STH Cover Up Strategy

Sheffield Teaching Hospital Trust has a Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts or CNST level 1 which is an indication of its Poor Quality Control and therefore High Risk status. Any Complaint has to be deflected!!!
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Our NHS Complaint began with just asking why one nurse on one shift at the MacMillan Palliative Care Ward, Northern General Hospital, refused morphine on Thomas's penultimate day.

Then through research we found out that the Palliative Care Consultant on the MPCU failed to gradually increase the morphine drip, which is standard practice.

We asked for copies of the Medical Records 11/1/06 and the Sheffield Teaching Hospital Trust deliberately did not comply with the 'Access to Medical Records Act 1990'. Medical Records should be available upto 40 days after application.
90 days later and the Palliative Care Consultant said we couldn't have them. On attending the Medical Records office however at the Northern General Hospital the Records Clerk was most helpful and we obtained what we thought was a full set of Medical Records.

Then we had the Healthcare Commission say that the 10mgs. morphine in the drip was 'low in the circumstances' and recommendations were made to the Sheffield Teaching Hospital Trust to implement in the future.

Then we went to a Solicitor NOT for compensation but to try to get some answers that the Sheffield Hospital Trust just would not give us.
Their letters were always written in such a way as to be misleading and they never apologised for letting our loved one end his life writhing on his death bed, with us having to call the family G.P. to summon help.

The Solicitor wrote to the Trust on several occassions and the Trust just did not answser.
The Solicitor asked if there were any outstanding drug charts, observation charts or documents held in the complaints file and the Sheffield Teaching said there weren't April 2009.

Then a Medical Expert (NHS Consultant) wrote a whitewash of a Report where she contradicted herself. She invoiced us more than £2.000 but has never chased us for payment! She knows it was all a cover up!

Then we had Thomas's story included in the Patients Association Report August 2009 where the Sheffield Hospital Trust said care had been 'appropriate', although Ms. Christine Beasley, Chief Nurse and Government spokesperson wrote to us saying she was sorry that care had not been appropriate.

Then the Sheffield Hospital Trust really did start digging themselves into a hole.

They wrote to our M.P. David Willetts just before the publication of the Patients Association Report, outlining when the morphine syringe driver/drip had commenced, when it was refilled and the dose given in the final syringe driver. THEY WERE LYING.

We had the NHS Litigation list of times when terminal medication was given. which just did not match the STH list!

The Sheffield Hospital Trust carried on digging.

We asked to see the documents from where the Sheffield Hospital Trust had based 'their' list from.

In December 2009 some copied documents were passed to us that had NEVER been passed to the Solicitor.
But we were out of the 3 year timescale in taking a medical negligence case to court and so they could breathe easily!

Within these documents Sir Andrew Cash OBE had written
'I can confirm that when the Healthcare Commission highlighted aspects of Mr. Milner's care which could have been improved, I apologised for these lapses and ensured that the recommendations were acted upon'.

This was in stark contrast to the statement the Sheffield Teaching Hospital made to the Press in August 2009 'a review had been carried out by the Trust and the Healthcare Commission about the medication given to Mr. Milner and it was found staff acted appropriately and professionally.

We repeatedly asked to see the originals as some of the copies looked altered and on 26/1/10 (more than 4 years after the death of Thomas) we saw some of the originals.

We found that they had altered the Dangerous Drugs Book. This is a criminal and comes under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.Click here to read the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971

We also found that an entry into the Dangerous Drug Register 2.5mgs morphine did NOT match the corresponding entry into the PRN (morphine as required) chart which read 5mgs. morphine.

We found that the amount of morphine vials issued onto the and signed out did not match the morphine that had been administered on the MacMillan Palliative Care Ward, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield.

More Details to come. The Sheffield Hospital Trust have now seriously contravened the Data Protection Act!

The callous Macmillan nurse who refused Thomas his terminal medication just grinned at us when we went to see him laid out on the evening 11/1/06. It was the actions of this nurse that began our NHS Complaint.
We never thought that the events that have happened would be how the NHS sort out complaints especially when the Sheffield Teaching Hospital says 'If we get something wrong, we will do our best to make amends'.
It is our policy that when mistakes are made we admit them and offer a full apology.