Category Archives: health

by Iain Maciver

A consultant sacked from Western Isles Hospital earlier this year was aged 83, it has emerged.

The cardiologist had his contract terminated in January after allegations he had to be stopped by a patient’s wife from using a medical spray that he removed from his own pocket and which he had claimed to have used on himself and on another patient.

The shocked woman stopped him administering the spray to her husband and gave the consultant the patient’s own spray.  He had earlier misdiagnosed the patient saying he only had indigestion and not a heart complaint.

The family’s intervention resulted in another doctor attending the ill man at the hospital in Stornoway and their formal complaint about consultant Geoffrey Fielden Baines, who is 83, was upheld by the health board.

It has also emerged that another locum consultant in geriatrics, who was 77 years old, had his contract terminated at the same hospital in 2008. That was after a complaint that he put a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ notice on a patient without telling the relatives or filling in the necessary paperwork.

Dr Peter Paul Meisner, now also aged 83 – was fired after repeatedly misdiagnosing heart problems and telling colleagues he needs “a lithe young woman” but is still allowed to be a hospital consultant

Dr Peter Paul Meisner had misdiagnosed the man’s condition over a period of months. When he was eventually properly treated, it was too late and the patient died within five days.

The dead man’s family made a formal complaint and was told there were other complaints against him and assured he no longer worked for NHS Western Isles.

Despite the apparent serious nature of these incidents, neither consultant has been banned by the General Medical Council although a formal warning notice has been circulated about Dr Meisner’s improper conduct towards a female psychiatrist colleague and a hospital receptionist.

According to the General Medical Council findings, he told the consultant psychiatrist: “What I need is a lithe young woman like you to keep me active.”

The wife of the patient stopped Dr Baines administering his own glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) spray for angina pain, which he took from his own pocket, to her husband and gave him the patient’s own spray. She explained the doctor had earlier misdiagnosed her husband saying he only had indigestion and not a heart complaint.

She said she had complained about both consultants for separate incidents, adding: “My complaints were upheld and I am aware that there were other complaints about them too.”

Staff consultants must all retire when they reach 70. However, a loophole in NHS contracting policy allows doctors over 70 to work as locums after they reach that age provided it is for no longer than two months in every nine as long as other conditions re also satisfied.

Geoffrey Fielden Baines gained his MB ChB at St Andrews. He is listed on medical websites as having a provisional registration date of 9 August 1956 and full registration on 2 August 1957. Medical staff said he was 83 years old.

Peter Paul Meisner gained his MB BS in 1960 at Durham University. He only became a specialist in Geriatrics in 1999 when he was about 69. He told the pateint’s wife at the time he was 77.

Asked to explain why it had put island patients’ lives in the hands of an 83-year-old man, NHS Western Isles insisted that its recruitment of all staff follows a robust process, including checking references, standard disclosure checks, checking GMC licences and obtaining Fitness to Practice statements.

Its statement added: “Both gentlemen referred to were recruited through accredited, approved agencies, and all necessary checks were carried out prior to starting work.”

The islands’ health board said all staff have to be appropriately qualified for the job they are being employed to do and pre-employment checks are carried out as a matter of course.

The overall trend in Scotland is that hospital mortality rates are falling. However, Western Isles Hospital is one of five Scottish hospitals told to reduce in-patient death rates.

Island health chiefs insisted there was no connection with the spike in deaths reported earlier this year by Health Improvement Scotland with its use of elderly consultants, or any consultants whose contracts had been terminated early. A spokeswoman insisted: “There is absolutely no link.”

The Scottish Government meanwhile said it was committed to ensuring that all communities, including those in remote and rural areas, received safe, reliable and sustainable health care services. However, it refused to take the blame for consultants who patients may think were too old to do the job.

A health department spokeswoman stressed: “It is the responsibility of individual health boards to ensure they provide primary medical services to meet the reasonable needs of their population, and it is for each board to determine how they provide that service, including the use of locum doctors.”

The Scottish Government said it expects all boards to apply the same stringent measures when it comes to the recruitment of doctors in their areas.

Dr Jean Turner, the executive director of the Scottish Patients Association, which works to support patients throughout Scotland, said: “It would appear that the employer did not do their homework to assess the employee and safeguard patients. Obviously, if we had an excellent recruitment drive to retain our home-trained health professionals the normal checks which should be carried out would be essential but easier to do.
“The best scrutiny should apply whatever the age or the area of expertise of the health professional or the geography of the area in which the health professional is to work.”

The NHS Careers website says no authority shall employ a practitioner aged 70 or over unless all the following requirements are satisfied:

• there is a pressing need for the appointment and the need cannot be met from a regular appointment;
• there will be a breakdown in service if the appointment is not made;
• the authority is satisfied that the practitioner is suitably qualified and is fit, both mentally and physically to undertake the duties of the post;
• the practitioner is not employed for more than two months in any nine-month period.

Despite the complaints being upheld, the GMC has not stopped the two octogenarians from practising up until now. However, it has published a formal warning alongside Dr Meisner’s details on its website which says:

“Dr Meisner has a warning on his registration: 17 May 2010 – 16 May 2015
“On 01 November 2008 Dr Meisner made inappropriate physical contact with a receptionist colleague. On or around 4 November 2008 Dr Meisner told a Consultant Psychiatrist colleague, “What I need is a lithe young woman like you to keep me active”. This conduct does not meet with the standards required of a doctor. It risks bringing the profession into disrepute and it must not be repeated. The required standards are set out in Good Medical Practice and associated guidance. In this case, paragraph 46 is particularly relevant: ‘You must treat your colleagues fairly and with respect.’
“Whilst this failing in itself is not so serious as to require any restriction on Dr Meisner’s registration, it is necessary in response to issue this formal warning.”

It confirmed that Dr Baines was also still fully registered with a licence to practice.

Neither of the consultants could be contacted for comment.

The cost of alcohol harm to the Western Isles now stands around £9.94 million a year – a staggering cost of £379 per island resident.

The statistics have been produced by Alcohol Focus Scotland which has estimated the financial penalty imposed on the community caused by alcohol abuse.

Latest figures have been produced for across Scotland broken down by local authority area, and they estimate the total cost of alcohol harm to the islands is around £9.94 million a year.

Alasdair Allan MSP commented:  ”The news that alcohol abuse is costing the Western Isles almost ten million pounds a year is, I am afraid, merely a confirmation of what many people will have feared. The figure does not of course quantify the human cost to individuals and families, or the wider loss in economic potential.

“However, it does give us some idea of what a significant amount of time the health service, police and social services spend on dealing with this issue.  I am certainly not against people enjoying a drink, and do so myself. However, these figures are clearly a wake-up call.”

He said the grim figures were a reminder that the incidence of alcohol-related deaths in the Western Isles is twice the UK average.

“All this makes me more convinced than ever that Scotland is doing the right thing by clamping down on the availability of ultra-cheap forms of alcohol. There are clearly other huge cultural issues to be tackled. But we should try to tackle them.”

Click here for Alcohol Focus report

From news.scotsman.com

Health chiefs in the Western Isles are having to advertise a specialist multiple sclerosis (MS) nursing post for a third time because the salary is too low, campaigners claim. The Western Isles, which has 90 diagnosed MS sufferers, is the only health board in Scotland without a specialist nurse. Scotland has the highest rates of MS in the world.

Sufferers who need to see a consultant have to make a 12-hour journey to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. Last July, after a three-year campaign, funding for the full-time post was agreed but the salary grading was determined at band 6 (£25,528 – £34,189) rather than band 7 (£30,460 – £40,157) which would be the usual payment for a specialist nurse.

MS sufferer Christine Stewart, 54, from Stornoway, said: “We feel we are being discriminated against. Quite simply, not enough money is being offered for an experienced professional.”