NHS trust fined
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Discussion

V8covin

Original Poster:

9,357 posts

216 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
An NHS trust has just been fined £2.5 million .
This isn't an isolated case,other trusts have had fines for mistakes and malpractice or whatever you want to call it.
What's the point ? It just leaves them with even less money to carry out their duties.
Surely it would be better to retrain those making the errors or in certain cases lose their jobs or maybe even prosecute the worst offenders.

shopper150

1,583 posts

217 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
To answer ‘whats the point?’ - How would only retraining and not compensating the victim(s) help the victim(s). Retraining, disciplining staff involved etc would happen too.

Also, in my opinion, the cause of issues with the NHS are not about not having enough funding.

Edited by shopper150 on Friday 19th November 19:13

V8covin

Original Poster:

9,357 posts

216 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
shopper150 said:
To answer ‘whats the point?’ - How would only retraining and not compensating the victim(s) help the victim(s). Retraining, disciplining staff involved etc would happen too.

Also, in my opinion, the cause of issues with the NHS are not about not having enough funding.

Edited by shopper150 on Friday 19th November 19:13
The fines aren't compensation for victims so far as I know, compensation is completely different, I know people who have received compo for negligence.

shopper150

1,583 posts

217 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
V8covin said:
The fines aren't compensation for victims so far as I know, compensation is completely different, I know people who have received compo for negligence.
OK, it looks like I may have misunderstood your point initially. I now understand what you mean. It’s a strange one. Even companies like British Airways have received massive data breach fines, but that money doesn’t go to the victims of the data breach.

V8covin

Original Poster:

9,357 posts

216 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
shopper150 said:
OK, it looks like I may have misunderstood your point initially. I now understand what you mean. It’s a strange one. Even companies like British Airways have received massive data breach fines, but that money doesn’t go to the victims of the data breach.
You can't really compare a data breach with someone dying because of malpractice in hospital

Terminator X

19,561 posts

227 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
V8covin said:
An NHS trust has just been fined £2.5 million .
This isn't an isolated case,other trusts have had fines for mistakes and malpractice or whatever you want to call it.
What's the point ? It just leaves them with even less money to carry out their duties.
Surely it would be better to retrain those making the errors or in certain cases lose their jobs or maybe even prosecute the worst offenders.
Afaik the NHS self insure too so no insurance policy to fall back on.

TX.

FourWheelDrift

91,854 posts

307 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
It would help if the General Medical Council conducted proper background checks on qualifications and experience of applicants and struck off anyone found with faked qualifications pretending to be a Doctor. These are just the known ones - https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1053035/doctor-n...

sociopath

3,433 posts

89 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
Nobody gets fired from the NHS, it's a heavily unionised 70s style organisation..

Its the only place I've worked where the communications department worked behind a locked door, and the IT director had his emails printed out every morning as he didn't want to read them on his PC.

The medical staff are amazing, other than that.....

grumbledoak

32,376 posts

256 months

Friday 19th November 2021
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What would have been done to a private company? That is what should have been done to the trust.

I suspect the answer is "a fine".

V8covin

Original Poster:

9,357 posts

216 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
grumbledoak said:
What would have been done to a private company? That is what should have been done to the trust.

I suspect the answer is "a fine".
By fining a company you are hitting their profit margin.
By fining a hospital trust you are hitting their ability to do the job you're fining them for not doing,so self defeating

grumbledoak

32,376 posts

256 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
V8covin said:
By fining a company you are hitting their profit margin.
By fining a hospital trust you are hitting their ability to do the job you're fining them for not doing,so self defeating
The trust is being punished. In one of the few ways you can punish an organization.

Your failure to understand this is entirely your lookout.

anonymous-user

77 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
V8covin said:
grumbledoak said:
What would have been done to a private company? That is what should have been done to the trust.

I suspect the answer is "a fine".
By fining a company you are hitting their profit margin.
By fining a hospital trust you are hitting their ability to do the job you're fining them for not doing,so self defeating
Wrong. Completely different pot of cash, the Trust never see it. If you ever looked at how big the payments for fkups are you would probably wet yourself. Never reported as the press won't touch it with a barge pole but NHS incompetence costs a fortune, like 35% of the operating budget. I had the misfortune of doing a piece of work on this and I couldn’t believe the numbers, absolute disgrace the whole thing needs to be privatised.

skwdenyer

18,632 posts

263 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
YorkshireWhisky said:
V8covin said:
grumbledoak said:
What would have been done to a private company? That is what should have been done to the trust.

I suspect the answer is "a fine".
By fining a company you are hitting their profit margin.
By fining a hospital trust you are hitting their ability to do the job you're fining them for not doing,so self defeating
Wrong. Completely different pot of cash, the Trust never see it. If you ever looked at how big the payments for fkups are you would probably wet yourself. Never reported as the press won't touch it with a barge pole but NHS incompetence costs a fortune, like 35% of the operating budget. I had the misfortune of doing a piece of work on this and I couldn’t believe the numbers, absolute disgrace the whole thing needs to be privatised.
Are the payouts from private hospitals any less? Here or elsewhere?

Electro1980

8,922 posts

162 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
YorkshireWhisky said:
Wrong. Completely different pot of cash, the Trust never see it. If you ever looked at how big the payments for fkups are you would probably wet yourself. Never reported as the press won't touch it with a barge pole but NHS incompetence costs a fortune, like 35% of the operating budget. I had the misfortune of doing a piece of work on this and I couldn’t believe the numbers, absolute disgrace the whole thing needs to be privatised.
Private hospitals are no safer, and make just as many mistakes, as NHS hospitals.

The press have looked at it:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51180944.amp

And it’s not 35% of funding, all liabilities (current and future) are equivalent to 35% of the year’s budget. That is meaningful with a private company, that might close, be sold or go bust, but meaningless for a public body.

skwdenyer

18,632 posts

263 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
Electro1980 said:
YorkshireWhisky said:
Wrong. Completely different pot of cash, the Trust never see it. If you ever looked at how big the payments for fkups are you would probably wet yourself. Never reported as the press won't touch it with a barge pole but NHS incompetence costs a fortune, like 35% of the operating budget. I had the misfortune of doing a piece of work on this and I couldn’t believe the numbers, absolute disgrace the whole thing needs to be privatised.
Private hospitals are no safer, and make just as many mistakes, as NHS hospitals.

The press have looked at it:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51180944.amp

And it’s not 35% of funding, all liabilities (current and future) are equivalent to 35% of the year’s budget. That is meaningful with a private company, that might close, be sold or go bust, but meaningless for a public body.
One imagines that somebody somewhere has worked out that it would require a bigger uplift in budget to provide sufficient time to avoid enough mistakes to get that number down a long way and that, therefore, this is the "best" balance that exists.

ScotHill

3,875 posts

132 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
FourWheelDrift said:
It would help if the General Medical Council conducted proper background checks on qualifications and experience of applicants and struck off anyone found with faked qualifications pretending to be a Doctor.
Fully agree with this - I watched a documentary recently about a woman pretending to be a doctor, and it should have been obvious to the GMC that she was a fake because not only did she have very poor knowledge about basic procedural medicine she also claimed to be able to travel though time and space.

FourWheelDrift

91,854 posts

307 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
ScotHill said:
Fully agree with this - I watched a documentary recently about a woman pretending to be a doctor, and it should have been obvious to the GMC that she was a fake because not only did she have very poor knowledge about basic procedural medicine she also claimed to be able to travel though time and space.
She also claimed to be an actor.

ScotHill

3,875 posts

132 months

Friday 19th November 2021
quotequote all
FourWheelDrift said:
She also claimed to be an actor.
Off topic, but I think the writing and the too many companions scuppered her. And on topic, she did actually appear as a fake doctor in a previous show: https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2019/02/28/do...

pavarotti1980

6,041 posts

107 months

Sunday 21st November 2021
quotequote all
YorkshireWhisky said:
Wrong. Completely different pot of cash, the Trust never see it. If you ever looked at how big the payments for fkups are you would probably wet yourself. Never reported as the press won't touch it with a barge pole but NHS incompetence costs a fortune, like 35% of the operating budget. I had the misfortune of doing a piece of work on this and I couldn’t believe the numbers, absolute disgrace the whole thing needs to be privatised.
35%?
As an example in 2018/19 financial year the NHS budget was £114 billion and NHS resolution paid out £2.4 billion (of which £1billion was legal fees)
At best that's 1.22% and worst 2.1% if this was from the NHS budget. However this comes from an indemnity scheme which all NHS trusts are part of.

oddman

3,869 posts

275 months

Sunday 21st November 2021
quotequote all
sociopath said:
Nobody gets fired from the NHS, it's a heavily unionised 70s style organisation..

Its the only place I've worked where the communications department worked behind a locked door, and the IT director had his emails printed out every morning as he didn't want to read them on his PC.
Not wrong. Executive team will have probably already moved on to other more lucrative roles in NHS management and I scensoredt you not, working at the regulators.

There is no organisation where the phrase 'failing upwards' is more apt.

HR and IT cock ups can lead to much greater financial penalties than deaths. Compensation payments for an elderly persons death are relatively trivial. Hence most compulsory training is aimed at limiting the liability of the employer in these areas rather than focussing on safe and dignified care. Fines are unusual as rare for criminal justice system involved.

sociopath said:
The medical staff are amazing, other than that.....
Why thanks wink