L A Colston writes (Letters, November 8) of “the helpless and old in NHS hospitals being treated in a disgusting manner”.
However, not only the elderly suffer mistreatment by the National Health Service.
Ten years ago the Kennedy Inquiry was completed into the preventable deaths and brain damage suffered by many babies in the Bristol Royal Infirmary.
The wide-ranging Kennedy Inquiry’s report estimated that 25,000 patients a year of all ages died then in NHS hospitals, from lack of “the exercise of ordinary standards of care”.
The inquiry looked into why this happened, and reported on how NHS managers silenced the concerns of medical staff.
Those silenced included surgeons and consultants who reported bad medical practice that they had witnessed.
Ten years later NHS managers are still silencing such “whistleblowers” with gagging agreements, or bankrupting them with endless legal action. The NHS spends millions of pounds of public funds every year silencing whistleblowers. Mistreatment and malpractice in the NHS is hidden at taxpayers’ expense.
RALPH PROTHERO, Southampton.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here