March 21, 2013 4.20 pm
This story is over 111 months old
Health Minister Poulter in Lincoln: ‘Gagging clauses are completely unacceptable’
Brief visit: Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter visited Lincoln County Hospital and spoke about the high mortality rates investigation and gagging former health executives.
Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter with Linda Higginbottom, Deputy Director for Patient Services at ULHT, and Lincoln MP Karl McCartney
Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter visited Lincoln County Hospital on Thursday and spoke about the United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust’s part in the high mortality rates investigation and condemned gagging former health executives.
ULHT is one of 14 trusts in the country that are being investigated for higher than expected mortality rates, and the Health Minister said the review will be concluded by the summer.
Speaking to The Lincolnite, Dr Dan Poulter said: “There are a few things I have picked up on today that I will feed into those investigations.
“Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS Medical Director who’s taking on board those investigations, is going to 14 trusts, [ULHT] being one of those trusts. It’s about looking at what factors there may be that caused the higher than expected mortality ratios, and there may well be factors there that were well out of the hospitals’ control.
“For example, what are local palliative care facilities like, are people getting the support in the community that they need when they are coming towards the end of their life, and if not, they are having to come and die in hospital, then that drives mortality ratios. That review is going to be ongoing and will conclude by the summer.”
Earlier this week, former ULHT CEO and whistleblower Gary Walker and former trust chairman David Bowles gave evidence as part of the Mid Staffs NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry by the Health Select Committee.
Gary Walker and David Bowles described to the panel their time at ULHT, and the problems the trust faced, particularly in 2008, explaining how he was intimidated into leaving his post, and that he agreed to a gagging order compensation worth £225,000.
“As a government we make it very clear that gagging clauses are completely unacceptable,” said Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter.
“Of course you’re sometimes going to have to have confidentiality clauses where there are issues of commercial sensitivity or patient data, but it’s never acceptable to try to gag staff from speaking out on issues about patient care. We’ve made that very clear as a government, a number of the issues happened in the previous government, but our line is [gagging orders] are completely unacceptable.”
Lincoln MP Karl McCartney accompanied the Health Minister on Thursday on his visit in Lincoln, as part of a tour of several hospitals in the East Midlands, including Newark and Grantham.
Karl McCartney said: “When we look at what’s been happening with Gary Walker, and when he spoke at the Health Select Committee, along with David Bowles, I think there’s real serious issues that need to be addressed that haven’t.
“I wrote to the chairman of the Health Select Committee and I listed a number of people I felt should be invited to talk to the committee — and that involves the previous health ministers who I think will have overseen what happened to Gary Walker — who have some serious questions to answer.
“As someone elected to represent my constituents, it’s something that concerns me and I want to know what’s being to make things better, and also who’s going to be disciplined to make sure they don’t make the same mistakes they have potentially made previously. I think that goes across the whole spectrum of different issues, not just in the health service,” Karl McCartney added.
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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