Fury as ‘ill’ former Stafford Hospital chief goes on course
Monday 27th September 2010, 11:30AM BST.
The former boss of a Midlands hospital – who was too ill to give evidence at an inquiry into the deaths of hundreds of patients – is believed to have completed a course in teaching English as a foreign language.
Martin Yeates, who resigned as chief executive of Stafford Hospital in May 2009 is thought to have studied a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course in July this year.
Mr Yeates has never spoken publicly about his role in the years spent as head of the hospital.
During that time patients suffered appalling care and were routinely neglected.
It has been estimated between 400 and 1,200 people could have died as a result of poor care at the hospital.
Mr Yeates is thought to have attended a TEFL course at the Ramada Hotel, at The Mailbox, in Birmingham in July this year.
The course would have been either a 20-hour course over the Saturday and Sunday at a cost of £195 or a 30-hour weekday course at a cost of £245.
On the TEFL organisation website Mr Yeates, who described himself as an early retirement NHS chief executive, left a comment after completing his course.
He praised the course and tutor and said he found it “very active and hands on” and was a “structured interesting course.”
An independent inquiry into the events at Stafford Hospital was held at the end of last year. Robert Francis QC revealed he had accepted confidential evidence that Mr Yeates was too ill to give evidence.
Now health campaigners are demanding Mr Yeates, a former director of care services at Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust, be called to give evidence to the public inquiry which will start next month.
Julie Bailey, founder of Cure the NHS, the group which helped expose the hospital failures said: ” If he can do a course in July then in my opinion we would expect him to be called to give evidence at the public inquiry.”
Mr Yeates could not be contacted.
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Yeah I bet there’s no comment! Stuff any grieving families, as a patient you really are just a number – a statistic who cares if a few peg it is how we felt when my dad died. I bet when hes teaching English he has a bit more to say!?!
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This guy is really unbelievable!
Yet again it just shows that those who grease their way to the ‘top’ of the heap manage to coat themselves with Teflon along the way.
He and his cohorts are directly responsible for the plummet in standards at that hospital.. one of them even DOUBLING HER pay along the way after giving public assurances that she wouldn’t!
These people just flit from job to job setting up their own HUGE pension funds at the expense of OUR health and safety.
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This is totally outrageous. He was unable to teach his staff at Stafford Hospital good care practice, and right from wrong. Surely this guy is not right for teaching English, these poor students will never have a good start in life if its left to this looser. Get him to the enquirey and make him stand up and become accountable.
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Drag him back in to be interviewed, and for goodness sake, he was the head of the NHS hospital and therefore the buck stops with him. Payback time for those who never think they should take responsibility. Turns your stomach that slime balls like this survive and go on to take more and more.
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why is there a witch hunt for this man. Since he left things do not seemed to have improved that much given the constant press it receives.
The problems at Stafford Hospital goes back years and years and its not fair to blame one man.
The politics in this whole sorry affair at stafford stinks.
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With respect Elizabeth i think you need to think a level or two deeper here.
In ANY organisation, be it a business or public health facility, someone is ultimately responsible for the health and safety of the site and its occupants under law. there is usually a document called a ‘site safety certificate’ which has a named individual or individuals who are legally responsible for what occurs on said site.
Certain very poor and dangerous decisions were clearly made under his and his cronies’ tenure and those people need to be brought to account.
If this were to happen in a private business you can guarantee HSE would have investigated by now and possibly litigation would have been brought against the individuals concerned.
In my earlier post i also mentioned specifically his 2IC who, even while the place was highly prominent in the news, decided to DOUBLE her pay, right after pretty much publicly stating that she would not!!!!!!!!
Clearly this is NOT acceptable and shows either an appalling lack of empathy and judgement or downright belligerence and duplicity toward the hospital, it’s patients and staff.
She claimed that her new salary figure was appropriate for the role…. just a shame her performance was NOT!
It really is about time a message was sent out to people in these positions of great trust just how great a privilege it is and not, as they seem to assume, a licence to cream off the tax payers money for their own pockets whilst risking people’s lives, which in effect is what has happened here, if they were to be made examples of so be it! it’s about time someone was held to account so this culture is stamped out once and for all and we can all go to our local hospital with confidence!
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Von-Funkenstein- well said!!!!! Nobody should have the memories that I have!!!!!
The Dead can not cry out for justice; It is the duty of the living to do so for them!!!
Thank God that some of the living did !!!!!
Martin Yeates rode off into the sunset with his saddle bags full of gold, whilst families buried their loved ones having watched them die in horrific circumstances!!!
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