According to a press release put out by Lancashire Police, at least seven people, all described as ‘healthcare professionals’ connected to the stoke unit of Blackpool Victoria Hospital have been arrested in connection with allegations of mistreatment and neglect. Four people were arrested recently but three others were arrested in November and December.
The offences that those who have been arrested for are serious ones and include suspicion of administering any poison or noxious thing with the intent to injure and ill treatment or wilful neglect. Those arrested latterly are currently being held in custody but those arrested previously were released under investigation pending further enquiries.
Here’s an excerpt from the press release put out by Lancashire Police. You can find the original document via this link.
Lancashire Police said:
Four more people have been arrested by police in connection with allegations of mistreatment and neglect at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
In November police were contacted by Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust after concerns were raised about the care provided to some patients.
The allegations related to the alleged mistreatment and neglect of patients on the stroke unit in November 2018.
Four healthcare professionals – one man and three women – have today (Wednesday, April 3) been arrested on suspicion of administering any poison or noxious thing with the intent to injure and ill treatment or wilful neglect. They are currently in custody.
It brings the total number of people arrested to seven after a woman was arrested in November and a man and woman were arrested in December as part of this investigation.
The three individuals – all healthcare professionals – were also arrested on suspicion of administering any poison or noxious thing with the intent to injure and ill treatment or wilful neglect. They have since been released under investigation pending further enquiries.
These three individuals were suspended in November as part of safeguarding procedures, while the remaining four individuals have been suspended since December following further investigation by police.
Officers are working closely with Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and HM Coroner for Blackpool and Fylde as part of the investigation.
A number of post-mortem examinations have been conducted as part of police enquiries.
In January detectives confirmed a murder investigation was on-going following the death of a woman in her 70s on the stroke unit in November. This is being treated as a separate investigation.
Although this investigation is currently at a relatively early stage and for sub judice reasons I need to be somewhat careful in what I say, these arrests do seem to indicate that Blackpool Victoria Hospital has more than a few problems.
However, the word ‘problems’ probably doesn’t do justice to what is alleged to have gone on at this hospital. The core of the allegations are that patients in the Stroke Unit of this hospital were being poisoned by medical staff and complaints were raised with hospital management about this concern in November 2018. The hospital called in the police and an investigation commenced. During this investigation, post mortems of patients who had been in the Stroke Unit were carried out and an unexplained injury was found on the body of a 75 year old woman who had died. This death is being treated as murder but according to Lancashire Police is not connected to the investigations into the allegations of poisoning and mistreatment of patients. Arrests have been taking place sporadically during the investigation since November 2018 and some press reports have claimed that the number of suspicious deaths at Blackpool Victoria Hospital could be as high as eleven.
Something bad has apparently gone on at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. What it is is a matter for speculation and I do not want to speculate too much at this stage. But, alleged text messages reported by the Daily Mirror to read ‘another one gone tonight’ that detectives are said to have found, do raise all manner of suspicions about what may have gone on. It’s obvious that something has gone badly wrong with the Stroke Unit at this hospital and one question that those who have been patients of this unit or have had relatives who have been in it need to ask is ‘how long has this been going on’? The Care Quality Commission report for Blackpool Victoria Hospital for 2014 stated that the Stroke Unit had previously in 2013 been required to improve its services, but had not made sufficient process. This was one of a whole raft of problems found with this hospital with poor infection control in maternity encountered in 2015 and poorly qualified staff and long waiting times in Accident and Emergency in 2017. Judging by how regularly this hospital falls down in many areas, it would not surprise me if there were problems in the Stroke Unit going back a for a considerable amount of time.
Blackpool Victoria Hospital sounds to me like the sort of environment I would not want my worst enemy to have the misfortune to be treated in. This hospital has not only got the usual run of the problems associated with publicly provided healthcare in Britain, such as waiting times, filth, poor quality treatment etc, its also got allegations of patients being unlawfully killed and of patients being poisoned.
Is this the ‘caring NHS’ that the pro-NHS groupies feel we deserve? Is this what those who worship the NHS as if it were some sort of new religion believe is the right sort of healthcare? If you ask me I think that Britons deserve better healthcare than that which is supplied by the NHS and the people of the Blackpool areas certainly seem to deserve better than they are getting from Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
