I doubt the career pathway to senior hospital wrangler selects for brave and courageous administrators. In NHS scandals we always seem to get the conforming, vengeful ones.
Cowardice is well put, but so too is confusing the function with the institution.
A point that is equally true for the NHS, the Police and far too many other bodies where reporting a concern is taken as opposing both the institution and the function it is there to fulfil.
No doubt rigorous disciplinary action, and indeed prosecutions, are in hand as we type. Who could doubt that people would be held responsible for such a travesty?
Well, apart from those who have ever had contact with any of our public services, of course.
While this was murder rather than incompetence, so very unusual, it is not unique to public services or to this country. All big organisations are prone to it.
The spreadsheet the Beeb showed where the nurse is the only one present in room in every single death speaks volumes.
The public sector spends so much time and effort processing data. It beggars belief that this wasn't noticed.
Mind you, I know of incidents where nurses raised concerns about a Consultant at another Trust, and were brushed off for years too. Incompetence rather than murder.
We had an incident in my Trust not so long ago, where patients in the operating theatres were suddenly going hypoxic, then a particular member of staff would turn up and save the day. Whiffs a bit like this Letby case, as only happened when he was on duty.
Our management took the concerns seriously and installed covert surveillance cameras. This caught the suspect red handed sabotaging an anaesthetic machine. He was convicted.
So sometimes the system works. It just doesn't make the news.
No doubt rigorous disciplinary action, and indeed prosecutions, are in hand as we type. Who could doubt that people would be held responsible for such a travesty?
Well, apart from those who have ever had contact with any of our public services, of course.
While this was murder rather than incompetence, so very unusual, it is not unique to public services or to this country. All big organisations are prone to it.
The spreadsheet the Beeb showed where the nurse is the only one present in room in every single death speaks volumes.
The public sector spends so much time and effort processing data. It beggars belief that this wasn't noticed.
Mind you, I know of incidents where nurses raised concerns about a Consultant at another Trust, and were brushed off for years too. Incompetence rather than murder.
We had an incident in my Trust not so long ago, where patients in the operating theatres were suddenly going hypoxic, then a particular member of staff would turn up and save the day. Whiffs a bit like this Letby case, as only happened when he was on duty.
Our management took the concerns seriously and installed covert surveillance cameras. This caught the suspect red handed sabotaging an anaesthetic machine. He was convicted.
So sometimes the system works. It just doesn't make the news.
Yes, that is an inspiring story because it proves it really doesn't have to be like this. As with bankers after the GFC we live in a world where responsibility is a word used to justify additional salary, not actually to be held accountable.
I doubt the career pathway to senior hospital wrangler selects for brave and courageous administrators. In NHS scandals we always seem to get the conforming, vengeful ones.
"against the wishes of 7 consultant paediatricians"
says it all.
The senior professionals no longer run their units and teams.
Arse-covering admin people do.
According to this BBC report the Paediatricians concerned raised concerns both with the hospitals Chief Nurse and with the Medical Director (the chief doctor), so not just with admin people.
This is a very sad story. Beyond the facts and the verdicts I'd be cautious about everything else. Understandably given the stakes, some people are using today to set out their viewpoint to the media. There will have to be an inquiry where all sides are heard.
I think it's too cynical to say no lessons have ever been learned from any inquiries. On the railways for example a lot of safety standards have changed in response to investigations.
Actually at 674 words this is one of the shorter entries in the Cyclefree oeuvre, which normally topped out at about 1000-1200 words and gave precedent to the longer articles that followed hers (coughcough). I assume this is a temporary phenomenon caused by the short notice, as a restoration of the previous word limit would be, um, limiting.
Far too many people just want a quiet life in the short-term and don't have the foresight or imagination to realise what that might mean in the long-term, and nor do they care. It's a tragic failing of human integrity that's depressingly common.
This is a very sad story. Beyond the facts and the verdicts I'd be cautious about everything else. Understandably given the stakes, some people are using today to set out their viewpoint to the media. There will have to be an inquiry where all sides are heard.
This is a very sad story. Beyond the facts and the verdicts I'd be cautious about everything else. Understandably given the stakes, some people are using today to set out their viewpoint to the media. There will have to be an inquiry where all sides are heard.
I'm not interested in revenge but, in the interests of avoiding repeats in future (which are otherwise inevitable) these people also need to be gone after.
Ok, fuck off with the comments about the length of @Cyclefree headers please.
She writes excellent and insightful pieces that challenge the institutional cultures in this country in the interests of us all and they are a credit to this site.
I'd like to see those criticising her make half as decent a contribution as she does.
There's nothing inherently wrong in what she says, but it is without exception overly wordy by about x 3 and bleeding obvious. I appreciate that the site needs headers, but the extravagance of the reception they get is a real puzzle.
This is a very sad story. Beyond the facts and the verdicts I'd be cautious about everything else. Understandably given the stakes, some people are using today to set out their viewpoint to the media. There will have to be an inquiry where all sides are heard.
I'm not interested in revenge but, in the interests of avoiding repeats in future (which are otherwise inevitable) these people also need to be gone after.
The fact that this was murder puts it in an almost unique circumstance. It would certainly not be the first or even second thought that crossed your brain. But the fact that the hospital was not willing to investigate what might have been gross incompetence is troubling.
I mentioned earlier today the story of a surgeon who maimed many people in our local hospital. The Scottish government authorised an inquiry in April 2023, 10 years after he voluntarily removed his name from the GMC register. Tayside Health Board have fought tooth and nail to resist any investigation for a decade. Some of the story can be seen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65339744 It is genuinely shocking. It has been known for years that he was allowed to continue practising despite horrendous errors and gross breaches of good practice using, for example, an unauthorised glue to refix someone's skull which caused brain damage.
This is a very sad story. Beyond the facts and the verdicts I'd be cautious about everything else. Understandably given the stakes, some people are using today to set out their viewpoint to the media. There will have to be an inquiry where all sides are heard.
I'm not interested in revenge but, in the interests of avoiding repeats in future (which are otherwise inevitable) these people also need to be gone after.
I’m not interested in revenge.
To improve the future governance of the NHS, these people should be gibbeted.
Actually at 674 words this is one of the shorter entries in the Cyclefree oeuvre, which normally topped out at about 1000-1200 words and gave precedent to the longer articles that followed hers (coughcough). I assume this is a temporary phenomenon caused by the short notice, as a restoration of the previous word limit would be, um, limiting.
Ok, fuck off with the comments about the length of @Cyclefree headers please.
She writes excellent and insightful pieces that challenge the institutional cultures in this country in the interests of us all and they are a credit to this site.
I'd like to see those criticising her make half as decent a contribution as she does.
There's nothing inherently wrong in what she says, but it is without exception overly wordy by about x 3 and bleeding obvious. I appreciate that the site needs headers, but the extravagance of the reception they get is a real puzzle.
I have found overly long, but not this one. It is concise and cutting.
There will have been systemic failures as always... but at the end of the day wicked people do wicked things... The only person responsible for Lucy Letby's appalling crimes was... Lucy Letby.
Nice to see you're still pushing out the columns, Miss Cycle.
Three practical thoughts: Over the years, the US has tried, in a number of ways, to mitigate these bureaucratic problems. One way, often used by large police departments, is to establish an internal affairs unit, "a division of a law enforcement agency that investigates incidents and possible suspicions of criminal and professional misconduct attributed to members of the parent force". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_affairs_(law_enforcement) (i believe they have had some success, but don't know of any large-scale study of them in the whole United States.)
Second, there are, in some cases, bounties for whistleblowers. They seem to have had some success in encouraging people to report tax cheats, and in uncovering waste. (The bounties can be quite large, since they are often a percentage of the money involved.)
Third, the federal government has Inspectors General: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_general If that Wikipedia article is roughly right, they are more common in the US than the UK. (By the way, reporters often use their findings as the basis for articles, so their reports aren't always buried, along with all the rest of the paper the federal government puts out.)
(Judging by that press release, the whistleblower may have been earning about $1 million per hour, which, unlike most of you, is more than I have ever earned.)
Here's a memory for you: it's about 1990, sitting on a plane with my parents, and someone sitting behind lights up a cigarette, with the smoke drifting over to where we were sitting. Totally within the rules, because the back 2 or 3 rows were still permitting smoking at the time. About a year later it was banned completely.
There will have been systemic failures as always... but at the end of the day wicked people do wicked things... The only person responsible for Lucy Letby's appalling crimes was... Lucy Letby.
Nice to see you're still pushing out the columns, Miss Cycle.
The first 3 times, yes, Letby was solely to blame. The next 10 times, no. By then she should have been moved/suspended etc.
There will have been systemic failures as always... but at the end of the day wicked people do wicked things... The only person responsible for Lucy Letby's appalling crimes was... Lucy Letby.
Nice to see you're still pushing out the columns, Miss Cycle.
The first 3 times, yes, Letby was solely to blame. The next 10 times, no. By then she should have been moved/suspended etc.
This is the most shocking line:
Karen Rees, who refused to take Letby off duty against the wishes of 7 consultant paediatricians
You know what? You can investigate and then reinstate them if it turns out they are innocent of allegtions. What you cannot do is bring babies back from the dead.
SEVEN consultants wanted her off duty. Now, they may have merely thought her incompetent rather than evil. But still. How many are needed to get someone moved?
There will have been systemic failures as always... but at the end of the day wicked people do wicked things... The only person responsible for Lucy Letby's appalling crimes was... Lucy Letby.
Nice to see you're still pushing out the columns, Miss Cycle.
The first 3 times, yes, Letby was solely to blame. The next 10 times, no. By then she should have been moved/suspended etc.
This is the most shocking line:
Karen Rees, who refused to take Letby off duty against the wishes of 7 consultant paediatricians
You know what? You can investigate and then reinstate them if it turns out they are innocent of allegtions. What you cannot do is bring babies back from the dead.
SEVEN consultants wanted her off duty. Now, they may have merely thought her incompetent rather than evil. But still. How many are needed to get someone moved?
And then they were forced to write a letter of apology to Letby!
Three practical thoughts: Over the years, the US has tried, in a number of ways, to mitigate these bureaucratic problems. One way, often used by large police departments, is to establish an internal affairs unit, "a division of a law enforcement agency that investigates incidents and possible suspicions of criminal and professional misconduct attributed to members of the parent force". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_affairs_(law_enforcement) (i believe they have had some success, but don't know of any large-scale study of them in the whole United States.)
Second, there are, in some cases, bounties for whistleblowers. They seem to have had some success in encouraging people to report tax cheats, and in uncovering waste. (The bounties can be quite large, since they are often a percentage of the money involved.)
Third, the federal government has Inspectors General: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_general If that Wikipedia article is roughly right, they are more common in the US than the UK. (By the way, reporters often use their findings as the basis for articles, so their reports aren't always buried, along with all the rest of the paper the federal government puts out.)
(Good to see you back, Cyclefree.)
The track record of corruption and cover up in US police forces does not suggest that they’ve found a solution to the problem.
Three practical thoughts: Over the years, the US has tried, in a number of ways, to mitigate these bureaucratic problems. One way, often used by large police departments, is to establish an internal affairs unit, "a division of a law enforcement agency that investigates incidents and possible suspicions of criminal and professional misconduct attributed to members of the parent force". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_affairs_(law_enforcement) (i believe they have had some success, but don't know of any large-scale study of them in the whole United States.)
Second, there are, in some cases, bounties for whistleblowers. They seem to have had some success in encouraging people to report tax cheats, and in uncovering waste. (The bounties can be quite large, since they are often a percentage of the money involved.)
Third, the federal government has Inspectors General: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_general If that Wikipedia article is roughly right, they are more common in the US than the UK. (By the way, reporters often use their findings as the basis for articles, so their reports aren't always buried, along with all the rest of the paper the federal government puts out.)
(Good to see you back, Cyclefree.)
The track record of corruption and cover up in US police forces does not suggest that they’ve found a solution to the problem.
Nonetheless, it may be that the NHS needs an internal (or external) investigations unit that can sit somewhere between "do nothing" and "call the rozzers" so that investigations can start at an earlier stage when there is smoke but not enough to trigger the fire alarm. There might also be a case for automatically trawling data for anomalies.
Karen Rees will probably say she's the real victim, here.
LOL
or Brexit made her do it.
Well done. Among a huge amount of competition (largely from yourself) you have made the most pointlessly, facile, inappropriate, unbecoming and mendacious shoehorning of a sectarian issue into a deeply human tragedy in the history of this site. You need to take a long hard look at yourself away from a keyboard and in a mirror.
Awful for the families knowing that some of it could have been stopped.
I strangely enough felt some sympathy for Letby. Her own diary showed she hated herself for doing it, but couldn't stop. The Hospital management did no one any favours.
But psychiatry is two centuries behind the rest of medicine. Does it really count as a science?
Three practical thoughts: Over the years, the US has tried, in a number of ways, to mitigate these bureaucratic problems. One way, often used by large police departments, is to establish an internal affairs unit, "a division of a law enforcement agency that investigates incidents and possible suspicions of criminal and professional misconduct attributed to members of the parent force". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_affairs_(law_enforcement) (i believe they have had some success, but don't know of any large-scale study of them in the whole United States.)
Second, there are, in some cases, bounties for whistleblowers. They seem to have had some success in encouraging people to report tax cheats, and in uncovering waste. (The bounties can be quite large, since they are often a percentage of the money involved.)
Third, the federal government has Inspectors General: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_general If that Wikipedia article is roughly right, they are more common in the US than the UK. (By the way, reporters often use their findings as the basis for articles, so their reports aren't always buried, along with all the rest of the paper the federal government puts out.)
(Good to see you back, Cyclefree.)
The track record of corruption and cover up in US police forces does not suggest that they’ve found a solution to the problem.
Nonetheless, it may be that the NHS needs an internal (or external) investigations unit that can sit somewhere between "do nothing" and "call the rozzers" so that investigations can start at an earlier stage when there is smoke but not enough to trigger the fire alarm. There might also be a case for automatically trawling data for anomalies.
The latter is I believe happening already, bt it didn't work as the data were not reported properly in this case: apparently. THis will be an important issue to examine.
Karen Rees will probably say she's the real victim, here.
LOL
or Brexit made her do it.
Well done. Among a huge amount of competition (largely from yourself) you have made the most pointlessly, facile, inappropriate, unbecoming and mendacious shoehorning of a sectarian issue into a deeply human tragedy in the history of this site. You need to take a long hard look at yourself away from a keyboard and in a mirror.
Talking of inappropriate a tweet from someone called Janey Godley, a Scottish comic, takes some beating.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
There's been a trial. She's not been found guilty merely on the say-so of the CPS.
Awful for the families knowing that some of it could have been stopped.
I strangely enough felt some sympathy for Letby. Her own diary showed she hated herself for doing it, but couldn't stop. The Hospital management did no one any favours.
But psychiatry is two centuries behind the rest of medicine. Does it really count as a science?
Yes, I think it does. The problem is that psychiatrists seem to treat their "knowledge" as certanties, instead of probabilities. The same as all the STEM scientists, of course. It's all a matter of probabilities.
Universities need to get away from teaching information as facts, and get back to questioning all the suppositions in each subject area. Why do we believe this? What evidence is there?
And leave technical training to technical colleges.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
There's been a trial. She's not been found guilty merely on the say-so of the CPS.
So was Andrew Malkinson. Although the evidence here seems clear enough.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
There's been a trial. She's not been found guilty merely on the say-so of the CPS.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
There's been a trial. She's not been found guilty merely on the say-so of the CPS.
And fair enough - but the principle is correct, i.e. they will end up killing the wrong person which has happened before.
The death penalty is absolutely barbaric, if the Tories propose to re-introduce it I will never vote for them in my life. Same for Labour.
The maddening thing is that, to a degree,cwe know what to do. The model of the aviation safety works way better.
Getting that in health- safe whistleblowing, looking for systemic faults rather than scapegoats to blame- ought to be possible. But something stops us. "Evil person did evil thing but they were stopped in the end" is too comforting a story.
And I fear it's the damnable bits of human psyche again. We want heroes and villains. We choose more pain later over minor inconvenience now. Politicians present easy, cowardly, dishonest options every bloody time. And we vote for them. And I don't know what we do about that.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I would rip up my Labour membership card right now if they proposed to introduce the death penalty. It is absolutely appalling and I also would emigrate on principle.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I used to say that to my wife. However she's American so I would logically be precluded from moving to New England where she's from - even in non death-penalty states the Federal death penalty can apply, as in the Boston Marathon bomber.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I would rip up my Labour membership card right now if they proposed to introduce the death penalty. It is absolutely appalling and I also would emigrate on principle.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
Three practical thoughts: Over the years, the US has tried, in a number of ways, to mitigate these bureaucratic problems. One way, often used by large police departments, is to establish an internal affairs unit, "a division of a law enforcement agency that investigates incidents and possible suspicions of criminal and professional misconduct attributed to members of the parent force". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_affairs_(law_enforcement) (i believe they have had some success, but don't know of any large-scale study of them in the whole United States.)
Second, there are, in some cases, bounties for whistleblowers. They seem to have had some success in encouraging people to report tax cheats, and in uncovering waste. (The bounties can be quite large, since they are often a percentage of the money involved.)
Third, the federal government has Inspectors General: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_general If that Wikipedia article is roughly right, they are more common in the US than the UK. (By the way, reporters often use their findings as the basis for articles, so their reports aren't always buried, along with all the rest of the paper the federal government puts out.)
(Good to see you back, Cyclefree.)
The track record of corruption and cover up in US police forces does not suggest that they’ve found a solution to the problem.
Nonetheless, it may be that the NHS needs an internal (or external) investigations unit that can sit somewhere between "do nothing" and "call the rozzers" so that investigations can start at an earlier stage when there is smoke but not enough to trigger the fire alarm. There might also be a case for automatically trawling data for anomalies.
One problem in Chester is that the Trust did not report the deaths correctly, so they wouldn't have been picked up in the national figures. We don't know why just yet.
I have participated in and even led a number of investigations both internal and external to my Trust, though nothing close to this in terms of seriousness.
The biggest problem encountered is getting evidence of a level sufficient for action. Almost always along the way someone hadn't followed procedures correctly, meaning that the case would fall apart if it went to the Employment Lawyers.
We often wound up with action short of suspension or sacking. Someone would leave the Trust, but no sanction after that was enforceable, usually to employment elsewhere. Not very satisfactory, and often it would be the wrong person leaving.
Cases of wrongful dismissal are often very expensive, due to loss of earnings awards, sometimes stretching into the millions of pounds, as well as reputational damage. I know of some (external to my Trust) where I was staggered that the person had walked away with millions, rather than being struck off.
There is a need to correctly blame and sanction people where blame is due, but the problem of such a system is that it leads to a culture of omerta and cover up. There is a widespread recognition that safety improvements are more likely in a "no blame" cuculture but "no blame" is not always compatible with justice.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I used to say that to my wife. However she's American so I would logically be precluded from moving to New England where she's from - even in non death-penalty states the Federal death penalty can apply, as in the Boston Marathon bomber.
There will have been systemic failures as always... but at the end of the day wicked people do wicked things... The only person responsible for Lucy Letby's appalling crimes was... Lucy Letby.
Nice to see you're still pushing out the columns, Miss Cycle.
The first 3 times, yes, Letby was solely to blame. The next 10 times, no. By then she should have been moved/suspended etc.
This is the most shocking line:
Karen Rees, who refused to take Letby off duty against the wishes of 7 consultant paediatricians
You know what? You can investigate and then reinstate them if it turns out they are innocent of allegtions. What you cannot do is bring babies back from the dead.
SEVEN consultants wanted her off duty. Now, they may have merely thought her incompetent rather than evil. But still. How many are needed to get someone moved?
And then they were forced to write a letter of apology to Letby!
Well, obviously. Since by suggesting that Letby had done something wrong, they had hurt her feelings.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I would rip up my Labour membership card right now if they proposed to introduce the death penalty. It is absolutely appalling and I also would emigrate on principle.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
The Labour Party or the Suella Party?
I am not voting Tory anyway after what they did to the economy and the last thirteen years of incompetence and failure and making people like me pay for it. But there's an absolute possibility I could vote for them in the future. If they introduced the death penalty that would disappear instantly. The thought is an abomination to me.
If Labour were in government and introduced it I would write to Keir Starmer directly, I would rip up my membership card and I would leave the country.
The thought that any party would go there makes me so angry, Pete.
Three practical thoughts: Over the years, the US has tried, in a number of ways, to mitigate these bureaucratic problems. One way, often used by large police departments, is to establish an internal affairs unit, "a division of a law enforcement agency that investigates incidents and possible suspicions of criminal and professional misconduct attributed to members of the parent force". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_affairs_(law_enforcement) (i believe they have had some success, but don't know of any large-scale study of them in the whole United States.)
Second, there are, in some cases, bounties for whistleblowers. They seem to have had some success in encouraging people to report tax cheats, and in uncovering waste. (The bounties can be quite large, since they are often a percentage of the money involved.)
Third, the federal government has Inspectors General: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_general If that Wikipedia article is roughly right, they are more common in the US than the UK. (By the way, reporters often use their findings as the basis for articles, so their reports aren't always buried, along with all the rest of the paper the federal government puts out.)
(Good to see you back, Cyclefree.)
The track record of corruption and cover up in US police forces does not suggest that they’ve found a solution to the problem.
Nonetheless, it may be that the NHS needs an internal (or external) investigations unit that can sit somewhere between "do nothing" and "call the rozzers" so that investigations can start at an earlier stage when there is smoke but not enough to trigger the fire alarm. There might also be a case for automatically trawling data for anomalies.
One problem in Chester is that the Trust did not report the deaths correctly, so they wouldn't have been picked up in the national figures. We don't know why just yet.
I have participated in and even led a number of investigations both internal and external to my Trust, though nothing close to this in terms of seriousness.
The biggest problem encountered is getting evidence of a level sufficient for action. Almost always along the way someone hadn't followed procedures correctly, meaning that the case would fall apart if it went to the Employment Lawyers.
We often wound up with action short of suspension or sacking. Someone would leave the Trust, but no sanction after that was enforceable, usually to employment elsewhere. Not very satisfactory, and often it would be the wrong person leaving.
Cases of wrongful dismissal are often very expensive, due to loss of earnings awards, sometimes stretching into the millions of pounds, as well as reputational damage. I know of some (external to my Trust) where I was staggered that the person had walked away with millions, rather than being struck off.
There is a need to correctly blame and sanction people where blame is due, but the problem of such a system is that it leads to a culture of omerta and cover up. There is a widespread recognition that safety improvements are more likely in a "no blame" cuculture but "no blame" is not always compatible with justice.
Excellent post.
There is a very clear and indeed institutionalised conflict between the 'justice' - police investigation, etc. - and 'engineering etc lessons to learn' in accident investigation in rail and plane crashes, as I understand it.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I would rip up my Labour membership card right now if they proposed to introduce the death penalty. It is absolutely appalling and I also would emigrate on principle.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
As an alternative, what if this becomes the straw that breaks the camel's back in terms of the reputation of the NHS?
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I would rip up my Labour membership card right now if they proposed to introduce the death penalty. It is absolutely appalling and I also would emigrate on principle.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
As an alternative, what if this becomes the straw that breaks the camel's back in terms of the reputation of the NHS?
You think commercial hospitals would be any better? Plenty of cases in the US.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I would rip up my Labour membership card right now if they proposed to introduce the death penalty. It is absolutely appalling and I also would emigrate on principle.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
The Labour Party or the Suella Party?
I am not voting Tory anyway after what they did to the economy and the last thirteen years of incompetence and failure and making people like me pay for it. But there's an absolute possibility I could vote for them in the future. If they introduced the death penalty that would disappear instantly. The thought is an abomination to me.
If Labour were in government and introduced it I would write to Keir Starmer directly, I would rip up my membership card and I would leave the country.
The thought that any party would go there makes me so angry, Pete.
I know Starmer is noted for U turns, but this would be a step too far. Populists might go for it. It's an easy win.
There will have been systemic failures as always... but at the end of the day wicked people do wicked things... The only person responsible for Lucy Letby's appalling crimes was... Lucy Letby.
Nice to see you're still pushing out the columns, Miss Cycle.
The first 3 times, yes, Letby was solely to blame. The next 10 times, no. By then she should have been moved/suspended etc.
This is the most shocking line:
Karen Rees, who refused to take Letby off duty against the wishes of 7 consultant paediatricians
You know what? You can investigate and then reinstate them if it turns out they are innocent of allegtions. What you cannot do is bring babies back from the dead.
SEVEN consultants wanted her off duty. Now, they may have merely thought her incompetent rather than evil. But still. How many are needed to get someone moved?
And then they were forced to write a letter of apology to Letby!
Well, obviously. Since by suggesting that Letby had done something wrong, they had hurt her feelings.
Dear Vladimir
I am writing to apologise for anything I have said and written that might have hurt your feelings.
I realise now that conflating tens of thousands of deaths, injuries and mass destruction with those events happening on your watch is unfair and that I have learnt a lesson not to point out that bad things seem to happen whenever a particular person can be linked to those events clearly and without any doubt.
I do hope that others in this world learn this lesson and that you have a long and unblemished career in the murdering business.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I would rip up my Labour membership card right now if they proposed to introduce the death penalty. It is absolutely appalling and I also would emigrate on principle.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
As an alternative, what if this becomes the straw that breaks the camel's back in terms of the reputation of the NHS?
I'd rather the NHS collapse then introduce the death penalty. The NHS needs deep-reform anyhow.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I would rip up my Labour membership card right now if they proposed to introduce the death penalty. It is absolutely appalling and I also would emigrate on principle.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
As an alternative, what if this becomes the straw that breaks the camel's back in terms of the reputation of the NHS?
How would the reintroduction of the ultimate sanction for a quick political win save the NHS?
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I would rip up my Labour membership card right now if they proposed to introduce the death penalty. It is absolutely appalling and I also would emigrate on principle.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
SKS has personally campaigned internationally against the death penalty. I am certain that he would oppose it 100%, even for cases like this.
Interesting interview with the BBC reporter who sat in the courtroom right through. There’s something from her going on the web, if it hasn’t already appeared.
I actually think Dura_Ace had something reasonable to say in that post.
@Sunil_Prasannan not everyone is a Russian troll just because they say something you don't happen to agree with.
I don't agree with everything Dura_Ace posts but there was very little wrong in what he said. It's clearly obvious that Ukraine uses the media etc to boost its war effort (I support them in doing so). To deny that is to literally deny reality.
I know Starmer is noted for U turns, but this would be a step too far. Populists might go for it. It's an easy win.
I agree Pete. But I am sure we agree that it would still be an abomination.
It would Horse. But what was the point of Brexit if a party in Government couldn't pick up up a cynical easy win if they so desired? I suspect most Conservative voters would be appalled, but the current party of Government isn't the party of Macmillan or Heath.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I would rip up my Labour membership card right now if they proposed to introduce the death penalty. It is absolutely appalling and I also would emigrate on principle.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
SKS has personally campaigned internationally against the death penalty. I am certain that he would oppose it 100%, even for cases like this.
Let's hope Sir Keir lives up to that.
I am appalled that anyone here would support the death penalty.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I would rip up my Labour membership card right now if they proposed to introduce the death penalty. It is absolutely appalling and I also would emigrate on principle.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
The Labour Party or the Suella Party?
I am not voting Tory anyway after what they did to the economy and the last thirteen years of incompetence and failure and making people like me pay for it. But there's an absolute possibility I could vote for them in the future. If they introduced the death penalty that would disappear instantly. The thought is an abomination to me.
If Labour were in government and introduced it I would write to Keir Starmer directly, I would rip up my membership card and I would leave the country.
The thought that any party would go there makes me so angry, Pete.
I know Starmer is noted for U turns, but this would be a step too far. Populists might go for it. It's an easy win.
There would certainly be a majority in this country for the death penalty by lethal injection for serial killers, terrorists and child murderers even if not for all murderers. I would expect redwall voters would be even more pro capital punishment than bluewall voters. Perhaps another reason not to have referendums
Awful for the families knowing that some of it could have been stopped.
I strangely enough felt some sympathy for Letby. Her own diary showed she hated herself for doing it, but couldn't stop. The Hospital management did no one any favours.
But psychiatry is two centuries behind the rest of medicine. Does it really count as a science?
Yes, I think it does. The problem is that psychiatrists seem to treat their "knowledge" as certanties, instead of probabilities. The same as all the STEM scientists, of course. It's all a matter of probabilities.
Universities need to get away from teaching information as facts, and get back to questioning all the suppositions in each subject area. Why do we believe this? What evidence is there?
And leave technical training to technical colleges.
The difficulty is that, for obvious reasons, teaching starts with the things that we are most confident about and it takes quite a while to reach the areas of knowledge where there is more doubt. So the lesson learned is that knowledge is pretty certain, which it is in the core areas, and that lesson has to be somewhat unlearned when you get to the more recent fringes of our knowledge.
As to Psychiatry the chief problem is one of observation. You are incredibly reliant on the information relayed by the patient. Even with a perfectly honest patient this will be imperfect, as language is imprecise, and as the patient's mental state ebbs and flows.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I would rip up my Labour membership card right now if they proposed to introduce the death penalty. It is absolutely appalling and I also would emigrate on principle.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
SKS has personally campaigned internationally against the death penalty. I am certain that he would oppose it 100%, even for cases like this.
Let's hope Sir Keir lives up to that.
I am appalled that anyone here would support the death penalty.
I am no SKS fan, but while his politics can be both over timid and over flexible, I think him sound on human rights. It was his life's work before politics.
My morning after the day before fear is that Lucy Letby becomes the black swan to deliver the Conservatives another landslide.
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
The death penalty would be the easy way out. She should spend her life thinking about her actions.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
I would have to consider leaving the UK were the death penalty reinstated. My point was, do you think this awful version of what was once the Conservative Party would consider such a ploy to keep themselves in power? I certainly think some would.
I would rip up my Labour membership card right now if they proposed to introduce the death penalty. It is absolutely appalling and I also would emigrate on principle.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
SKS has personally campaigned internationally against the death penalty. I am certain that he would oppose it 100%, even for cases like this.
Let's hope Sir Keir lives up to that.
I am appalled that anyone here would support the death penalty.
Is it the possibility of miscarriages of justice that you find most appalling?
Comments
Right on the money @Cyclefree
"Seems to me that this story tells us that the "lead consultant" at a unit no longer even remotely actually runs his/her unit.
Frankly I am tempted to say this is the root of these problems.
Thoughts @Foxy ?"
says it all.
The senior professionals no longer run their units and teams.
Arse-covering admin people do.
FPT
Cowardice is well put, but so too is confusing the function with the institution.
A point that is equally true for the NHS, the Police and far too many other bodies where reporting a concern is taken as opposing both the institution and the function it is there to fulfil.
BBC News - Hospital bosses ignored months of doctors' warnings about Lucy Letby
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66120934
I for one appreciate @Cyclefree headers. Having written some myself it can be hard to shorten them.
[PS Oh, welcome back @Cyclefree.]
Will that do?
Far too many people just want a quiet life in the short-term and don't have the foresight or imagination to realise what that might mean in the long-term, and nor do they care. It's a tragic failing of human integrity that's depressingly common.
Another superb piece by @Cyclefree
Time to bring back the literal meaning of the “mess revolver”
Or maybe a blunt wakizashi
Instead, all the senior manager involved will get better jobs. And payouts.
NU10K
I mentioned earlier today the story of a surgeon who maimed many people in our local hospital. The Scottish government authorised an inquiry in April 2023, 10 years after he voluntarily removed his name from the GMC register. Tayside Health Board have fought tooth and nail to resist any investigation for a decade. Some of the story can be seen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65339744 It is genuinely shocking. It has been known for years that he was allowed to continue practising despite horrendous errors and gross breaches of good practice using, for example, an unauthorised glue to refix someone's skull which caused brain damage.
Nobody has accepted any responsibility for this.
To improve the future governance of the NHS, these people should be gibbeted.
I promise to forgive them first, if that helps.
Looking forward to wit and insight contained within the publication of your 6.74 word thread header.
Nice to see you're still pushing out the columns, Miss Cycle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_affairs_(law_enforcement)
(i believe they have had some success, but don't know of any large-scale study of them in the whole United States.)
Second, there are, in some cases, bounties for whistleblowers. They seem to have had some success in encouraging people to report tax cheats, and in uncovering waste. (The bounties can be quite large, since they are often a percentage of the money involved.)
Third, the federal government has Inspectors General: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_general
If that Wikipedia article is roughly right, they are more common in the US than the UK. (By the way, reporters often use their findings as the basis for articles, so their reports aren't always buried, along with all the rest of the paper the federal government puts out.)
(Good to see you back, Cyclefree.)
https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-89#
(Judging by that press release, the whistleblower may have been earning about $1 million per hour, which, unlike most of you, is more than I have ever earned.)
Karen Rees, who refused to take Letby off duty against the wishes of 7 consultant paediatricians
You know what? You can investigate and then reinstate them if it turns out they are innocent of allegtions. What you cannot do is bring babies back from the dead.
SEVEN consultants wanted her off duty. Now, they may have merely thought her incompetent rather than evil. But still. How many are needed to get someone moved?
or Brexit made her do it.
https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/plus246973856/Kranker-Mann-Europas-Deutschlands-Wirtschaft-beunruhigt-die-Welt.html
Russian firms have received tens of thousands of Chinese shipments since the war in Ukraine began
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/19/china-helping-arm-russia-helicopters-drones-metals-xi-putin/ (£££)
I strangely enough felt some sympathy for Letby. Her own diary showed she hated herself for doing it, but couldn't stop. The Hospital management did no one any favours.
But psychiatry is two centuries behind the rest of medicine. Does it really count as a science?
Are Rishi and Suella really cynical enough to use the Letby case as reason enough to call for the ultimate sanction? Who wouldn't vote to see Lucy Letby's televised hanging by the neck until dead? I am not sure about Sunak, but I would bet my boots the thought has already entered Suella's head.
And if God forbid the CPS have got it wrong, they have killed the wrong person.
There’s a nice exhibition of dead Russian tanks across the road, just in case anyone forgets about the war going on.
Universities need to get away from teaching information as facts, and get back to questioning all the suppositions in each subject area. Why do we believe this? What evidence is there?
And leave technical training to technical colleges.
The death penalty is absolutely barbaric, if the Tories propose to re-introduce it I will never vote for them in my life. Same for Labour.
Getting that in health- safe whistleblowing, looking for systemic faults rather than scapegoats to blame- ought to be possible. But something stops us. "Evil person did evil thing but they were stopped in the end" is too comforting a story.
And I fear it's the damnable bits of human psyche again. We want heroes and villains. We choose more pain later over minor inconvenience now. Politicians present easy, cowardly, dishonest options every bloody time. And we vote for them. And I don't know what we do about that.
I am sure they will do it - and it is absolutely disgraceful.
I have participated in and even led a number of investigations both internal and external to my Trust, though nothing close to this in terms of seriousness.
The biggest problem encountered is getting evidence of a level sufficient for action. Almost always along the way someone hadn't followed procedures correctly, meaning that the case would fall apart if it went to the Employment Lawyers.
We often wound up with action short of suspension or sacking. Someone would leave the Trust, but no sanction after that was enforceable, usually to employment elsewhere. Not very satisfactory, and often it would be the wrong person leaving.
Cases of wrongful dismissal are often very expensive, due to loss of earnings awards, sometimes stretching into the millions of pounds, as well as reputational damage. I know of some (external to my Trust) where I was staggered that the person had walked away with millions, rather than being struck off.
There is a need to correctly blame and sanction people where blame is due, but the problem of such a system is that it leads to a culture of omerta and cover up. There is a widespread recognition that safety improvements are more likely in a "no blame" cuculture but "no blame" is not always compatible with justice.
If Labour were in government and introduced it I would write to Keir Starmer directly, I would rip up my membership card and I would leave the country.
The thought that any party would go there makes me so angry, Pete.
There is a very clear and indeed institutionalised conflict between the 'justice' - police investigation, etc. - and 'engineering etc lessons to learn' in accident investigation in rail and plane crashes, as I understand it.
Even with a war going on outside, one can still get a delightful Eggs Benedict here.
< / Leon >
I am writing to apologise for anything I have said and written that might have hurt your feelings.
I realise now that conflating tens of thousands of deaths, injuries and mass destruction with those events happening on your watch is unfair and that I have learnt a lesson not to point out that bad things seem to happen whenever a particular person can be linked to those events clearly and without any doubt.
I do hope that others in this world learn this lesson and that you have a long and unblemished career in the murdering business.
Yours with fulsome apologies,
Boulay
Interesting interview with the BBC reporter who sat in the courtroom right through. There’s something from her going on the web, if it hasn’t already appeared.
I don't agree with everything Dura_Ace posts but there was very little wrong in what he said. It's clearly obvious that Ukraine uses the media etc to boost its war effort (I support them in doing so). To deny that is to literally deny reality.
I am appalled that anyone here would support the death penalty.
As to Psychiatry the chief problem is one of observation. You are incredibly reliant on the information relayed by the patient. Even with a perfectly honest patient this will be imperfect, as language is imprecise, and as the patient's mental state ebbs and flows.