Police inquiry into new hospital death
Saturday 7th February 2009, 10:00AM GMT.
A SURGEON has been suspended and a police inquiry launched after a patient died at the General Hospital following an operation.
It is understood that the man, who was in his 70s, died before Christmas after being admitted to Accident and Emergency and following two operations within days of each other.
The States of Jersey Police were informed of the death and have recently started their investigations.
A spokesman for the force said: ‘We are undertaking inquiries with a view to submitting a report to the Viscount at the appropriate time. No further comment will be released at this time.’
Meanwhile, after being approached by the JEP, a Health spokesman confirmed that a member of staff had been excluded from work while the investigation was under way.
• Picture: The General Hospital in Gloucester Street
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
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Hospital in crisis? The consequence of unsafe management systems? Yet another example of why there needs to be a change at the top.
Well done JEP for keeping this very serious issue of public safety under scrutiny. Our lives in their hands…….
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Our lives could actually be in your (JEP) hands – investigative journalism is way overdue in Jersey.
Civil servants appear to be running this place and if politicians think the public will continue to be placated with promises of investigations and enquiries – they are wrong!
Timely seemd to be one of the spin words coming from our politicians – well the numerous investigations currently going on ( of which I have now lost count ) are anything but timely!
It is time for action not words – let us get our house in order!
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Totally agree but the states need to up their game ensuring that safety is a priority and that attention to detail is more accurate as we believe we are safe and our lives are in their hands
How safe are we?
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Interesting comments. Given the information in the article – ie that an ELDERLY gentleman died after 2 operaton (with no mention of the health of the patient and nature of the operations), perhaps it would be better not to SPIN this into a larger story than it actually may well be.
I think rash judgements about the ‘safely’ of patients within the Jersey healthcare system may be a little premature.
An formal enquiry is underway (which I am very glad to hear) and I feel appropriate action to ensure patient safety has been taken. I would much rather hear the results of the enquiry than speculation with respect to our safety.
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Is Jennifer suggesting that it is ok if it’s ELDERLY (her capitals not mine!) people that die?
What I am concerned about is not so much individual doctors or nurses but the systems or lack of them that are in place whereby a police investigation is necessary following a patients death in what should be a place of safety.
And I am sceptical about the veracity of hospital inquiries.
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Without freedom of information any enquiry is just a way of hiding a cover up.
We need people to leak information otherwise true but ultimately unhelpful and misleading information will be released.
The truth will set you free, secrets are a prison.
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I agree with Jennifer (4).
Unless a more in depth knowledge of the circumstances surrounding this gentleman’s death is held by the other 3 respondents above, then I feel that there may be a degree of jumping on the bandwagon going on here?
There seems to be a strange willingness among the general public to eagerly condemn any, or all, treatment received by patients in any hospital where the result that does not conform to expectations.
I remember back (many years ago now, unfortunately) to times when I was a student nurse. Having met an eligible “gentlemen” on a night out who had discovered what I did for a living, would regale me with tales of how he had been given numerous pints of the wrong blood, incorrect treatment etc,,etc.
Medicine is not,and has never been, an exact science – even with today’s technology. In many cases doctors have to go through a process of elimination to discover what the true underlying cause of a condition is. Bearing this in mind, “mistakes/misinterpretations” of symptoms can, and do happen.
Would you like that kind of responsibility to lie on your shoulders?!!
Give them a break!!
Please everyone – remember the saying – “innocent until proven guilty”.
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Two years ago my father died two days after undergoing a non life threatening,routine operation at the General Hospital from an infection.Three weeks prior to this a friend of mine’s father also died at the General Hospital from internal bleeding after theremoval of a stomach ulcer.Neither of these operations should have resulted in a death and neither were mentioned in the JEP.I wonder howmany people have lost their lives unnecessarily at the General Hospital andwould we even ever know about it?Or would it just be kept quiet or swept under the carpet like so many of Jersey’s problems.
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sensible words Jennifer
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unless you work in healthcare you never understand.
Sometimes mistakes are made, but sometimes peoples bodies just can not withstand operations or treatments, and medical science is advanced but not that advanced. new conditions are being discovered all the timeYou dont know the full story behind this elderly patient. He may have had a heart condition that made the operation risky even if it was routine.
He may have had any number of ailments or conditions that made an operation risky. No operation is routine because everyone is different.
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What on earth is going on at the General Hospital – Jersey people deserve top class treatment and reassurance from top quality staff.
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Well im scared now! im due an op in the not so distant future not sure i feel to great about it now!
im putting my life in there hands for a simple op fingers crossed im ok/alive after it!
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I’m sorry but ‘investigitive journalism’ and ‘jep’ in the same sentance, you must be dreaming!
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Slow news day? This story would never have been printed if it wasn’t topical. Even routine operations to those in their 70′s are risky.
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Surely leaked information is subject to the same inaccuracies of reported information whether through error or deliberate fabrication?
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How can some of you be having a go at the JEP over this? Something has clearly gone wrong otherwise the police wouldn’t have launched an enquiry and a surgeon wouldn’t have been suspended. That’s got nothing to do with the paper but what’s happened at the hospital.#Joker…you need to calm down.
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