To feel sorry for this doctor?

[HarryStylesismycrack]

I am not in any way downplaying the death of that beautiful little boy and it is clearly acknowledged there were some failures by the doctor in question however AIBU to feel as though this intervention by the GMC into the independent decision making by the MPTS is concerning? It appears to me that the MPTS took into account many things, not just the outcome (which I completely acknowledge is heartbreaking), the fact that this doctor was working the job of several other medical staff in an unfamiliar environment with significant IT issues with no senior input. It feels like this doctor has been made a bit of a scapegoat for huge systemic failures.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jack-adcock-latest-downs-syndrome-death-doctor-hadiza-babwa-garba-struck-off-general-medical-council-a8177721.html

A different link to a blog by other medical practitioners 54000doctors.org/blogs/an-account-by-concerned-uk-paediatric-consultants-of-the-tragic-events-surrounding-the-gmc-action-against-dr-bawa-garba.html

This. Plus she was a junior registrar in a new place just back off maternity leave with no senior support in practice. But it is still happening all over the country. Every day 😔

LRI is an odd hosiptal, IMO. I'm going back a few years now, but when I was about to qualify as a RN, I was given a call by my agency, as a healthcare assistant, and offered an entire week's contract to staff a 'medical assessment unit' entirely run by agency staff (for a very expensive agency, that most hospitals won't use). I had a great week, it was basically a medical A & E overflow, but again, outside the 4 hour wait, because technically it was a 'ward'. But it just went to show the trouble LRI were in then, because it must have been cheaper to pay the eye-watering agency bill than to pay the 4 hour wait breach fines. I only did a week, because I was on leave from Uni, but the contract was being offered quite long-term.

Never mind senior support, she had no junior support either. It was an accident waiting to happen.

I also trained at LRI, if I remember correctly the CAU accepted patients directly on to the ward. Rather than going through A&E to be eyeballed by a doctor. So very sick children would roll up on the unit without warning. At The neighbouring hospital I work at now, all the children go through A&E to prevent this happening. And no children are given open access to the wards. Much safer.

Hi all,

Can we ask that you avoid speculation here, please? We've just removed several posts, and we'd hate to have to take the thread down.

Thanks

What makes it even worse is if she had tried to raise concerns about unsafe staffing as dr Chris Day did in similar circumstances (who has never worked in the nhs again and had no whistle blowing protection as a trainee) she would have been risking her career.

Yep she was damned if she did and damned if she didn't

I don't actually think that doctor could refuse that workload, and I don't think I said that she could. The doctor culture is a unique one. Rotas are planned months in advance. They do not get changed. If you cannot get a mutually agreed swap for a shift that you want to be changed, you simply cannot have time off, and that includes annual leave. I have heard doctors say that they cannot get married, or can get married but must go on honeymoon the following month, because they can't get enough consecutive leave, as doctor x won't swap a shift and they have nights for 3 days that they couldn't swap in between wedding and honeymoon. It really isn't like nursing.

As a nurse, if I had a tricky rota (I say had, I have just started a role where I choose my own hours, within reason), and despite my requests going in, I found myself to be working on a shift that I had essential plans for, I could go to a Band 7 and say "arrgh!" They would request that I attempt to swap, but if I had attempted all feasible swaps, dependent on skill mix for the unit, and the unit could take a downshift in staffing on that day, or they were planning to staff up with bank on another day, for extra capacity, but could do that on that shift instead, they would.

This doctor has been scapegoated.
The conditions were unsafe - there is a catalogue of people involved as is often the case
Why she has been singled out is anyone's guess but it will not do well for patients or profession in future.
Goodwill will disappear and mistakes will be covered up.
There seems to be a coverup in the mysterious enalapril dose which is very suspicious.

Draylon, I think I may be misunderstanding your posts, but what I take from them is concern about the training your profession receive. I am concerned that 2 qualified radiographers, allbeit junior, require direct supervision from an experienced colleague in order to perform a scan? So that means 3 qualified staff members per scan? Is this typical? It doesn't sound very efficient to me. Nurses and midwives spend half of their training in clinical practice and so when qualified are expected to be competent to perform their role without direct supervision.

Anyhow on another note, I agree with you that you need to speak up like your nurse colleagues if continuing with your days work is likely to cause harm to your patients. In my profession, we always report short staffing and always fill out incident forms for those shifts so it is officially documented.

@missduke the doctor I referred to above Chris Day reported being short staffed and completed an incident form. Sensible as he was a doctor in intensive care. Didn’t end well for him- he sacrificed his whole career to maintain patient safety on that shift.

We certainly weren’t using the sepsis 6 in 2011, was a good few years after that we started using it. Maybe 2015?

Draylon it's my relative's view that I was sharing. You obviously disagree with that view as you also expressed strongly to Lougle but your experience of the NHS isn't the only one.

And I’ve worked in a unit where incident forms were filled out most weeks about staffing. In fact things got so bad we just kept a chart on the wall n the staff room and did a block incident form at the end of the month as we didn’t have time to do one very day. Nothing changed.

The 8b in charge of the department had a screaming fit in one meeting that we didn’t know we were born and staffing levels were much worse where she had come from and she didn’t know what we were moaning about.

What do you do? You either “accept” it and carry on on that particular day or you turn round and leave which will make things worse for the patients who don’t have the luxury of walking out. So you do your best and hope to God the shit doesn’t hit the fan because you know if it does you’ll be blamed and told that you’re an autonomous practitioner and why didn’t you escalate?

It’s been reported in the published court ruling that Jack’s mother gave him the Enalapril and that this may have been a factor in his subsequent cardiac arrest. Obviously the mum didn’t know it was the wrong thing to do but I’d say that was of critical importance in the whole case.
I’m outraged on behalf of the doctor and nurse who have been hung out to dry. If anyone should have been held to account it should have been the trust for allowing the poor staffing, lack of induction, IT failings, etc to occur

It's interesting, about incident forms. I have heard, of a particular area where the ward lead reported times drugs were given late, things didn't happen, short staffing, etc., due to under-staffing. Management got so sick of it, they said 'please don't keep reporting it all, it makes it look bad'. So she started reporting every time it happened . It took a while, and she wasn't popular, but her unit got more staff.

"It’s been reported in the published court ruling that Jack’s mother gave him the Enalapril and that this may have been a factor in his subsequent cardiac arrest."

Jesus. I had hoped this wasn't true after all. How tragic. It's horrifying that this has been swept under the carpet while the doctor and nurse take all of the blame and ruined careers.

At the centre of this is a little boy that's died in sure Jack's mother acted in what she thought were his best interests especially if no one told her she shouldnt give it but I really feel for the Dr and nurse they have been treated terribly .

This is chilling reading.

The huge catalogue of errors. Institutional failings. More senior staff not present. Super understaffed. The Enalapril being given.

How the hell the GMC manged to over rule and have her registration number deleted is unbelievable. Shame on the GMC.

Also the Dr Chris Day case, shocking.

Why she has been singled out is anyone's guess but it will not do well for patients or profession in future.

She's a woman of colour in a hijab?

Yes, I agree. If that is what happened, then yes
you might focus all your grief onto the doctors and go after them, because the thought that it was your fault in any way at all would be too hard to bear?