THEY'RE NOT EVEN SORRY

Clive Uren and John Barkshire resigned as the damning report into Eastbourne District General Hospital was published yesterday.

But as they left office, they attempted to blame their failings on national shortcomings.

Insisting his resignation was a protest at the inquiry's findings, John Barkshire, chairman of Eastbourne Hospitals NHS Trust, blasted the report as "inaccurate, containing mistakes of fact and unsubstantiated opinion".

He claimed the problems stemmed from a lack of funding and insisted a similar review at any hospital in the country would produce the same findings.

Clive Uren, the trust's chief executive, would not face the Press or the families of those who died at the hospital, issuing just a short statement.

Ironically it thanked staff for their support - but today they warmly welcomed his departure.

Neither of them apologised to the families of those who died. That was left to new chairman Anne Bolter, who stood before them vowing to bring in major changes, and said: "I'm truly sorry for the events that have brought us here today."

Last night, health watchdogs described senior management at the EDGH as a closed shop for more than a decade.

John Faulds, chief officer of Eastbourne, Seaford and Wealden Community Health Council, said members had been consistently denied access to information.

He was particularly critical of Mr Uren, who had been at the trust for the past 16 years, saying: "Clive's style has always been to keep his cards close to his chest.

"He was the man who controlled the information. The public and us have been left in the dark and because of that confidence has been ruined. Things have been wrong, things needed to be changed, and time and time again nothing was done."

He added: "We have had a situation where patients were coming on to wards after undergoing major operations and then being treated by support staff. That is wrong."

Garry Jenner, Eastbourne's lead union steward for the Royal College of Nursing, said: "The situation has been going on for so long and we have been pushing and pushing, trying to highlight what these issues are about."

Mr Jenner said it was not enough for the trust just to bring in more nurses - there had to be the right balance of qualifications and skills.

Even over the last few days some nurses have been looking after more than 30 patients, in need of constant care, on their own.

One said: "We told them about nursing shortages three or four years ago and if they had acted then none of this would have happened.

"The other day I was the only trained nurse on my ward and we had 32 patients. It is just not safe practice.

"I'm not surprised Uren has gone and, frankly, I'm glad."

The CHC also criticised East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Auth-ority, which funds the hospital.

Chairman Walter James said: "The CHC regrets that throughout this period the attitude of the health authority has been that it has no responsibility for the trust's ability to deliver with safety and quality the services which the health authority purchases.

"The CHC bel-ieves this laissez faire attitude is indefensible and needs to be radically changed."

Health authority chief executive Alan Bedford was stunned by the claims, particularly as his organisation had already commissioned an independent inquiry into staff levels.

He said the trust had not reported untoward incidents and the health authority could not act if it was not told what was going on.

He said: "It was this non-reporting which denied the health authority the opportunity for earlier intervention. The health authority is astonished that the CHC has implied that the report criticises us. The report makes no such reference."

They welcomed my wife into hospital and welcomed her to her death

A distraught husband whose wife was left to die in a hospital corridor says he will never forgive bosses for their catalogue of blunders.

Roy Freeman prompted a Government investigation after speaking out about the nurse shortage at Eastbourne District General Hospital, where his wife Pauline bled to death.

His story is one of four tragedies to emerge from the EDGH in the last five years.

The inquiry report, published yesterday, slated the running of the hospital, heavily criticised management styles and expressed serious concerns about levels of nursing care.

The report said top management was unwilling to listen, complacent and unable to accept that problems existed. Two hospital bosses immediately resigned.

Now the NHS Trust which runs the hospital has pledged action to try to restore public faith in it.

When Roy Freeman kissed Pauline goodbye and walked out of Eastbourne District General Hospital he was confident she would receive the highest standard of care.

Her routine hysterectomy was a simple operation and although the treatment was not urgent they both decided it was for the best.

Roy chatted with a nurse as his wife unpacked and as he left he shouted: "Take good care of her. She means the world to me."

But Pauline was not given the best of care. After the operation she was left alone in a corridor where she slowly bled to death.

As overworked nurses rushed past, no one noticed the 54-year-old mother-of-five lying unconscious on a portable bed. The ward was being run by only one qualified nurse.

The loving wife, mum and grandmother had suffered a heart attack due to massive internal bleeding. Roy still cannot understand why his wife died.

He said: "I walked into that hospital with a happy, loving woman on my arm. "I don't know what we were talking about but I can still remember we were laughing."

"I just don't understand why they didn't send us away. Pauline was not an emergency case. She could have changed her appointment and come back the next week, month or even year.

"But they welcomed her into the hospital for the operation - and in doing that they welcomed her to her death.

"As a result of the chaos they operated on a woman I loved and they did not have the staff to care for. I can never forgive them.

Pauline had owned and worked at Instyle in Little Common, near Bexhill, for more than 20 years. She was well known in the village and more than 300 people turned out for her funeral.

Roy said: "She had a thriving hairdressing business, lots of friends, ambitions and dreams. Yet they were robbed from her by a hospital which was so understaffed it did not even notice a woman bleeding to death in a cold and sterile corridor."Maureen Sales is still campaigning to find out why her husband, Ronald, died five weeks after being discharged from the EDGH in March 1995. Mrs Sales, 63, of Cowbeech, near Eastbourne, believes her husband was treated with drugs meant for another patient.

She said: "Ronald died on April 10, 1995, our 41st wedding anniversary, and I will never give up the fight to prove his death was the result of wrong diagnosis and wrongful discharge.

"I believe that if he had been treated correctly he would be at my side today."

In April 1997 the shocking death of Percy Wood, scalded in a bath of boiling water, exposed a cash shortage at the EDGH.

Mr Wood, 83, of Avondale Road, Eastbourne, had been recovering from a heart attack.

The inquest heard that thermostats had been fitted to baths and showers in the geriatric, orthopaedic and children's wards. But lack of cash meant they were not fitted to the general wards where Mr Wood was treated.

David Wadman, the then East Sussex coroner, said: "This is a classic case of being wise after the event. It is a shame people at the hospital hadn't been wise before it. Had they had been so, perhaps Percy would've been alive today."

The hospital fitted thermostats to all baths and showers following the accident.The following year, care at the EDGH was again called into question when medics failed to revive a pensioner after nurses mixed up her medical notes with those of another patient marked "not for resuscitation".

Marjorie Dyer, 86, of Wadhurst Close, Eastbourne, choked on a ham sandwich. A resuscitation team was called but failed to act when nurses referred to the wrong medical notes.

Coroner Alan Craze recorded a verdict of accidental death after hearing it was not certain she would have survived even if there had been a bid to resuscitate her.

But Mrs Dyer's niece Julie Endean, 43, of Chandler's Ford, Hants, herself a nurse, said after the publication of yesterday's report: "I very much welcome this news. As far as my aunt was concerned, the management at the hospital was dreadful. "I let them off the hook by not following my complaint up more. But at least now the top management has gone."

Health chiefs: It's not our fault

John Barkshire and Clive Uren blame everyone but themselves for the crisis at Eastbourne District General Hospital.

As soon as the scathing report by the regional NHS Executive was published, both chairman Mr Barkshire and chief executive Mr Uren quit.

Mr Barkshire has defended his time in office, blaming the crisis not on his management but on a national funding crisis.

Clive Uren was last night unavailable for comment.

Mr Barkshire said: "I think Clive is looking to keep a low profile at the moment."

But Mr Uren said in a statement he was resigning to give the hospital a fresh start.

Mr Barkshire, 64, says he resigned in protest at a report he calls inaccurate. He said: "When I first saw the report I marked in pen the word 'cash' at each criticism. It can all be put down to a national crisis in finding cash for hospital services.

"If this kind of review was carried out on any hospital in the country it would produce similar findings."

Mr Barkshire took up the post of chairman six years ago. It was his first involvement with a hospital trust, after spending much of his time with financial firms and charities.

John Faulds of Eastbourne, Seaford and Wealden Community Health council says the report was so damning both could not possibly have stayed on.

He said: "Their leaving in this manner is typical of their leadership style over the years."

The long-awaited apology

THE new chairman of Eastbourne and District NHS Trust has apologised to patients and angry relatives.

Anne Bolter is picking up the pieces of a local health service facing a radical overhaul if it is to regain the public's trust.

She was thrown into the job yesterday by the resignation of John Barkshire following the publication of a report damning the management at the EDGH.

Mrs Bolter's first action as chairman was to appoint Alan Randall as Mr Uren's replacement and set about rebuilding the damage of years of mismanagement.

But she warned that changes could not be made overnight and a repeat of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Pauline Freeman and Marjorie Dyer could never be ruled out.

She said: "I can't make assurances that the mismanagement by clinical staff will not happen again.

"No member of staff can be expected to be infallible.

"What we will be doing is putting in place procedures so we should be able to minimise serious incidents."

Facing a crowded room of reporters and angry relatives of former EDGH patients the new chairman began with an apology.

She said: "I'm truly sorry for the events that have brought us here today."

It was an apology that many had waited long to hear.

The controversy of the past months has taken its toll on the nurses at Eastbourne.

Mrs Bolter said: "I've spoken to people who have said they are afraid to come in and I've spoken to nurses who said they would not want to have an operation here.

"The only way I can answer that is, this is my local hospital and I personally would have no concerns whatsoever about having an operation here."

Mr Randall, chief executive of Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust, has taken on the job for six months after which a permanent replacement will be found.

Mrs Bolter said: "Together we want to see confidence in the trust restored as quickly as possible."

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