A hospital manager who tried to cover up medical negligence that led to the death of a 20 year old man has lost her appeal against her sacking.
The Patient, named as 20 year old John Moore-Robinson, died in 2006 after visiting the hospital in Staffordshire where staff failed to diagnose his ruptured spleen. He attended A&E after a mountain bike accident and although he underwent x-rays to check for broken ribs, nobody checked his spleen and he died hours after being discharged.
A Senior Hospital Consultant, Mr Ivan Phair, investigated and wrote a report on the incident which said that the death should have been avoided and that “There is a high probability that the level of care delivered to Mr Moore-Robinson was negligent.”
The hospital manager tried to get Mr Phair to delete his criticism from the report as she did not want it being reported to the press. She wrote 2 letters to Mr Phair making the excuse that the information would bring more distress on the deceased’s family.
This case was just one of a number of negligent incidents in Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust that were all revealed in a report by Robert Francis QC on behalf of the Healthcare Commission.
Following the unsuccessful appeal, the Trust issued a statement that “The trust would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our sincere regret that the actions of our staff caused additional distress to the family of John Moore-Robinson”. Chairman of the Trust, Sir Stephen Moss said that the decision to reject the appeal “demonstrates our determination to hold our staff to account for their actions”.
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