WUHAN WHISTLE BLOWER: Dr. Li Wenliang

Focus on Eyes: Chinese ophthalmologist warned about COVID-19 outbreak

Dr Li Wenliang

Dr. Frederick Ho Special to FLORIDA TODAY

Published 6:22 AM EDT Mar 24, 2020

WHILE we are all sheltering in our homes amid the COVID-19 outbreak, we're being bombarded with statistics, news conferences and social media arguments that make it hard to know what is fact and what is fiction.

What we do know is one doctor tried to warn the world in December, and he, too, is now a statistic after dying from the virus in January.

The virus is presumed to have an animal origin with animal-to-human transfer at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China.
 
The infection became human-to-human and is now a global pandemic.
It continues to spread throughout the United States with infection and fatalities in many states, including Florida.

A sad and disturbing part of this epidemic is the story of Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, which is the epicenter of COVID-19.
Dr. Li found seven confirmed cases of respiratory disease and coronavirus infection in his hospital in late December 2019.

He messaged his medical school classmates in WeChat, the Chinese social network, on Dec. 30, 2019. His WeChat post was shared in multiple internet platforms and gained wide attention.

The local authorities reprimanded Dr. Li for making false comments on the internet. He was forced to sign a letter of admonition and promised not to repeat the transgression.

After the admonition, Dr. Li went back to work in Wuhan Central Hospital where he examined a patient, who was a storekeeper at Huanan Seafood Market with glaucoma and fever. Sadly, he became infected with coronavirus, which eventually took his life.

The death of Dr. Li generated an outpour of grief and anger.

Many Chinese considered him a hero for being a whistleblower of the COVID-19 outbreak and a victim of authoritative government.

It is difficult to determine whether the ultimate outcome of this epidemic would be different if earlier public health measures were taken.

Just last week, on March 20, Chinese officials offered an apology to Dr. Li's family.

Beijing investigators say Wuhan authorities acted "inadequately" when they reprimanded the late doctor and failed to follow "proper law enforcement procedure."

This story of Dr. Li reminded us all physicians and health care providers have the responsibilities to be alert of new diseases that can affect large segment of the population.

The COVID-19 infection is believed to spread from one person to another through respiratory aerosols from coughing and sneezing.

It could also be transmitted from touching mouth, noses and eyes after contacting objects or surfaces with virus from an infected person.

The virus can cause a severe respiratory disease.

Conjunctivitis, or pink eye, is observed in rare patients with COVID-19.
Proper hand washing and not touching one’s face with unwashed hands are measures recommended to prevent infection.

Dr. Frederick Ho, the medical director of Atlantic Eye MD and Atlantic Surgery and Laser Center, is a board certified ophthalmologist. Atlantic Eye MD is located at 8040 N. Wickham Road in Melbourne. To make an appointment please call (321) 757-7272. To learn more visit AtlanticEyeMD.com.

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Tameside Hospital to cut 246 beds. Surgeon condemns the plan!

Milton Pena - NHS Whistle-blower

A former consultant surgeon who retired from Tameside Hospital in October 2014, after working for forty-years in the NHS and specializing in orthopaedic surgery, has slammed Tameside Hospital for its plan to close 246 beds by 2020, which he says will put patients at serious risk.

At a public meeting held in Stalybridge last week, Milton Pena, who worked for seventeen-years at Tameside Hospital as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, told the meeting that such a massive reduction in bed capacity would lead to a drastic deterioration in the quality of care offered to patients at Tameside Hospital. “Safety, effectiveness, and patient experience, will be significantly affected”, he declared.

Mr Pena told the meeting that with a population in Tameside & Glossop of 250,000, the proposed cut in bed capacity from 449 to 203 beds in acute care, would mean that there would only be 80 beds per 100,000 people. He added: “When I arrived at Tameside Hospital in 1997, it had more than 600 beds for in-patients.”

In a letter that he wrote to the ‘Care Quality Commission’ (CQC), in August, Mr Pena said that the idea that losing 246 beds at the hospital could be compensated for by the creation of five multi-disciplinary care teams, is misguided and not based on evidence. He also says in the letter that there were 531 incident reports by nurses regarding lack of nursing staff at the hospital in the year from May 2015 to 2016 and yet,

“No one at the Board meeting (which he attended) questioned the Financial Director on how the Trust efficiency program savings can be delivered in full without affecting quality of care, clinical effectiveness, patient experience and safety.”

Speaking of the Board at Tameside Hospital, Mr Pena told the CQC:

“I attended two Board meetings as a member of the public, the latest on Thursday 28 July. With few exceptions, I did not observe challenging questions from the Chair, executive and non-executive directors, when reports were presented to the Board. The approval of the Board of the ‘Contingency Planning Team Report’ by PwC, without any reservations, regarding the plan to close 246 beds by 2020, shows the Board has not fully considered the impact of decisions being taken…There was not a single medically qualified director at the Board meeting on 28 July."

In September 2013, Tameside Hospital Foundation Trust, was declared financially unsustainable by ‘Monitor’ the regulator, three-months after the resignation of former CEO, Christine Green, who left following the review by Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England Medical Director. Recently the hospital has come under fire for poor standards of cleanliness and for its high mortality ratio.

Mr Pena is calling on people to write to their MPs requesting that the planned bed cuts be rejected and he says that the integration of care, does not have to incorporate such massive bed cuts. Since retiring in 2014, he has published his memoirs entitled, ‘The Flight of the Black Necked Swans’, which details his effort to improve standards of patient care at Tameside Hospital.

Confessions of an NHS whistle-blower!



ALTHOUGH this book by Milton Peña Vásquez is not without its faults, mainly in the editing, it ought to be compulsory reading for any young person intent on embarking upon a career in the medical profession. Not only does it give a revealing and honest account of the internal workings of Tameside hospital, but it also exposes the incompetence of NHS managers and their attempts to cover up their failings by threats and intimidation.
The findings of the Keogh review team which were published in a report in July 2013, led to the resignation of Christine Green, the Chief Executive of Tameside Hospital and Tariq Mahmood, the hospital Medical Director. Among its findings, the report stated that Tameside Hospital had the 7th highest rate of infection for MRSA of 141 Trusts nationally over the three years from 2010-2012 and had the second highest infection rate in the country for Clostridium difficile, over the same period. It also found that:

'The Trust’s clinical negligence payments have significantly exceeded contributions to the ‘risk sharing scheme’ over the last three-years, by a total of £21m over this period.' 

Yet, in spite of its appalling record for mortality, cleanliness and safety, Tameside Hospital managed to obtain foundation trust status in February 2008 (“supposedly the benchmark of excellence”) when death rates were 19% above the average and safety was the “sixth-worst in England” (Daily Mail 30/11/2009). Mrs Green also managed to secure a 17% pay rise which took her salary from £120,000 to £140,000 a year.

READ MORE:

http://tamesideinfocus.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/confessions-of-nhs-whistle-blower_10.html

Blacklist Conference

JOHN McDonnell is just one of many high profile speakers confirmed to speak at the 'Blacklisting, Bullying & Blowing the Whistle' conference at University of Greenwich on 16-17 September. 

This conference is co-hosted by the Blacklist Support Group (BSG) and the Work & Employment Rights Unit (WERU) set to expose the hidden underbelly of the modern workplace often ignored by the mainstream media and academia. The conference is FREE to delegates and is ideal for union members, students, lawyers, journalists and TUC diploma courses - in fact anyone with an interest in improving employment rights for working people. 

The conference is smack in the middle of TUC & Labour Party conference and just days before the close of the Labour Party leadership election closes and is bound to attract media coverage.  

Running alongside the conference is supporting artwork by a number of contemporary artists and photographers, coordinated by Art Against Blacklisting
Booking is strongly recommended.  Please circulate to your mailing lists. 

http://www.gre.ac.uk/business/services/events/events/current/BlacklistingBullyingBlowingtheWhistle

Blacklist Support Group

book: http://newint.org/books/politics/blacklisted-secret-war/

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlCa8yQmZ70

blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/