I haven't heard the podcast yet. Must listen. I was surprised that the pneumothorax occured. The baby was on optiflow for added pressure only and wasn't oxygen dependent.
It was said that the pressures was too high baring in mind the babies low oxygen. Sounds like they weren't optimal but optiflow is quite non invasive compared to intubation, so goodness knows of this could cause a pneumo. I'd be highly surprised.
One thing that does cause a pneumo is a punctured lung as it releases air into the pleural space. But no lacerations for lung identified so I'm guessing it must have been something else. Do we know when in the timeline the pneumo was? The reporting was vague.
It’s a small world and I’m surprised that she took the admin role and didn’t try for constructive dismissal . CD is not easy to establish but she might have manufactured a case of CD here to try for a settlement and avoid the awkwardness. The Countess is a hospital where a lot of folks know each other.
I think the podcast said it was discovered during the collapse or as a result of so presumably was the first they knew of it.
iMO The rumours locally were not initially in relation to the deaths per se but rather that there was a strategic and political Motivation for downgrading Chester in favour of other centres i’m from Chester and those were the rumours at the time. Obviously the public did not know the extent and specificity of the concerns .
Can completely understand the skepticism around the 'people at the top' they wernt wrong that there was something going on there.
Yes there are bidding wars between trusts that may exist outside of all this. I always thought it was pertinent that they were building that new baby unit and all the publicity that was due to bring.
I can't see though, why CoC would want to downgrade to a level 1 is usual circumstances. They would absolutely want to keep their level 2.
Ahead of the independent inquiry there was a peer review of the unit. Certain recommendations came out of that.
However a senior managers response to that scenario is not going to be ' ahh okay then, let's downgrade'
I think it's more likely that senior management tried to keep all this under the radar, to avoid getting downgraded. Then, when they had no choice because they were getting overturned by the consultant team and an investigation was getting launched, suddenly, they were all about 'well we must act immediately and downgrade'
They were knee deep in it, knowing they'd failed to act earlier. What would the public think, if they heard that a potential serial killer had been ignored for so long and the Trust did nothing except for 'get overturned'
They fell back on an old report and blamed it on poor staffing. The consultant were not sucking that up. jmo