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Hospital staff re-train to care for the dying

Emilene White
22/11/2006

A CULTURE change among medical staff is needed at Tameside Hospital, bosses have admitted.

Speaking at a packed meeting to discuss higher-than-average death rates at the trust, medical director Tony Woodyer said doctors and nurses would be trained in a new way of caring for terminally-ill patients.

Dubbed the 'Liverpool end-of-life pathway', it means doctors provide only symptom control and patients can choose to die at home if they wish.

Mr Woodyer said he had reviewed 100 patient records and found no evidence of poor medical treatment to account for the high death rates.

In response to an assertion from MP David Heyes that there had to be a link between them and levels of nursing care described as 'chaotic' and 'despicable' by coroner John Pollard, he said: "It is difficult to know."

He blamed the excess deaths - Tameside is eighth worst in the country - on "patients coming in in a very late stage in their illness and dying".

Nursing director Philip Dylak said: "I think culturally there are things that have to change.

"This overcomes one of the big problems we have seen that things are not communicated appropriately and that results in unrealistic expectations."

He added: "I think we recognise that there are groups of patients who have not been provided with appropriate care."

But he refused to commit to a boost in nurse numbers, saying only: "Nursing care is absolutely essential to somebody who is terminally ill. I believe that can be done and we have the staff to do it."

In December last year the Dr Foster Hospital Guide reported that Tameside Hospital had death rates 16 per cent above average.

This made the trust the second worst in the north west, ahead only of Bolton Royal Hospital.

A full report of an investigation by the council's health scrutiny panel will be available early next year.