No learning, no candour and no accountability #CQCDeathsReview

The CQC Deaths Review publishes today. You can download and read the report here. It makes for a gut churning read. The headline message is that the NHS is failing to identify deaths that need investigating, failing to investigate properly (when investigations happen) and failing to learn lessons, improve care or prevent future deaths. It […]

Hidden in plain sight: outing the outlier argument #Mazars

There have been many responses to the leaked #Mazars review this week, with the vast majority being a mix of horror and disbelief. There are notable exceptions though that Sara has blogged about here Doubters, deniers and belieSHers. Sara touches on the ‘outlier argument’ which is what I want to focus on in a little more detail […]

Group mentality and the #NHSChangeDay mafia!

Last night I posted this tweet and what happened next was as surprising to me as it’s content! This was after an entire day of media reporting of the #Kirkup report; it’s publication had been imminent for some time. You can download and read The Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation here. For those of you […]

4 more Cs: callous, cruel, calculating and cowardly #6Cs #JusticeforLB

I’m on holiday at the moment, enjoying being sporadically connected, but today I found myself lost for words again. A couple of weeks ago I blogged a post about challenging anything NHS and the difficulties of doing so. In it I suggested 7Cs that I think I observe in communications around the NHS: control, construction, centralisation, challenge, […]

Impersonal correspondence: 10-15 #nhssm

Once I’ve started something I always try my hardest to finish it, so having deconstructed and analysed paragraphs 1-9 of a letter from Katrina Percy to Sara Ryan, this post attempts to finish the rest of it. If you’d like to catch up before reading this, you can read the analysis of paras 1-3 here, then paras […]

Impersonal correspondence: paras 7-9 #nhssm

I continue, huge respect to anyone with the stamina to keep coming back to this issue, but as the conversation on twitter suggests it needs unpacking. You can read the analysis of paras 1-3 here and paras 4-6 here. Sara’s original letter is here and Katrina Percy’s response here. If you’re sitting comfortably, cuppa, chocolate, […]

Impersonal correspondence: paras 4-6 #nhssm

This post continues on from Impersonal correspondence: paras 1-3, all the context is there. This post continues to deconstruct the letter, starting at paragraph 4: ‘Like every single organisation and individual in the world, we are not perfect and on a rare number of occasions we get things wrong, sometimes with deeply distressing consequences. On […]

Impersonal correspondence: paras 1-3 #nhssm

I’ve been involved with the JusticeforLB campaign now for over six months, a number of people who work in communications roles, especially in the NHS, have been in touch in that time to say how useful this campaign has been for their learning, indeed one person described Southern Health’s behaviour as the ugly, of the good, […]

The blackest of Wednesdays

It was five years ago today, yet I remember nearly every bit of it as though it was yesterday. I can recall his name, his walk or rather his strut, his voice and his manner, perhaps one blessing in disguise is that I can’t remember his face. It’s odd that but I often wonder whether […]

Life after Bobby: In search of meaning

Fifty one weeks, four hours and about 15 minutes ago my Dad died. Bobby J let out his last breath, peacefully, at home very much knowing he was loved. I’ve written about his death before. My Dad’s life and death, have provided the lens through which I viewed my own life of late, and challenged […]