Child Vetting Failing, GMC Strike Doctors Off, Over £2 Million Unaccounted For, Rising Management Costs . Attachments: Annual notes to accounts NHSCT 2010-11 / GMC minutes of hearings
Although the published Annual Accounts recently published by the Northern Health & Social Trust paints a pretty picture, in June a BSO Audit highlights concerns and weaknesses in the Northern Health & Social Care Trust’s performance.
Major weaknesses included (pages 7 & 8);
- · Areas of high graded incidents not being investigated.
- · Delays in completion of investigations and appropriate documentation not being completed and returned to the complaints/service user office
- · Arrangements relating to the trust acting as appointee for a client, reconciliation of bank statements, and safekeeping of a small number of donations
- · Weakness in the areas of evidence of Access NI (child vetting) checks, delay in confirmation of GMC registration, confirmation of entitlements to work in the country.
The notes to the accounts also set out money made available for Clinical negligence; the Northern Trust set aside £2,844,000 as a contingent liability. This is an increase of over £1 million since 2009.
The recent press about child abuse with the DHSSPS may not be as confined as the Health Minister is telling the public for instance the Northern Trust, which has the largest child population of any Trust, is having issues vetting its staff then this is something the Health Minister must make sure is rectified.
The issues with the GMC are very real and most likely still very apparent, since 2009 three high profile cases have been ion the Northern Trust;
- 2009, Dr Kataya; Applied to the then Causeway Trust for the post of SHO Paediatrics in 2006, it was found that Dr Kataya was not honest on previous experience and posts and forged a letter of recommendation, which led to his erasure from the GMC in January 2010, 28 days after closure of the case in December 2009
- 2010, Dr Hussain; Investigated for instances in Bucknall Hospital, Staffordshire between 6 Oct 2008 - 6 Jan 2009 and Antrim Area Hospital between 12 Jan 2009 – 23 Jan 2009, at Antrim Hospital Dr Hussain failed to diagnose or inform junior doctors properly on the result s of CT scan which led the patient not being “urgently transferred to neurosurgery”
- 2010, Dr Krishnamurthy; Employed as second year SHO in Anaesthetics at Antrim Area Hospital between 2 Jan 2007 – 4 Apl 2007, for one patient did not formally admit a patient to Intensive Care and administers medication properly. Another patient in the same year was not monitored properly and left to the care of nursing staff.