Averil's death - A "cover up" ?
Nic Hart
Averil's death was avoidable, she suffered from a treatable illness.
The care team that were assigned to look after Averil simply didn't provide any proper care and within ten weeks of starting university Averil died.
Had just one doctor or clinician from this team seen Averil when she needed help, then she would be alive today.
The truth is so obvious that it is seems unimaginable that a medical team would try to explain away their actions and say that the care they provided was satisfactory .... given the tragic outcome, it obviously wasnt.
So after Averil's death it took quite a while to realise that those involved would go to some considerable lengths to hide the truth from us. I suppose their task has been easy really ....
* To never answer questions fully or directly
* To censor the information flow by witholding the majority of Averil's medical records, and keeping the majority of the records hidden for over a year
* To commission reports from friendly sources .... and get a legal team to omit the basic questions.
* To put a legal team to work to ensure that the truth is burried.
* To suggest that the family is in need of therapy and not able to understand exactly what happened.
But maybe, just maybe ...
It would be easier still, to be open and honest and to say "... you know what, we need to be accountable. We failed this young person and our actions resulted in her death, we need to understand and admit what went wrong, so that it won't happen to others in the future".
Although we know that nothing can bring Averil back to us, this open approach may just help one person who is suffering alone in the community with AN.
Wouldn't that be good therapy ?
Sadly the culture of Openness and Honesty in the NHS still appears to be a dream and hasn't arrived here yet ....... in fact it seems to be a long way off.
Nic 13/08/2014