Serious life ending Sexual assault on a stroke ward

[mrshoho]

Stroke 'played no part' in Blackpool hospital patient's death - BBC News https://share.google/E1kG2EjcGHJWiPXvA

Omfg. This is just horrendous. This poor woman. Bled to death on a stroke ward following a sexual assault on the ward. What on earth?

is that it opens the door for any predatory man to access women when they are at their most vulnerable.

This. This is the danger. The real danger.

There used to be a pretty clearly socially-policed boundary between women's single sex spaces, and men's. These would be policed by users - men & women.

But such has been the deluge of gender extremist ideology /trans rights activism, with individuals being treated with public opprobrium, losing jobs, or threatened with arrest (or actually arrested) for calling out men in women's spaces, that women don't feel they can self-police these spaces any more.

this is unbelievable. does that mean that someone walked into the ward unobserved? or a patient or worse still member of staff? do they not do regular checks on the patients hence surely either they would have disturb the offender or even if not then surely at some point they must have noticed either the bed or nightwear was disturbed? something is wrong all round

Because there’s this thing called the human rights act where individuals have the right to a private life.

put cameras in vulnerable people’s homes and toilets, how long do you think it will be til that footage hits the dark web?

who do you think these “volunteers” will be that offer to watch cctv of vulnerable people on the toilet?

are you going to get informed consent of these patients, who may be mentally competent, for strangers to have access and be able to watch them 24/7?

you can’t breach people’s human rights just in case something might happen. You need to employ other security measures to protect them.

That's twice now you have used the word tasteless and tried to tone police a serious discussion about women's safety which trans identifying men endanger as much as any men. Go start a new thread, campaign for third spaces for trans identifying men if you care so much but you will not get your way in this thread.

Single sex spaces in medical care are strictly adhered to in countries like Singapore. It helps because there aren't horrible cases like the one we are discussing. I am sorry but I find the idea of mixed wards totally offputting and a clear security risk.

My way? OMG the paranoia. 😂😂😂

Expressing a view is not the same thing as tone policing. I could just as easily accuse you of doing the same as you are also expressing a view on what does and doesn't belong on the thread.

But I'm not interested in derailing further. Bye.

@AnnHedonia I think that it very important that people can mention whatever they deem relevant when discussing this horrific case and failures within the NHS.
The NHS treats everything in silos and as a result holistic care is no longer possible. Discussion around this horrific assault and murder is necessary to bring the sad state of the NHS into the spotlight.

My sincerest sympathies to the family of Valerie Kneale. I hope you get justice for your beautiful mum.

Another one who can’t believe what I’ve just read.

Absolutely horrific.

Sounds like the police were massively hampered by the shocking delay in Valerie’s cause of death coming to light.

Unimaginable that blood was discovered coming from where it shouldn’t have been coming from and doctors were alerted but didn’t investigate. All while on a hospital ward!

This case really needs to be highly publicised so the public are alerted that this has been going on, while they may have vulnerable family members in hospital. You’d assume they are safe!

A full public enquiry by the government needs to be undertaken immediately.

That poor, poor lady stripped of her dignity and left to die after being horrifically attacked and raped while being treated in a HOSPITAL!

Murdered in hospital under the nose of medical staff in a so called civilised country!

This has really made my brain hurt.

Maybe our MPs should be spending more time discussing this in Parliament than the Gaza conflict which is apparently discussed more than any other issue!

Sadly even on a ward which is “single sex” even putting the trans issue aside they are NOT single sex. They have single sex bays. But as someone who has worked in the nhs for 20 years I can promise you that a man wandering into the womens bay at night is not unusual.

And if all staff are busy/away from the nurses station someone could easily go in the wrong bay unnoticed. They then have the potential to slip behind a curtain into a cubicle unseen.

when Dd was 17yo she was admitted into an adult ward. I had to firmly tell her if she ever felt unsafe at any point she was to start screaming loudly, not just press the buzzer. It’s so wrong that you have to tell your child that when leaving them in an nhs hospital.

Poor woman. Every single patient in that hospital right now must be terrified as the chances this was a staff member must be quite high.
I am so sad and angry after reading that. Her family must be in so much pain.

They chuck you out though, unless it’s visiting hours.

I haven't been able to read all the replies but I will go back through them this evening. This dreadful case is too awful to comprehend and I questioned whether to post this. But I think we are all in agreement that Valerie Kneale's life deserves to be remembered and justice obtained for the inhumane care she received by our NHS as well as a reinvestigation of her murder and sexual assault. It look as though the inquest may conclude tomorrow so I will hold off from emailing Wes Streeting until then. A petition could be a way to publicise this case and is something I'm sure her family will consider. It is shameful that such a terrible assault occurred in an NHS ward yet there has been such limited national reporting.

Hijacking a thread, give over! 😵‍💫

Remember David Fuller, he sexual abused over 100 dead bodies in the mortuary.

None of the staff come off well and all have previously been charged with various offences including theft of medication. Matthew Powver has been struck off the NMC register.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/06/blackpool-five-charged-in-investigation-into-ill-treatment-of-stroke-patients

Matthew Pover was struck off last year. The NMC have a huge waiting list for hearings and until they’ve been heard they are, in theory, free to work in nursing.

https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/ftpoutcomes/2024/april-2024/reasons-pover-ftpcsm-95399-20240430.pdf

100% this. 👏🏼

I don’t understand why that ward/hospital hasn’t been subject to serious investigation and closed down. Where have the CQC been in all this?

Something happened on a ward at my hospital a year or so ago. I honestly don’t know what that something was, staff were ordered not to speak about it and they haven’t. But in the morning the ward was closed, certain staff suspended and all other staff redeployed to other wards. They were given cards to keep in their pockets saying something along the lines of “please don’t ask as I can’t discuss” which they produced if anyone asked any questions. Even my friend whose daughter was a band 6 on the ward doesn’t know.
Qcq were called in and the CEO and head nurse took to doing random 3am tours of the wards. The ward had various rebuilding work and was reopened later in the year. I am sure it was nothing of the magnitude of Blackpool. My own suspicion is staff having an extended sleep on duty while patients wandered or fell out of bed or possibly something drugs related as we do seem to have had a few cases of drugs being misappropriated in certain wards, but those aren’t particularly covered up. Instead we get pharmacy demanding even tighter controls to the point where doing the drug round in the wards must be a nightmare and extremely time consuming.

So why has nothing like this happened in that Blackpool hospital? Has anyone seen the CQC report - there must have been inspections in the last few years?

Idk, @FannyCann- but how on earth in practice does ‘closing down a ward’ work - where do the current and future patients go? Especially in an area like Lancashire/South Lakes. The other big hospital in the area, Preston Royal, is overdue for complete replacement. It seems some hospitals, especially Blackpool which is a notably deprived area, have problems recruiting enough good staff.

It’s very easy to access CQC reports. Took me 2 seconds.

https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/RXL01/reports/LAP-01399/overall

The most recent BBC report (cannot see that this has been posted)

Blackpool hospital sexual assault victim 'unlawfully killed' - BBC News

I wonder how many people (not just women) have had this but the assailant has been clever enough to pack the patient so there is no evidence and there is no PM either because it was an 'expected death'.

I have zero faith in the NHS. I have had abysmal treatment as have family members. A cousin of mine was so neglected there was an enquiry but nobody gets a warning let alone the sack as they are short staffed.

You are at your most vulnerable when you are sick but going to hospital is terrifying.

The old days with a proper hierarchy was better. Now, nobody is accountable for anything.

I feel very upset and disturbed by this article. That poor lady. 😞

I do too. She has popped into my head today.
What in gods name was going on that such violence should not be noticed.

The poor family.
What a death.
I hope to goodness there is something going on behind the scenes with the police, because if not, its just unthinkable.