Sunday, February 28, 2021
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Monday, February 15, 2021
Cyngor Gwynedd Council - #FOI Internal Review - 50 Working Days And Counting.
In June, 2019, the Chief Executive Officer of Cyngor Gwynedd Council, Dilwyn O Williams, wrote a letter of apology for the failings found within Gwynedd Children's Social Services department.
It was short, making no mention of the Ombudsman's findings of Gwynedd SS's interference in an 'independent' investigation, nor the behaviour by senior officers meted out to the Investigator who felt 'bullied' and 'overwhelmed' to change critical aspects of a complaint report. But he did affirm the SS department's agreement to implement the recommendations within three months that included -
The Council should (within three months) seek specialist input to develop a plan for dealing with future assessment and support requests from/for those suffering with Autism
In November, 2019, Mr Williams, declared to a Care Scrutiny Committee that all recommendations had been met, bar a nuance. Mr Williams, was then summoned to Cardiff by the Ombudsman for Wales to discuss why the recommendations had not been met.
Previous
blog articles have published excerpts of emails from the Ombudsman
for Wales that contradict the statements of Mr Williams and Mr Dafydd
Paul to the Care Scrutiny Committee and the general public - so where
are we now?
The specialist input involves a review of Autism services in Gwynedd which should have been presented to the council in March,2020.
The council then told the Ombudsman that the external expert
commissioned to undertake the report had failed to complete on time due
to the pandemic. The Ombudsman was informed that the consultant would
present the report to the council by the 30th September, 2020.
Having lost all trust in the council, a copy of this report was requested. Morwena Edwards, Director of SS, replied saying that the request had been treated as a Freedom of Information request (FOI) and the council had decided to refuse the request. So on December 3rd, 2020, an Internal Review of the FOI refusal was requested. This should by Law take 20 working days.
The 20 working days came and went with no response - then 30 days. An email was sent to the Information department asking for an update - this was ignored. A second email was sent to both the Information department and to customer care, this time asking for acknowledgment of the email - no response from either.
An email was then sent to the officer who originally dealt with the FOI request. A response was received on a Sunday explaining that the Monitoring Officer, Iwan G D Evans, was dealing with the Review and had been since December 3rd. So an email was sent to the Monitoring Officer asking for an update. This too was ignored.
As no-one had responded, the original email to Mr Evans was resent to customer care asking them to pass on the email to the Information department and the Monitoring Officer and to acknowledge receipt that the email had been received.
A response was forthcoming this time, again from the same officer who had refused the original request. He replied that he hoped
the Monitoring Officer would be in contact soon. It is now 50 working
days since Mr Evans received the request for an internal review.
The Monitoring Officer has a statutory responsibility to ensure that the
Council operates in a lawful manner and that it does not do anything
which could amount to maladministration.
How's that going ?
Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council.
Cyngor Gwynedd Council Fail.: Gwynedd Council - FOI Internal Review - 50 Working...:
Sunday, February 14, 2021
Saturday, February 13, 2021
Silence From #Unison And #Unite the Union Re #BetsiCadwaladr
With regard to the Robin #Holden report
into Institutional Abuse at #BCUHB dated 2013, snippets of the report
have appeared in the media informing of staff in tears and at the end of
their tether working in the North Wales NHS mental health units. Issues
of bullying are also said to be raised within the report.
The Information Commissioner had ordered
BCUHB to release the report but the Board have refused and are
appealing the ICO's decision. The Tribunal has a date of early 2021...
Local Trade Union branches in North Wales were recently approached for their
thoughts and reaction to the report by the North Wales Community Health Council into
Vascular services at BCUHB and in particular the worry of increased
limb loss amongst patients. The use of antibiotics was also raised as a
concern.
That report, dated 8th October, 2019, can be found here -
http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/documents/900/Exec%20Minutes%2008102019%20%28APPROVED%29.pdf
It is a PDF document that will not open a new page but will be downloaded to your pc.
#Unison branches in the area were
reluctant to give any response, some did not even acknowledge the
question of if they were going to make a public statement on the damning
report.
The decision by the local union officers
to make no statement regarding the treatment of staff and the patients
within the health board has come as a surprise to many members,
especially after the shocking revelations now being made in the local
press.
Now I may have expected too much from Unison as I am not a member so I approached my own union, Unite.
An acknowledgment was received from the
BCU branch secretary and senior workplace rep, with regard to my
inquiry, excerpts of which are reproduced below -
...concerns come through the recent review of the
Board's Vascular Services and in particular claims of those in fear for
their careers if they speak out.
Have the Trade Unions had contact with the Board and
what has been the response from senior managers within the organisation
- if any ?
There is also the issue of the Board discharging
1700 mental health patients from their services and the LA's having to
pick up the pieces - during the lockdown.
The senior workplace rep, duly responded and on the 2nd June, said that they would be discussing with the regional officers and get back to me.
The Unite rep did eventually get back to me via Facebook -
"As you are not a member of the BCU branch and you are not an employee of BCUHB I can’t provide you with that information im afraid. If you require information you will need to address your concerns to the Regional Secretary Peter Hughes at the Cardiff Office."
Any union members that have concerns regarding work practices or whistleblowing in BCUHB may be better informing the regional organisers outside of the BCUHB region. The same goes for any Unison or Unite members within the local government organisations of North Wales.
Something is very wrong within the local government organisations of North Wales.
Cyngor Gwynedd Council Fail.: Silence From Unison And Unite Trade Unions. #BCUHB:
Friday, February 12, 2021
Thursday, February 11, 2021
Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Monday, February 08, 2021
Friday, February 05, 2021
Thursday, February 04, 2021
Wednesday, February 03, 2021
#Brithdir care home inquest - stomach feeding tube was infected with MRSA, which caused sepsis.
From the BBC - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55924695
An 85-year-old woman was sent from a care home to hospital without a member of staff, medical history or next of kin details, an inquest has heard.
Edith Evans arrived at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil from Brithdir care home "unclean, with hair matted and unkempt, incontinent and dirty with faeces, and had been in this condition for some time".
Her stomach feeding tube was infected with MRSA, which caused sepsis.
She died in September 2005.
The inquest in Newport is hearing evidence into the deaths of seven residents at the care home near Bargoed, Caerphilly county.
Rachel Pulman, a staff nurse at the hospital, gave details to the inquest of the condition she found Ms Evans in on her arrival.
She called the home for more information and found nurse-matron Philip McCaffrey "rude and uncooperative".
"He didn't appear to care about what was happening and wasn't interested," she said.
"His attitude was disgusting, he was uncooperative, rude and didn't seem caring at all."
Ms Evans's niece Gail Morris told the hearing that her aunt was the "life and soul of the family" but she suffered a "painful and distressing death" in September 2005.
She told the inquest that she had not been greatly concerned about her aunt's care at Brithdir until the point where she saw that the equipment being used to feed her was dirty.
She said she never saw the tube in Ms Evans's stomach and did not know she had an MRSA infection until she was taken to hospital.
Mrs Morris also told the inquiry her aunt was often not wearing her own clothes and that she could not understand how she had dirty fingernails when she was not mobile.
She said she had raised the issues with the patient's social worker and said the whole home could have done with a clean.
A social worker told the inquest a review she carried out into Ms Evans's care at Brithdir was not "robust enough".
Kerry Goodwyn said she was aware there were "overarching concerns" about the care home but there was "not enough meat on the bones".
She also admitted her own investigation into Ms Evans's care was "not to the best of my ability".
The inquest is hearing evidence into the deaths of six other former residents, including Stanley James, 89, June Hamer, 71, William Hickman, 71, Evelyn Jones, 87, and Matthew Higgins.
More - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55924695