The NHS - Safe in Labours hands? Not likely.

A sad story about a hospital that I pass each day on the way to work.

THE heartbroken daughters of a pensioner left to die on a hospital trolley have blasted the nurses who failed to take care of their dying dad.

Brin Williams, 74, was ignored as he lay in agony on a narrow hospital trolley for more than 18 hours before he died at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport.

Nurses forgot to give him painkillers, failed to check up on him for six hours at a time and did not recognise he was dying from an ulcer.

His daughters Olwen Ford, 56, and Caroline Bell, 53, have been fighting for justice for more than five years.

And finally this week the three nurses who were trusted to look after him were slammed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Catherine Marshall, Olatunde Oketikun and Mark Pittman were each given a five-year caution for failing to provide “the most basic care”.

Olwen, a nurse herself, said: “Our dad was totally ignored and abandoned. To them he was just another old, dying man and he wasn’t their priority.

“Despite the fact that he was unwell, I thought he was in the right place and was being looked after. We left him at their mercy – and he was totally let down.”

Brin, a former coal merchant, from Abercarn, was admitted to hospital with abdominal pains in February 2003, which doctors later discovered was a stomach ulcer.

But he was left in excruciating agony on a trolley after the nurses failed to carry out the checks that would have quickly diagnosed him and could have saved him.

When Caroline arrived at the hospital she found her dad gripping the sides of his trolley and crying out in pain.

She quickly alerted the nurses – but they still did nothing for another three hours. They only then took action once he was found in a collapsed state.

Caroline, a support worker, said: “I couldn’t believe what was happening. Me and my daughter were crying.

“I didn’t understand why he couldn’t speak – but I could see he was dying. And by that point he knew that he was dying too.”

Eventually, the seriousness of the situation was realised, and he was rushed into an emergency operation before being looked after in intensive care. But it was too late – and Brin tragically never came round again.

Olwen said: “We just sat there in complete shock. Once he was out of A&E and into intensive care he was looked after superbly – there was a stark difference.

“But you never hear of someone dying from a ulcer. It was operable and he should have survived it.

“What made it all the more difficult was it was his first time our dad had ever been to hospital. I think that’s why we couldn’t get to grips with it.

“Before he went to hospital he was fit and active, always walking the dog and never had any problems. And then he went to the Royal Gwent.”

Devastated by their loss, Olwen and Caroline knew they had to fight for their father and find out why he was so badly let down.

They took matters into their own hands – but claim the Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust continuously put up barriers to stop them finding out exactly what went wrong.

“The whole process has been a very long road, and a very tortuous one too,” said Olwen. “We asked to meet with the nurses individually but the Trust said they didn’t do that.

“The Trust were continuously uncooperative and wouldn’t answer our questions.”

After months of fighting the daughters were offered a pitiful £5,000 in compensation by the Trust, which was then increased to £10,000.

Caroline said: “We never did it for the money, but we felt someone had to be accountable.

“All the Trust had to do was apologise to us, but to begin with they didn’t even offer their condolences.”

The daughters then reported the incident to the Ombudsman, who is in charge of investigating failures made by public services.

He found severe failings in the care provided by the three nurses. In his damning report, carried out in 2004, he said Brin was ignored for almost 12 hours.

He said: “I feel that there has been a major failure to provide even the most basic care in this case.

“The nursing care Mr Williams received was unacceptable.

“In this case it seems that Mr Williams was almost totally ignored between 9.35am and 8pm.

“This complaint reflects badly on both the individual staff and the leadership qualities of the accident and emergency management team.

“It is clear that Mr Williams experienced a very poor standard of care and treatment whilst in the accident and emergency department at the Royal Gwent.

“Mrs Ford explained that when her sister visited in the evening of the 5th of February she found Mr Williams in severe pain.

“I find it both surprising and extremely concerning that none of the nurses appear to have noticed this or if they did they didn’t notify a doctor.”

A Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust spokesman said they apologised to the family following the “tragic case”.

He added: “The family also received a full explanation regarding the care Mr Williams received as they had requested.

“The actions taken by the Trust as a result of its internal investigations and the Ombudsman’s Report were explained in detail and assurances given that where issues had been identified, action had been taken to minimise any potential risk of any future shortcomings.”

But for Brin’s family the damage has already been done – and nothing will bring their beloved father back.

Caroline said their mum Barbara, 80, still can’t believe the way her husband had been treated.

“Our mum could never get over the fact that he was so badly let down,” she said. “She’s never been able to come to terms with it. He was a superb grandfather, husband and father. He showed everyone respect. He was an exceptional man.

“If any one of those nurses working in the department had ever asked Dad to help them, he would have done it.

“The irony of the situation is that he would have helped anyone. When he asked for help in his hour of need it wasn’t there for him. Dad really believed in the NHS and always defended it, which made it even worse.”

For the family, this week marks the end of a painful journey.

Olwen said: “I hope that it will prevent something like this happening again, but you can’t help but wonder how many other people this has happened to.

“Everyone has to die and all we wanted was to say that he passed away while he was being looked after, in the knowledge that the doctors did all they could.

“But we just can’t say that.”

**I covered the Royal Gwent before when it was featured on a local TV program about the poor quality of cleaners. link to previous post: week in, week out.

Sadly neither of my local MP's in Newport(Paul Flynn & Jessica Morden), has actually bothered to comment online about either this scandal involving the death of Mr Williams, or the poor standards of cleaning in the Royal Gwent.

Nothing, not a peep, no mention of bringing this up in The House, no mention of awkward questions to be asked the managers of the Royal Gwent.

Maybe they have more important issues to deal with, rather than answering awkward questions on the poor state of the NHS after 11 years of socialist misrule.

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