CURE THE NHS

THE STAFFORD HOSPITAL COVER UP - THIS IS BEING SENT TO EVERYONE I CAN THINK OF TO EXPOSE THE COVER UP AND MOLE BLOCKING

I am a survivor of the Staffordshire Pindown institutional child abuse scandal and also the secret family court persecution. My late solicitor, Richard Wise, who was also an independent candidate in the 2001 Stoke on Trent election – he had been a member of the Labour Party but became so disgusted with bullying and corruption within the party that he decided to put himself forward as an Independent candidate in order to try to truly represent the people of Stoke on Trent, had exposed the Pindown scandal and the fact that many of the people, like myself, who had been abused, were being deliberately criminalised and even being put into prison. I can testify to this wicked treatment, as I have been deliberately persecuted in the secret family courts and repeatedly threatened over several years with imprisonment if I commit contempt of court, however that may be interpreted. The man who raped me, X, who was a member of the Labour Party and stood for election as a councillor, and was deputy mayor of X at one time, and whose father was a member of the freemasons in X, maliciously took me to court over a 7 year period, because he wanted to have sex with me and I would not let him.
I have suffered dreadfully because of this awful treatment. The secret family court tried to use brainwashing techniques on me to gloss over all the abuse I have been subjected to. They tried to force me to have NLP treatment from a bullying and unethical psychologist called Joanna Simpson Blake, near the place where I had been abused as a child. The secret family courts are forcing people to have mental health treatment, and they are doing this without any proper consultation with the family GP. I had been seeing my GP and begging for appropriate child abuse counselling and it was like coming up against a brick wall, I just was not listened to, but eventually I did get referred to EMERGE, a specialist child abuse counselling therapy organisation based at St Georges Hospital in Stafford. On 16th November 2006 I went for an EMERGE therapy session at St Georges Hospital, Stafford, but it was very traumatic as St Georges Hospital was one of the places where I was abused as a child, so it triggered a lot of bad memories being there. As a result of the trauma, on the way home, I collapsed in the street and was taken to hospital. I was treated in a vile way by the staff at the hospital, in short, I was physically assaulted in front of a busy A and E waiting room, there were many witnesses to the completely unprovoked attack (I was unable to move my arms and legs or speak at the time due to trauma) and I was completely at the mercy of the staff who were assaulting me. I assume they were angry with me for being a PTSD trauma patient instead of a road accident casualty.

Since then, I have been trying to complain. I contacted Cure the NHS, and gave evidence to the solicitors who have taken on the case, Leigh Day and Co, and they took a statement from me. I am sorry to say that they phoned me up on 3rd February 2010 they told me that they were going to drop my statement, as it was not cost effective for them to take on my complaint! I was outraged, but I tried to reason with them that as there were so many witnesses to the vile treatment I received at Stafford Hospital it was important that my case was included in the complaints, and that I was not in any way motivated by any desire to be financially compensated at all – I had already repeatedly told them that I would consider any monitary compensation for what they had put me through as an insult, and that all I wanted was a proper apology and for the staff members who had assaulted me to be investigated properly. I had thought that the police should have investigated the assault, as I had reported the incident to Stafford Police, but just as my complaints of institutional child abuse and rape have been airbrushed away, so was this. I asked Leigh Day and Co to at least put me in touch with Cure the NHS, as I have lost touch with them, and the Cure the NHS meetings are no longer publicised on their website, which means that no-one else can go to them.

I have lost touch with Cure the NHS and realise that I am being maliciously prevented from being able to contact this group. I have read in the local newspaper that Julie Bailey has received threats and so she does not put out her phone number any more, and any messages I leave on the Cure the NHS website are not responded to, so I can only assume that moles have taken over the site, I know this sort of thing often happens with grass roots websites, as I know that Julie Bailey and the others would defiantly want to hear how I have been treated by Leigh Day and Co, and I wonder how many other people have been blocked from contacting this group?
I know that Leigh Day and Co are to get the Dr David Kelly enquiry contract, and I have grave doubts about this law firm, as I think the way they have treated me, scotching me out of the investigation and not passing on my details to the self help group Cure the NHS is disgraceful.

I am telling you this because it is in everyone’s best interest all over the nation to be aware of this kind of cover up.



WITNESS STATEMENT OF BARBARA ANN RICHARDS



I, Barbara Ann Richards, of [X[ will say as follows:

1. I make this statement in relation to the appalling way in which I was treated in the Accident and Emergency Department at Stafford General Hospital on the afternoon of Wednesday 16th November 2006.

2. I have suffered through a history of abuse which has left me extremely vulnerable and frightened of authorities. It is necessary to explain this background in order to demonstrate the vulnerable state which I was in when I arrived at the hospital on the aforementioned afternoon.

Background

3. When I was 13, I cannot remember exactly, I tried to run away from home with my boyfriend because I was being abused by my brother both physically and sexually. As a result I was placed in a children’s home where I suffered as a result of the “pin-down” system of abuse, and later on in a psychiatric ward.

4. I was the victim of a rape later on in life, and as a result of escalating mental health problems and my struggle to come to terms with my very traumatic past, I was referred by my doctor to Emerge, a child abuse therapy course.

My experience at SGH

5. On the afternoon of 15th November 2006 I had been for a counselling session with Emerge at St George’s hospital in Stafford.

6. I became very ill on the way home from the session because St Georges Hospital was one of the locations where I had suffered abuse as a child, and the trigger of a lot of bad memories. As a result, I collapsed at the crossing near the bus station in Stafford.

7. Somebody must have called an ambulance because the paramedics arrived; but I was in such a state that I had lost the feeling in my legs, my face was numb and I was unable to remember where I lived and to where I was going and so I was unable to provide them with any information.

8. The paramedics arrived and took me to the Accident and Emergency department at SGH. When I arrived there I was treated in an appalling and inhuman way.

9. I was put on a trolley and a nurse who was quite fat and with dark hair started asking me questions. These were only basic questions such as what my name was, but I was unable to answer because I was extremely distressed. I felt that I could not talk about what had happened even though I wanted to. I could not even move my face.

10. This nurse told me to get up and I couldn’t. She was very brusque and l felt frightened of her because of her manner. She took my shoes off, and then jammed a biro into my foot. I heard her say “naughty, naughty”.

11. The things that the staff did to me caused me pain but I was unable to stop them doing anything because I was frozen. She kept shouting “Get up!”, but I couldn’t.

12. At least 2 nurses grabbed hold of me by the shoulders and threw me off the trolley and I landed on the floor. I must have landed with some impact because this caused me to cut my knee.

13. I was left crying on the floor of A and E and the left me there. I was near some sort of desk in the A and E and I must have been there for about 20 minutes. Somebody put something under my head and they were all walking around me. It was so humiliating; I felt like dirt.

14. Somebody then came again and told me to get up and that they were going to call the police.

15. I was trying to tell them that I had been to Emerge and that I had been raped, but nothing came out right and I think they thought I was saying I had been raped that day.

16. I told them that the police already knew I had been raped. Then someone said “we are not going to get the police, we are going to get a Security Guard to throw you out of the hospital”.

17. They grabbed hold of me and pushed me into the Outpatients department. All the while I was crying. It was really busy and they kept on shouting at me.

17 In the end, they did not get a Security Guard. An old lady who was waiting in the Outpatients department came over to me and helped me to find my bag and coat. I did not realise I had my bag with me and I so I was worrying about not having my bus ticket home, and I could not even call my boyfriend to come and collect me. I felt sick.

18. The next thing I can remember is being in the carpark outside the hospital. I eventually managed to find my way out of the car park onto the main road and some young people stopped and made me sit in the bus stop to wait, and then a man came in the van who must have been one of her friends took me to the police station.

1. At the police station I told them I had been assaulted at the hospital by being grabbed and thrown off a hospital trolly and that they had jammed a biro into my foot. The policeman found my address book and asked me for a next of kin.

2. Nobody at the hospital asked me if there was somebody who could come and pick me up or if there was somebody they could call for me. They should have looked through my bag to find my boyfriend’s number and then called him. He could have explained exactly what had happened and why, and I would have been fine.

3. I do not think anybody should have shouted at me or physically assaulted me at all. If anything, they should have been particularly kind to me, and not shouted at me, making everything worse.

Complaints

4. I wrote to Chris Buttanshaw of North Staffs Combined Healthcare NHS Trust on 16 November 2006, who passed my letter to Martin Yeates. Unfortunately, as I was still shocked by the incident I made a mistake over the date and referred to the incident as happening on Wednesday 16th November 2006, when I meant to say Wednesday 15th November 2006. I received a reply from Martin Yeates on 8 January 2007. He said that the removal of the shoes was to test my reflexes, but this is a funny way of doing this. He also said that at no point was I mistreated, which is untrue. I replied to this letter and expressed my grievances but I have received no response at all to this.

5. All I want is a proper apology from the hospital and an admission of the fact that they did treat me in this manner, instead of attempting to cover it up. The A and E was very busy that day so there were plenty of witnesses, also the CCTV cameras would have picked up the way I was treated. I think it is an absolute disgrace that somebody in such a state as I was at this time should have been subjected to such cruel and inhuman treatment. I do not want any compensation, just an apology, plus the staff who assaulted me to be disciplined.