Stafford Hospital: Unethical Behavior and Its Impact Report

This report examines the ethical failings of Stafford Hospital, focusing on its poor patient care, understaffing, and unethical business practices. It analyzes the impact of these issues on the hospital's reputation, public confidence, medical staff, and the NHS. The report highlights the negative consequences of unethical behavior, including increased mortality rates and loss of trust. It provides detailed recommendations for improvement, such as recruiting skilled staff, investing in infrastructure and hygiene, and implementing employee training programs. The report emphasizes the need for ethical conduct, improved management, and innovation to restore the hospital's credibility and ensure quality patient care. The case study underscores the critical role of ethics in healthcare and business success.

ACADEMIC AND
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
1

Executive Summary
The report has explained various parameters of business regulations at Stafford hospital
where the present t working scenario is not efficient and employees are also less in numbers
which has become major area of concern. Report has explained in analysis various measures,
development steps which need to be taken for responding to patients effectively and establishing
high standards of goodwill.
2

TABLE OF CONTENT
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
ANALYSIS......................................................................................................................................4
Impact of unethical behaviour on reputation of Stafford hospital...............................................4
Impact of unethical behaviour on public confidence...................................................................5
Impact of unethical behaviour on medical staff..........................................................................6
Impact of unethical behaviour on the NHS.................................................................................6
RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
3

INTRODUCTION
Ethics refers to moral principle, systematic and recommending concept that needs to be
followed by people while performing various function as it describe about right and wrong
conduct. Therefore ethics are essential principles that are needed to be considered by businesses
in order to gain competitive advantages and maintain its brand image. This report is about an
case study of Stafford hospital that is following unethical practice and providing poor care
services to patients (Waddington, 2017). Poor care and lack of staff members has resulted in less
availability of food, drink and medication thereby delay in operation and lack of care of patients.
The staff members that are present within firm are untrained so it results in providing ineffective
services. Such as receptionist that have no medical training for assign to handle patient that
come to hospital and people who need urgent care thus ineffective knowledge and skill have
resulted in high death. It was one of the worst hospital care scandal that resulted in death of 400
and 1200 patients over 50 month due to care less services provided by the hospital. Stafford
hospital has followed all such practices in order to earn maximum profit by reducing cost of
hiring specialised staff and training employees to effectively manage patients. Therefore it can be
stated that unethical practices used by company has adversely impact on its brand image and
customers satisfaction. Company has lost people trust and high reputation has lost to provide
better and qualitative services to patients. The aim of report is to explains role that ethics play in
building strong brand image and maintaining customers loyalty within firm at the same time its
promote long term growth and expansion of business.
The mid staff scandal that occurred in Stafford hospital led to the death of an estimated 400
to 1200 patients and the sole reason behind such increased mortality rates was the lack of
adequate care that was given to them (Mid Staffs hospital scandal: the essential guide, 2015).
This affected the NHS as well due to the Mid Staffordshire NHS hospital trust that was running
the hospital. The impact of this incident was grave and can be evaluated in multiple contexts.
ANALYSIS
Impact of unethical behaviour on reputation of Stafford hospital
Unethical behaviour of Stafford hospital has adversely impact on brand image and
reputation of firm as it can be analysed from brand value of firm in the market. Most of the
customers hesitate and restrict them self to went to Stafford hospital for operation as the staff
4

member are untrained (Gardiner and Weisbach, 2016). Staff member are given responsibilities
that were beyond their capacity so it resulted in effective management and shortage of food,
medicines and appropriate care of patients. Top management of company does not supervise and
monitor performance of staff member so it results in high mortality rate, death rate within
hospital. Less staff member and lack of morale and compensation among existing staff has
adversely resulted in poor health care of people and impact on reputation of company. Stafford
hospital is also known for not providing safe and hygiene condition for patients and lack of
specialised staff member to treat patients. Therefore from above analysis it can be stated that
Stafford hospital should not be allowed to continue its operation as it has not followed ethical
manner and behaviour in order to treat patients (Grosz, 2017). At the same time main objectives
of company was to increase its profitability rather than ensuring health and safety of people so
operation of such hospital should be closed for benefit of peoples.
Impact of unethical behaviour on public confidence
The confidence of the public is focuses or based on the basis of treatment and care that is
being provided at the healthcare sectors. The more qualified the health professionals are and the
more extensive the care plan is, more will be the confidence of public regarding the hospital’s
capability to cure the patient toward a healthy recovery.
After the scandal of the Stafford hospital came to light, it was identified that the extreme
shortage of the staff and funds led to the development of poor care practices where the
inadequately trained staff was being given tasks requiring experiences, at night the patients were
being left on the junior doctors and there was neither any food or drinks nor there was any
medication that was available for the patients (Topp and et.al., 2019). All this led to the increased
death rates and ultimately a public enquiry was being raised on the hospital. This has completely
lost the trust of the public in the activities that are being performed at the Stafford hospital. The
hospital was termed as a complete failure of leadership and management where the heavily
chaotic care management system and the messed up systems for the patients were found to be an
extremely careless and unjustified approach that a healthcare institute can have towards its
patients. The lack of the care plans that were expected from the hospital and further the lack of
admitting to such shortage of funds has made the hospital unreliable in the eyes of the public
where they no longer trust their lives with the management.
However, the question of reopening the hospital or closing it permanently lays on the recovery
5

journey and mechanisms that will be adopted by the hospital (KHANI and et.al., 2017). If in
future the hospital takes adequate action and consideration to compensate for the losses that were
incurred than the chances of continuing the business increases.
Impact of unethical behaviour on medical staff
It was ascertained from the case study that already the staff of the Safford hospital was
highly de motivated regarding their work and the other financial aspects (Jones, Curtis and
Shaban, 2020). Further the shortage of experienced staff and leaving the entire hospital with so
many patients on the shoulders of junior doctors who were not even adequately trained
additionally put a strain on them that was more emotional i.e. they were literally playing with the
lives of the patients. Even those staff members who intended to speak out and raise questions
regarding the practices that were being adopted were shut down which further discouraged the
employees. Overall the impact of the unethical practices has taken its toll on the attitude of the
medical staff where the medical professionals working in other hospitals as well are no longer
willing to work in such environmental conditions. The medical staff cannot work in the stringent
conditions where employees are not respected and the care of the patients is not the highest
priority of the management (Chung, Lai and Hwang, 2019). Additionally, the lack of any serious
attitude towards the care practices that were being adopted in the organisation is another major
reason why the dedicated medical staff might not work in the organisation where the health and
safety of the patients is not the primary objective.
The lack of any employee cooperation towards the Stafford hospital acts as a major force that
can lead to ultimate shutting down of the hospital and if this needs to be avoided than the
hospital needs to heavily restructure its existing working environment and conditions (Murray,
2017). The hospital can ensure the medical staff that their ways have improved and the employee
perspective is critical for them and if this is done then the chances of continuing the hospital
remains. However, of the hospital is unable to promise such things, then the hospital might need
to be shut down permanently.
Impact of unethical behaviour on the NHS
Since the Stafford hospital was being externally run and managed by the NHS trust Mid
Staffordshire, the deaths of the patients and the situation emerged as a scandal for the NHS
organisation. The public report given by Francis devoured into the further aspects related to the
questions that why NHS was unable to provide adequate funding and guidance to the hospital
6

and why they failed to recognise the poor quality of care and treatment that was being given by
the Stafford hospital (Jefferies and et.al., 2018). The increased question that has been raised on
NHS has made the organisation develop various measures and initiatives so that any future
scandals similar to that of Mid staff can be completely avoided. The NHS commissioning board
has also started discussion on the minimum and maximum staffing levels that should be
proposed, the regulations on the practices of such staff that are to be implemented, the use of
legally binding duty of candour etc. are some of the major considerations that are being debated
(Gimenez, 2019). The NHS further went a step ahead and decided to develop a black list of all
those managers who severely fail to comply with such duty and regulations that have been
developed by NHS and the increased pressure and checkpoints is expected to generate a positive
outcome. It is expected that the increase regulation and security of the patients will help in
developing and implementation of robust systems for the management of different hospitals.
Therefore, it can be collectively said that the impact of the scandal that occurred in Stafford
hospital has affected the working of the healthcare organisations operating all through the UN
and the public as well.
RECOMMENDATIONS
 Stafford Hospital departments need to focus on recruiting large skilled employees
workforce, who have skills and advance medical knowledge to work effectively in
serving patients with various diseases. There should be focus on HR department
functions on gaining commitment from employees working in hospitals by providing
them motivation and strong ethical platforms of training. There needs to be built internal
strength within hospital framework for gaining high ethical performance and functionally
being able to deliver services with large focus
 Stafford hospitals need to focus on infrastructure development and hygienic factors for
enabling patients to lead high comfortable experience while they come in for treatments.
This will gain high goodwill among consumers, ethically represent strong brand image
among people which will leverage high profits and competitive value among other
hospitals. Hygienic factor must be gained high importance towards patients safety,
experience of regular medical checkups which will enhance its position among
customers.
7

 There should be strong focus given to training and development parameters among
employees within hospital to generate high quality standards, functionally enable them to
deliver treatments to all age group patients. Hospital must take regular training,
brainstorming sessions among employees which will not only motivate them and keenly
raise their capabilities but also make them work hardly with commitment towards their
duties towards patients.
These recommendations will marinating quality performance among services, products at
Stafford hospital and leverage high goodwill among consumers which is not only an important
aspect to rectify present working scenario, but also leverage high goals in future. Stafford
Hospital needs to generate efficiency within company management teams, structurally
cooperate with ethical practices and make new innovations in machinery equipments while
serving customers. These will not only eliminate present crisis conditions but also open
various future high profitability goals, keenly target the main arenas of gathering huge
importance and cultivating various frameworks of creative business ideas which will help for
high performance in future (McKinley, Limbu and Pham, 2019).
CONCLUSION
The report can be concluded by the detailed explanation on the fact that maintaining
quality standards and integrating innovative technology standards is highly important business
function for occupying strong place in the highly competitive world. Stafford hospital case study
analyses various segments of inefficient staff members, no legal training given to them which
constructs the factor of death in various patients. The report has concluded immense importance
of bringing ethical business practices in company formation where services must govern to
strong ethical usage, bringing innovation and legally delivering medical facilities to people.
Further it has concluded the various initiatives with needs to be generated and are still lacking
within hospital framework for reaching high standards, productive delivery of services and
maintenance of functional efficiency. The report concludes business paradigms by training
employees, importance of recruiting large number of employees based on their skills, efficiency
levels for strong position and delivery of duties to patients (Ferreira and Marques, 2019).
8

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Chung, C.J., Lai, C.L. and Hwang, G.J., 2019. Roles and research trends of flipped classrooms in
nursing education: a review of academic publications from 2010 to 2017. Interactive
Learning Environments, pp.1-22.
Ferreira, D. C. and Marques, R. C., 2019. Do quality and access to hospital services impact on
their technical efficiency?. Omega. 86. pp.218-236.
Gardiner, S. M. and Weisbach, D. A., 2016. Debating climate ethics. Oxford University Press.
Gimenez, J., 2019. Writing for nursing and midwifery students. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Grosz, E., 2017. The incorporeal: Ontology, ethics, and the limits of materialism. Columbia
University Press.
Jefferies, D., and et.al., 2018. The importance of academic literacy for undergraduate nursing
students and its relationship to future professional clinical practice: a systematic
review. Nurse education today. 60. pp.84-91.
Jones, T., Curtis, K. and Shaban, R.Z., 2020. Academic and professional characteristics of
Australian graduate emergency nursing programs: A national study. Australasian
Emergency Care.
KHANI, J.A., and et.al., 2017. THE EFFECT OF TEACHING ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
THROUGH ROLE PLAYING ON NURSING STUDENTS INTERNSHIP SKILLS.
McKinley, C., Limbu, Y. and Pham, L., 2019. An Investigation of Processes Linking Patient-
Centered Communication Approaches to Favorable Impressions of Vietnamese
Physicians and Hospital Services. International Journal of Society, Culture &
Language, pp.1-16.
Murray, A.C., 2017. Academic, Professional, and Personal Impact of Skills Acquisition for
Nursing Students Following a Structured Process Education Experience: Learning to
Learn Camp (Doctoral dissertation, William Carey University).
Topp, K., and et.al., 2019. A Grant Funded Academic and Professional Organization
Collaboration to Mentor Student Nurses in Developing a Nursing Informatics
Conference. Journal of Informatics Nursing. 4(2). pp.15-17.
Waddington, C. H., 2017. Science and Ethics: An Essay. Routledge.
Online
Mid Staffs hospital scandal: the essential guide. 2015. [ONLINE] Available through: <
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/feb/06/mid-staffs-hospital-scandal-guide>.
9