The Gosport War Memorial Hospital

The case study of The Gosport War Memorial Hospital is discussed in this paper, along with the importance of reputation and the ways to rebuild it. The report analyzes the reasons behind the hospital's reputation damage and provides recommendations for improvement.

Running head: THE GOSPORT WAR MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
THE GOSPORT WAR MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
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Executive summary:
An organization’s reputation is one of the essential criteria in the modern era for successful
business. It is vital to pay heed to the reputation of organization that a company build over the
years before another organization, customer and the overall market trusts he company. In this
paper, the case study of The Gosport War Memorial Hospital will be discussed. Also, the
importance reputation and the way organize can rebuild their reputation through the example of
The Gosport War Memorial Hospital will be analyzed.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
The case:..........................................................................................................................................3
Critical analysis...............................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................7
Recommendation:............................................................................................................................8
References:......................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction:
A good reputation can earn way more than simple profits to the corporate organizations.
It is important to take time and built organization’s reputation. A company with good reputation
will surely presents itself as one of the best organization in the market to drag attentions (Ni and
Van Wart 2015). It is vital to pay heed to the reputation of organization that a company build
over the years before another organization, customer and the overall market trusts he company.
A corporate reputation may include a wide range of aspects, each one playing vital roles as
different department. A damaged reputation of corporate organization may take several years to
gain back the trust of customers, shareholders or employees. There can be several ways
reputation can be damaged, in this report the case study of The Gosport War Memorial Hospital
will be discussed. Over 450 patients had died when they were inappropriately prescribed a
painkiller. The organization soon gained the image of a serial killer as an institution. The death
of 450 patients through inappropriate medication reflects the reluctant behavior of the
organization and caused direct damage to the organization’s reputation. The report will continue
to analyze the importance reputation and the way organize can rebuild their reputation through
the example of The Gosport War Memorial Hospital.
The case:
Situated in peninsula, The Gosport War Memorial Hospital is a local hospital with 113
beds. The hospital was part of Portsmouth Health care NHS Trust until 2002 from 1994 (Panel
2018). During this time, the services at the hospital was transferred to the local primary care
trusts. The hospital is also a community that is isolated community located at the end of a
peninsula along with some high deprivation. It has been noted that the place is not provided with

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adequate nurses. In regard of deaths, the hospital was first suspected in the year 1998 when a
patient was killed illegally on Daedalus ward. The hospital was suspected again in 1999 and
2001 however CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) found insufficient evidences in order to
prosecute. In the year 2000, the findings of an independent panel conducted by NHS Independent
Review Panel showed that high doses of drugs were being used in appropriate circumstances.
A complaint against Portsmouth Healthcare NHS Trust was made to health services
commissioner regarding the death of a patient in the year 1998. He underwent an operation on a
broken hip in some other hospital and then was transferred to Gosport War Memorial Hospital.
The patient died in December 1998 of bronchopneumonia. A complaint was registered based on
this particular case claiming, the patient was neglected with inadequate medical and nursing care,
the patient was given excessive amount of morphine and without good nursing care the patient
was allowed to become dehydrated. When the commissioners undertook the case under
investigation, it only found that the patient was provided with adequate care and according to his
system adequate medical care was provided. In the similar way, there have been several cases
that involved people who died before they were actually expected to die. The drug that was used
was a life shortening opioid drug which was injected into the patients even when they did not
need it (Darbyshire and Ion 2018). When the final report published, the nation shook finding that
more than 450 elderly people were victim of the life shortening drug. Families that have lost
their family members were with unsatisfied feeling in the hospital with made them doubt the
medical procedures of the organization. Senior nurses were in 1991 even tried raising their voice
during that time when they were asked to stay away from the matter. Several investigations were
made however the evidences were only unjustified. Opioids are drugs that are used mostly in

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order to relieve severe pain. Although the medical notes were proved poor, the death of 456
people certainly showed the usage of opioids were unjustified.
Critical analysis
It is an absolute essential for business to in order to survive in the market. The trust and
confidence or customer is important in order to continue making business. These confidence and
trust can have direct as well as profound impact on company’s overall growth. In the
contemporary period, significance of reputation has become highly apparent and companies have
begun to put extra effort in order to build the reputation. Also, it is important organizations
avaid making errors that would damage their reputation that is observed in the Gosport War
Memorial Hospital scandal. The damage caused to the reputation of the hospital will take several
years to earn it back.
Previously, the reputation of the business relied majorly on the word of mouth by their
stakeholders in order to build trust and confidence. According to Islam, Haider and Saeed
(2013), in the modern age, the globalization has widened the range of building connection.
Social networking, websites and other methods of instant communications have made possible
several ways of making contacts and building organization image and reputation. When a
connection and communication is made on constant basis people recognize the brand and its
business. Therefore, the way it is excessively simple to build your reputation, it is equally easy to
get reputation damaged. The Gosport War Memorial Hospital scandal was an incident that needs
to be prevented from occurring over again.
According to Godlee (2018), firstly, it is important to understand the reason that made the
Gosport War Memorial Hospital the enormous perform the blunder. From senior management of

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the hospital till the general medical council involving local politicians, the coronial system, the
crown prosecution service and the nursing and midwifery council have failed to act in ways that
would have protected patients and relatives of the people who have caused damage to the
reputation of the organization. The interest of the people in charge subordinated the people for
whom their business existed. It will not be wrong to say that the organizational hierarchy
structure cannot be blamed to any extent for it. According to Porter (2015), hierarchy is a
process of structuring an organization using various levels of authority and a vertical link. It also
includes chain of command, between superior and subordinate levels of organization. The
hierarchy structure of an organization is made to carry out any work within in an organized and
appropriate way. The information, instruction and direction of any task is flowed from the
highest position to the position in the bottom. Each department is dependent on another and
therefore, every segregated department including boards, VPs, department heads, supervisors and
employees need to cooperate and act honestly in order to build the organization’s reputation. In
this case, the issue was identified by a position that is situated in the base of the structure. When
the issue was taken and discussed in among the senior positions the problem was only
suppressed. Since according to the hierarchy process the subordinates need to follow the orders
of the senior authorities, the people feeling the unethical practices were instructed to be silent on
that matter. The decisions made by the higher authorities were the wrong decisions which lead to
the death of over 450 patients.
According Warren (2014), it is important to change the blame culture from the
workplace as well as the industry in order to create a healthy working environment. According to
Fan et al. (2014), a blaming culture is when people in the organization are reluctant to speak out
about unethical occurring of workplace. People not taking risks or even the responsibility at

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work for they are afraid of criticism, retribution or other worse circumstances. The staffs were
concerned regarding the massive disturbance and they even tried bringing the use of diamorphine
to the attention. The changes observed by them about the usage of diamorphine such as irregular
drug regime, unnecessary deaths and many more. Discussions regarding drug and unnecessary
death was held between the nursing and medical staff, the patient care manager and the RCN
convener over the coming months. It resulted that the usage of the drug among the patients was
an agreed decision. The nurses were warned over the meeting for not carrying the concern any
further. It can be seen observed the ways the nurses did not take any further action regarding the
situation. The blame culture is observed in the workplace where the staffs did not take stand on
the wrong procedure since there involved a risk of putting their job in danger. The blame culture
can be observed in this particular case as there is lack of accountability of Dr. Jane Barton to
anyone who would take the matter with acute concern. The accountability of Dr, Jane Barton
would have prevented her using medicine and continue killing people for two decades. Also,
hesitancy to admit mistake was the nature of the organization where the mistake conducted by
doctor was the sign of blame culture. Several attempt to cover the mistake made the situation
worse when it only fueled the process and encouraged the doctor to go on.
According to Senge (2014), another aspect that is important to consider while analyzing
the case is the power culture of the organization. The power culture of an organization can give
information which help understanding the reason of organization’s reputation damage.
According to Duncan and Agnew (2014), in a power culture, each department is entrusted with
limited authority defined by several laws, rules and regulations that make the power stay in few
hands only. The reputation of the organization was prone to damage as their internally the power

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was held by few. The people with power only made the decisions according to their interest. The
aim of the organization was only to increase revenue and share price.
Conclusion:
The Gosport war memorial hospital is blamed for the death of more than 450 people and
the families of the dead people urged the authorities to bring criminal procecutions. The long on
going incident is evidently not going to be forgotten by people soon. However there is need to
bring forth some important lessons that can be learned. The importance of the customer’s view
point is very essential. The senior management needs to be extremely aware regarding the
procedures carried on under the lower departments and any more.
Recommendation:
The families of the victims were continuously let down by the higher authorities every
time the concern was being raised. The organization is faced with some serious allegations that
are not easy to overcome in few years. The organization needs to pay extensive attention to the
structure of the organization and increase the accountability of the employees. The accountability
should be monitored closely. There should be special attention paid to the patient and the
families of the patients and their concerns. Media usage can be helpful in promoting the
organization. The organization should rebuilt its ethical norms and pay heed to the practices of
the ethical practices. An investment in public relation will ensure the communication made
between the customers and the organization is regulated well along with their concerns taken into
consideration.

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References:
Darbyshire, P. and Ion, R., 2018. The Gosport War Memorial Hospital Panel report and its
implications for nursing. Journal of advanced nursing.
Duncan, J.S. and Agnew, J., 2014. The power of place (RLE Social & Cultural Geography):
Bringing together geographical and sociological imaginations. Routledge.
Fan, D., Cui, L., Zhang, M.M., Zhu, C.J., Härtel, C.E. and Nyland, C., 2014. Influence of high
performance work systems on employee subjective well-being and job burnout: empirical
evidence from the Chinese healthcare sector. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 25(7), pp.931-950.
Godlee, F., 2018. Lessons from Gosport.
Islam, T., Haider, M. and Saeed, D., 2013. The impact Corporate Social Responsibility on
Customer Loyalty: mediating role of Customer satisfaction.
Ni, A. and Van Wart, M., 2015. Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing Well and Doing Good.
In Building Business-Government Relations (pp. 175-196). Routledge.
Panel, G.I., 2018. Gosport War Memorial Hospital. the report of the Gosport Independent Panel.
2018.
Porter, J., 2015. The vertical mosaic: An analysis of social class and power in Canada. University
of Toronto Press.
Senge, P.M., 2014. The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies and tools for building a learning
organization. Crown Business.

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Warren, A., 2014. Working culture: The agency and employment experiences of nonunionized
workers in the surfboard industry. Environment and Planning A, 46(10), pp.2300-2316.