Off Your Trolley

Many years ago I worked at Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow - in the operating theatres.

One day a woman came in for a routine gynaecological operation - but came back out of the operating theatre with a broken nose and two black eyes - would you believe.

She was the victim of an unfortunate, but entirely preventable accident - caused by the canvas stretcher giving way as she was lifted from the operating table - on to a patient trolley.

At worst the patient should have just fallen a few inches on to the trolley - in which case she wouldn't have been injured at all.

But for some reason the trolley was not up against the operating theatre table - as it should have been.

So the poor woman fell through a gap - which shouldn't have been there - and landed right on her head on the hard floor.

I recalled this event when I was reading something recently about negligence claims against the NHS - someone was making a foolish point about 'ambulance chasing' lawyers costing the NHS money.

Now I don't approve of people taking up injury claims when nothing has really happened to them - car whiplash claims being a prime example

But the vast majority of cases against the NHS are because someone has suffered harm - due to the negligence of another person - normally an NHS member of staff.

I remember the incident involving the woman with the broken nose really well - it was a really big scandal at the time - and all the staff were warned not to say anything.

But I went along to the ward and spoke to the family - because they had not been told the truth - in fact they were told a load of baloney - about something falling inadvertently on her face.

I was the NUPE union rep and the time and I saw no reason to be afraid - or join a conspiracy to keep this patient and her family in the dark.

So I stood up and said so - which caused a big stink at the time with the hospital management - who were all for brushing the incident under the carpet.

Quite how they planned to do that - I could never understand.

Because how could anyone explain - sensibly at least - the reasons for a routine gynaecological operation resulting in the patient waking up - with a broken nose and two black eyes.

I offered to act as witness - if the woman needed one.

But of course the hospital settled the whole affair out of court - as they were bound to do because the patient was injured through no fault of her own.

Needless to say the proper safety procedures were followed more closely after that - trolleys were kept up against the operating table with their breaks on - and the canvas stretchers were carefully checked for tears and holes.

Which is what should have happened in the first place - in which case no one would have been injured - and the NHS would have saved itself money.