Response to concerns over out of hours care
Patients Association comment into concerns over out of hours care
In response to the findings of the Newsnight investigation the Patients Association would like to reiterate it’s concerns about problems in care as expressed last year when the Care Quality Commission published the interim findings of a report.
Director of the Patients Association Katherine Murphy said
“Why do NHS managers need to be told that they should ensure out of hours care is safe? It is such a vital service, sometimes dealing with very vulnerable and unwell patients. It's frightening to think it is not being properly monitored. Where is the accountability for the managers that use tax payers money to employ unsuitable doctors or pay agencies that do the same thing? PCTs took over out of hours care years ago-the Department of Health should've made sure this was going to be done safely at the time. They now need to explain what steps they took because they clearly weren't enough.
“There have been other cases where patients died when they received poor care from out of hours services. Penny Campbell died in 2005 and the coroner ruled the out of hours doctors contributed to her death. The MPS and MDU said the number of complaints they received had soared. Why didn’t all NHS managers act then? How many alarm bells need to ring before action is taken?"
For more information or to arrange interviews please contact the Patients Association on 0208 423 9111 or 07980 541 946.
