Failings at a Liverpool NHS trust were “ignored or watered down” by bosses who were hellbent on “aggressive” cost-cutting that put patients at risk, a damning report revealed.
A health worker being taken ‘hostage’ by a patient’s relative and a four-month delay in a man being diagnosed with lung cancer were among the shocking incidents that bosses at Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust failed to investigate properly.
The trust runs more than 65 community health services, including district nursing and walk-in centres. It also used to provide medical care at Walton and Kennet prisons. A bombshell report concluded “inexperienced” managers “failed to recognise the nature and severity of the problems” at the trust between 2011 and 2014.
They presided over a “culture of bullying and harassment” and risks were “down-played”, leading to a “series of failures at multiple levels” – including staff being “driven to the brink”. West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper called for a public inquiry into the “overwhelming failure”, which caused “unbelievable distress” for patients and staff.
Full story in The Liverpool Echo 22 March 2016