Patient deaths raise fears over clinic run by building firm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/28/nhs-deaths-clinic-carillion

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An investigation has been launched into the deaths of two patients after routine surgery at an NHS surgical clinic run by a building firm that has moved into health offering "cost effective" care.

The local NHS has described the deaths as serious incidents and GPs have decided to adopt a policy of dissuading their patients from being treated by the private care provider. The Surgicentre, attached to the Lister hospital in Hertfordshire, is owned by Clinicenta, a wholly owned subsidiary of the building giant Carillion, once part of Tarmac.

The deaths will inevitably raise fresh concerns about the opening up of the NHS to private and independent health providers under the government's controversial Health and Social Care Act.

The tragedy follows the Observer's revelation this summer that there was an investigation into failings at the clinic, after six patients suffered irreversible sight loss.

The Observer has been told that one of the patients in the latest incident was an 87-year-old woman, raising concerns that they were operated on at a centre without access to an intensive care unit, although a spokesman for the company was unable to comment. A source said the investigation into the deaths, which occurred in September, would closely examine the aftercare offered by the Surgicentre. The patients had to be transferred after their operations to the Lister hospital, where they both died.

Meanwhile, the Observer has learned that minutes from a recent meeting of the local East and North Hertfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group reveal that there have been "21 serious incidents of both a clinical and patient information governance nature" since the clinic opened in September 2011.

The clinic also failed to upload the patient details of around 8,500 ophthalmology outpatients resulting in "uncertainty and clinical concern". NHS Hertfordshire is still waiting for the results of all 8,500 patients' treatment.

The minutes also criticised Clinicenta's failure to meet the 18-week target for treating patients, saying its performance on this measure "has been unacceptable, reaching as low as 50% [of patients] a number of months ago, although it has improved somewhat since".

Dr Mark O'Flynn, the Clinicenta medical director, said the deaths were "unfortunate", but "investigations are standard practice following a patient death to determine whether improvements can be made by any of the organisations involved in the care of a patient".

He added: "The patients were both transferred back to the local trust some days after their operations, so we are working closely with our NHS colleagues to carry out the investigation."

Stephen McPartland, the Tory MP for Stevenage, said he was appalled by the company's response. He said: "I am shocked that Clinicenta Carillion are trying to claim everything is OK at the Surgicentre when it clearly is not. The staff are doing a great job, but they are being failed by the way in which the contract is being managed. The primary care trust have made it clear that they do not want local doctors to refer new patients to the ophthamology service and the Care Quality Commission has serious concerns. I have met with the chief executive of the Care Quality Commission this week to discuss my concerns regarding the management of the Clinicenta Carillion-owned Surgicentre. I explained that they have lost the faith of the local medical professionals and the local community. They are not up to the job and the quality of care available to my constituents is just not good enough. I asked the Care Quality Commission to take action and seriously consider removing their licence to provide healthcare in the UK."

A spokesman for NHS Hertfordshire said: "It is uncommon for deaths to occur following routine surgery. We are treating these as serious incidents that need thorough investigation."