Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust

Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust runs Russells Hall Hospital and Dudley Guest Hospital in Dudley and Corbett Hospital Outpatient Centre, in Stourbridge, West Midlands, England. It also provides community health services to the borough.

In July 2013 two former governors of the Trust, Bill Etheridge and Major Robbins, called for bosses at the borough’s hospitals to be sacked in the wake of the Keogh Review which criticised staffing levels at Russells Hall Hospital and the Trust’s complaints process. They claimed they quit in frustration after being repeatedly told they were unable to raise issues relating to operational matters.^[1]

In January 2014 allegations by John Marchant, the former head of security, were reported that staff had routinely forced vulnerable patients to stay in their rooms – or even confined them to their beds - despite them posing no danger to anyone. The Care Quality Commission is to investigate.^[2] In March 2014 it was reported that David Ore, who managed security staff across the three hospitals, after repeatedly raising concerns had been suspended in November 2012 and sacked five months later after a disciplinary hearing. He claimed children and pensioners were being restrained and locked in hospital cubicles for up to 12 hours without food or drink. He won an appeal but was again ordered out on ‘special leave’ in January – two days after an article about Russells Hall Hospital restraining patients appeared in the media and has now been given notice of redundancy.^[3]

See also

• List of NHS trusts

References