treatment to some extent, but we must accept that it is not possible even for such interventions, much though our constituents are grateful for them, to overcome the distress and anguish experienced by families such as my constituents. However, a swift apology would have helped, and we must have a system whereby an apology can be made swiftly, because that never happens.
The ombudsman talked about the need to listen to older people and to take account of feedback from families. One of my conclusions from having looked at this case is that it took many months—in fact, years—to get to the point where the family were anything like happy with the response to their complaint, and that made things worse.
I felt it was important to outline a case I had personal experience of, and there has not been time to touch on much else, but there are many things that could improve this situation. In the briefing for the debate, I was heartened to see a note from the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service describing ward support services it is setting up for older people, which is a wonderful idea. It wants to improve the experience of older people by using trained volunteers to support them and their families and carers. That would include training in dementia, which could be important.
Hospital support for carers is also important. The Princess Royal Trust for Carers has a carers centre in Salford, which the Minister knows, because he has met some of its staff. The centre has developed strong relationships with primary and secondary health care and works closely with Salford Royal hospital, which does excellent work—it is not the hospital I was talking about earlier; that was a different hospital. The centre supports carers in the hospital and on important issues around discharge. How could the discharge I described have happened if people had been there—even volunteers and people from a carers centre—to help the family? Such initiatives can help.
Developing awareness of family carers on hospital wards and giving them support might help to head off, or somehow deal with, dreadful situations such as the one I have described. NHS care is important, but it is important that we understand that it does not end when a person leaves hospital, particularly if they are terminal patients going home to die.
I hope the debate contributes to the improvement of NHS care for older people. As a Member of Parliament, I would never want to see another case like the one I have described.
Localism Bill
Debate between Baroness Keeley and Clive Betts
Barbara Keeley
No, there is absolutely not. I thank my hon. Friend for making that point.
Hon. Members will be interested to know the extent to which there is all-party opposition to these proposals in Bradford. The Conservative group leader on Bradford council also argued against the imposition of a shadow mayor in that city. In the same article, Councillor Anne Hawkesworth said:
“My colleagues and I are not supportive of elected mayors… We do not think that the proposals are suited to the needs of…Bradford.”
Last week, the same issue was reported on again, when the hon. Member for Bradford East (Mr Ward) said:
“My view is that it should be for the councils to decide if they want to go down the referendum route. The referendum shouldn’t be imposed.”
The Opposition agree. Shadow mayors and referendums on having a mayor should not be imposed. In Bradford at least, it seems, there is Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative opposition to the Government’s proposals. However, there has also been opposition in other councils, including Leeds city council.
Mr Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) (Lab)
While my hon. Friend is running through a list of authorities, will she also refer to Sheffield—now a Labour-controlled authority, of course? There has been cross-party agreement between Labour and Liberal Democrats, and all are opposed to any mayoral system at all, and certainly opposed to shadow mayors. I am sure that were there any Conservative councillors in Sheffield—which there are not—they would be joining in the opposition as well. Is it not a strange system in which a mayor’s legitimacy comes from being elected by the public, but a shadow mayor’s legitimacy comes from being the representative of most councillors on a council? In Sheffield, that majority of councillors are opposed to the proposals.
Barbara Keeley
Absolutely. I was not going to go through a complete list, but I welcome hearing about what has happened in Sheffield.
It seems that Yorkshire is turning against these proposals en masse, and there has been opposition in other councils—for example, in Leeds city council. The Yorkshire Post quoted its leader, Councillor Keith Wakefield, as saying that these proposals are
“not acceptable in today’s democracy… If people decide they want an elected mayor that’s what they should have, but do it following a vote… I think the idea of a referendum is OK where people have an opportunity to say yea or nay. What’s not right is putting you in a position where there’s been no vote.”
I understand that he would turn down the position whatever happens.
I hope that the hon. Member for Bradford East and his colleagues will support our amendment 41, and vote against the imposition of shadow mayors and referendums on their local councils.