NHS trust fined

Guinness · 01-06-2012, 18:43

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust fined over privacy breach - Health News - Health & Families - The Independent

So the Brighton and Sussex NHS trust is fined for screwing up the destruction of some hard drives containing confidential information about patients.

They gave the hard drives to a bona fide contractor to destroy, who in turn gave them to a sub contractor, who instead of fulfilling his contract to destroy them, sold them on Ebay, thereby releasing confidential patient information all over the place.

Does the sub contractor get fined for breaking his contract to destroy them and selling them on?...Nope!

Does the bona fide contractor get fined for not exercising due diligence in choosing a sub contractor?....Nope!

Does the NHS trust get fined?...you bet your sweet bippy they do...£325,000

Is there a Mr. NHS who will be writing a cheque? Will Mr. NHS be able to plead a drug habit in front of 'the beak' and have to pay it off at £1 a week? Of course not.

Nope it's a trust, with governors..they'll have to pay it in full, not from their pockets though, they'll cut back on operations, doctors, nurses, porters, cleaners, and then most likely will be fined again for not achieving targets or allowing an outbreak of C Difficile.

Will heads roll at either the Trust, the contractors or thesub-contractors?..probably not.

So who will really pay for this?...the patients of Brighton and Sussex, that's who.

The very people who's details have been exposed, will have their services cut to the tune of £325,000

The British justice system at it's most stupid!

cashman · 01-06-2012, 19:53

Personally think its ridiculous the N.H.S. has to foot these costs, If the Contractor was Bona-Fide then the punishment should be at their door.

maxthecollie · 01-06-2012, 20:22

Why should we have to fork out for a Contractor being negligent?

Mancie · 01-06-2012, 21:04

There's been far to much private sub contracting involved not only within the NHS but also in most "public services" since the 80's, and it is a trend that's due to increase at speed.

Guinness · 01-06-2012, 21:23

Nothing wrong with the principle of sub contracting...we all do it.

Your car needs an MOT you, in effect, sub contract the work. You have a crash the next day and it's caused by a fault that an MOT should have picked up..the garage is to blame.

Your Hoover packs in, you sub contract an electrician to fix it, the wife gets electrocuted the next day, he's accountable.

That's what stinks about this whole affair...the NHS and ordinary joe is getting stiffed, while the people who REALLY caused the snafu are laughing all the way to the bank

Eric · 01-06-2012, 21:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxthecollie

Why should we have to fork out for a Contractor being negligent?

Why not? We fork out when bankers are negligent, not to mention big business ... the little guy does not have any major responsibility for the screw ups in the economy; but he ends up paying for it.The only reason GM got back on its feet is that the workers made concessions in their wages and pensions and the taxpayers of the US and Ontario forked over billions. Same as with the fine for the NHS trust: the private sector screws up; Joe Public pays for their inefficiency and, in some cases, criminal activity. It's the same the whole world over ..... etc.

Mancie · 01-06-2012, 21:42

Yep the tax payer gets stuffed.. just like the recent breast implants fiasco..

private business take the money...do a bad job and then refuse to recitfy the problems so it all comes back to the public NHS paying for reverse operations... and I would not be surprised if some of these reverse operations have been "sub contracted"