News
Recruitment policy plays with patient safety
IN A hard-hitting interview with The Pembrokeshire Herald, a veteran health campaigner has revealed that the
Board’s recruitment policy runs the risk of putting patients at risk as additional duties are placed on already overstretched staff. Retired surgeon, Peter Milewski calls the Board’s approach a “disestablishment policy” and said that services have been “pared to the bone.” He reveals that the Board deliberately delays recruitment, even when it knows well in advance of future vacancies. Last week, The Herald wrote about the way in which Glangwili Hospital is unable to cope with the influx of patients from Pembrokeshire. In the second of our two-part report on how local health services are coping with change, we turn to how staff at Withybush are coping with the strain.
In 2010, the health board introduced a formal policy that no vacancy was to be filled without jumping through lots of hoops. In practice the Board’s recruitment policy was found regularly to result in about six months’ delay, as shown by the gross delay this year in replacing Dr Anne Barnes MBE, with the result Dr Barnes had to come out of retirement to ‘hold the fort’ for inpatient cancer care. No advertisement was placed to replace Dr Barnes until after her departure, which was closely followed by the departure of the only remaining specialist doctor located permanently at Withybush. Health campaigner Peter Milewski told us: “I don’t know if the ‘disestablishment policy’ is still being applied across Withybush, but just before I spoke with you I heard that – certainly in theatre – people who leave are not being replaced, or if they are, only after a long interval.
“The Board even produced a flowchart showing all the stages to be followed before a recruitment advert could be placed.” Peter Milewski continued: “If, say, 50 posts a year have been managed like this for four years, and the result in each case is a delay of six months, how much money has been saved? Let’s say the relevant incomes were, as a conservative estimate, £15,000 – then you’re talking about 200×7500 = £1.5 million saved in four years. “Of course, it could be a great deal more than that. The saving on a consultant post, for example, would be £40-50k in six months. I think my own post wasn’t filled after I retired for about a year.” Meanwhile the remaining staff – already pared to the bone – have been placed under great stress.
The Herald understands that there are many examples of the stress under which frontline staff are working. One nurse has left a surgical ward saying she is so overworked that she is worried she will make a mistake and lose her registration. Theatre nurses are routinely told to work on the wards at night, though many of the more experienced ones have lost their familiarity with ward work. We asked Mr Milewski about these incidents and he confirmed that he had heard similar complaints from nursing staff: “One experienced nurse recently complained to the Nursing Council about this, and named those at the hospital who were ordering her to go to the wards. Another experienced theatre nurse has previously launched a grievance process about being ordered to work on Intensive Care when she had no intensive care skills, which would put her in a vulnerable position.
“The Nursing Council advice on this, I understand, is quite clear. That is, you should not undertake work for which you are not fully qualified.” Peter expressed his personal concern that if and when things do go wrong, it will be staff who take the blame: “I have become more and more convinced over the last few years that the basic strategy is to squeeze the system till it squeaks. When it squeaks is when mishaps occur. But they don’t care because those mishaps can nearly always be attributed to human error, and not systemic failure. “There is no acknowledgment that what they are doing increases the chance of human error. “The only thing that can then reverse the situation is if the failings are as grotesque as at Stafford in England: only then does an inquiry identify the link between system and humans.”
Crime
Shoplifter sentenced for two Pembrokeshire thefts
A SHOPLIFTER has appeared before magistrates after admitting stealing food and alcohol from two stores in Pembroke Dock
John Ashby, 37, was seen stealing two crates of San Miguel lager valued at £22 from B&M Bargains on July 8 while on Hallowe’en of this year he entered the Farm Foods store, and stole 12 food items valued at £80.61.
His solicitor, Michael Kellher, said that the offences were committed after Ashby relocated to Pembrokeshire from London, where he was employed as a bricklayer.
“He’s always been in employment, but since moving to Pembrokeshire he hasn’t been able to find a job,” he said. “He hasn’t signed on for Universal Credit with the result that he stole the foodstuffs out of necessity.”
Meanwhile probation officer Julie Norman said that Ashby’s Halloween theft was committed after the defendant had been placed on a Community Order, imposed on September 24, for a previous shoplifting conviction.
“Having said that, he’s attended all appointments with the probation service,” she said. “The Community Order was given following his first ever conviction, so he doesn’t trouble the courts on a regular basis.”
After asking to address the magistrates, Ashby apologised to the court for his behaviour.
“I’m not a bad person,” he said. “I’ve worked since the age of 16, but I’m not excusing my behaviour.”
Ashby was fined £80 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £32 surcharge. He must also pay £80.61 compensation to Farm Foods and £22 compensation to B&M.
Crime
Internet dating app relationship turns sour for Pembrokeshire couple
AN internet dating app relationship has resulted in a four-figure fine for a Pembrokeshire man after he refused to accept that a two-month relationship was over.
Gareth Thomas, 51, met Rachel Blundell on an unknown dating app in January of this year.
“The relationship lasted for seven or eight weeks, they had meals out together and the defendant stayed over at her property on a few occasions,” Crown Prosecutor Sian Vaughan told Haverfordwest magistrates this week.
“The relationship came to an end for whatever reason, but the defendant chose to continue sending her texts which were persistent and unwanted.”
In a victim impact statement read out to the court, Ms Blundell said that Thomas’s persistence left her feeling anxious.
“I’m unsure why he feels the need to contact me, because the relationship is over,” she said.
“He knows where I live and I’m afraid he’ll start causing issues with me. I just want him to accept that the relationship is over and he’ll leave me alone because it makes me feel alarmed, harassed and distressed. I’m scared about what he might do in the future.”
Thomas, of Gatehouse View, Pembroke, pleaded guilty to a charge of harassment without violence. He was represented in court by Mr Michael Kelleher.
“He agrees that there was repeated contact with Ms Blundell, but there were no threats nor violence.”
Mr Kelleher went on to say that Thomas was confused following Ms Blundell’s decision to terminate the relationship.
“She claimed that her father had been taken ill, but then went onto another dating site, and my client couldn’t quite understand why. He was confused, he didn’t know why it happened, and he was even optimistic that she’d have second thoughts and they could sort things out. He was never once told not to contact her.”
Meanwhile probation officer Charmaine Fox said that Thomas believed the way in which Ms Blundell ended the relationship was ‘a lie’.
“In the past he’s been able to rekindle a relationship, and he thought this may happen again. But things are very different in modern society, and the way people contact each other is now very different.”
Thomas was fined £833 and ordered to pay a £114 surcharge and £85 costs. He was sentenced to a 12-month community order during which he must carry out 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days. He must also adhere to a 12-month restraining order preventing him from approaching and entering any address which Ms Blundell may reside in and not to enter any electronic data that refers directly to Ms Blundell.
Crime
Trainee plumber admits damaging vehicle whilst on a bender
A TRAINEE plumber who consumed so much alcohol that ‘he didn’t know what he was doing’ has appeared before magistrates charged with interfering with two cars parked in Pembroke town centre.
In the early hours of October 6, police officers saw Ethan Pender, 20, sitting inside a Ford Fiesta parked in Main Street.
“The interior lights were on, so this naturally attracted the officers’ attention,” Crown Prosecution Sian Vaughan told Haverfordwest magistrates this week.
When the officers questioned Pender about what he was doing, he told them it was his parent’s vehicle, however a subsequent vehicle check confirmed it belonged to someone else residing in the area.
Pender, who is currently enrolled on a plumbing course at Pembrokeshire College, pleaded guilty to a similar charge of entering a parked BMW.
“The contents of a First Aid box were strewn all over the seats and the lock on the central console was broken,” continued Ms Vaughan. She confirmed that no items had been stolen from either vehicle.
However Pender’s solicitor Tom Lloyd, claimed the offences were committed following a drinking spree.
“He was extremely intoxicated and had got to the state where he couldn’t remember what he was doing,” he said. “There was no targeting of any vehicles, and no damage was caused to them.”
But the magistrates failed to be swayed by Mr Lloyd’s mitigation.
“You’re claiming you were so drunk that you don’t remember what was going on, but we don’t buy that at all,” said the presiding magistrate.
As a result, magistrates requested an oral probation report prior to sentencing, however chief probation officer Julie Norman requested an adjournment as a result of Pender’s history of court orders and cautions.
“We consider him to be at high risk of reoffending,” said Ms Norman.
Sentencing was adjourned to November 26 and Pender was released on conditional bail, the conditions being that he obeys a daily curfew between 8pm and 7am and he lives and sleeps at his home address at Central Court, Milford Haven.
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