Caught on camera: Worried patients film their treatment at Tameside Hospital because of its bad reputation

First Published by: Manchester Evening News

Worried patients are using camera phones to film their treatment at a troubled hospital – because its reputation is so bad.

Chief executive Christine Green said Tameside Hospital was battling to improve standards after a catalogue of shocking incidents dating back more than a decade. But she admitted: "Staff says they are fed up of people coming into the hospital saying ‘we understand such-and-such so we’ve brought our camera phones in to monitor everything’." She said most staff felt demoralised because of a few letting standards slip.

She said: "Ninety-nine per cent of our staff feels distressed and demoralised by the actions of this minority [of staff not meeting standards]." And she said workers were now under ‘unprecedented’ levels of scrutiny in a battle to drive up standards.

Ms Green said nurses and doctors are being urged to report poor performance by colleagues to managers. And she said staff who reported the mistakes of their seniors would be ‘celebrated’. Speaking at a Tameside Council health scrutiny committee 

Ms Green said: "Doctors and nurses might see something that is wrong but instead of challenging their colleague they leave it unsaid. We are really pushing that if you see something wrong, you have to act on it. "We have staff brave enough to report serious incidents for some of the highest people in the organisation and we will always celebrate that." She was speaking as bosses at the hospital – heavily criticised in a succession of reports for poor patient care – told of new plans to change working culture.

They include the introduction of weekly ward audits to check record keeping by nurses and inviting staff from other hospitals to carry out inspections. Tameside

Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Chair Paul Connellan said: "The message that has gone out across the hospital is that it’s not about doing average but about the highest standards. "We can’t give an unconditional guarantee but I can say the amount of scrutiny across the hospital at all levels is unprecedented."

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