Health chief in meeting snub

A health chief from the Pennine Acute Trust failed to attend a public meeting with bereaved relatives who had experienced poor hospital care.

The meeting was held on Thursday (28 April) by patient group Cure the NHS North-West just weeks after the Trust, which runs the Rochdale Infirmary, was featured on Channel 4’s hard-hitting Dispatches documentary.

Undercover reporters secretly filmed patient care and hospital life at sites in Oldham and North Manchester, footage which caused Trust bosses to apologise for “unacceptable staff behaviour”.

But relatives and patients from across the region were left disappointed after planned panellist Dr Ruth Jameson, medical director at the Pennine Acute Trust, withdrew her attendance hours before the meeting’s 6.00pm start.

Janet Watkin, founder of the action group, said Dr Jameson stood down because she felt the meeting had changed from a discussion with relatives to a Question Time-style event designed to be confrontational.

An audience of 50 patients and relatives at the Candid Views meeting in Bury were joined by TV crews, radio and local media.

Panellists included Professor Sir Brian Jarman, of Imperial College London, and Sue McMillan, regional director of healthcare regulators the Care Quality Commission.

Chaired by Dr Michael Powers QC, residents shared their experiences of bad hospital treatment at Trusts across the North-West.

Concerns were raised about issues such as lack of care from nursing staff, mortality rates, patients suffering malnutrition and the hospital complaints system.

Dr Powers said: “What anyone does in relation to any patient in health services must be capable of public scrutiny.

“There has to be an obligation on any NHS worker to report anything untoward.”

Rochdale councillor and Infirmary campaigner Jean Ashworth told how she collected a 5,000-signature petition expressing a vote of no confidence in the Trust’s management.

She also told the audience about the death of five-year-old Mohammed Akheel Khan three weeks ago at Rochdale Infirmary’s new Urgent Care Centre which his family claim did not have a children’s resuscitation kit.

Speaking after the meeting, Janet Watkin said: “The meeting went superbly. It was a missed opportunity for the Trust.”