“LABOUR’s Investigation into Patient Deaths While Awaiting Treatment at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Raises Questions of Misleading Data”

Last year, shocking findings from LABOUR’s investigation revealed that 154 patients had died while waiting for treatment at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Hospital administrators, however, argue that the data might be misleading.

Among the 154 patients who passed away, 48 had been on the waiting list for longer than the NHS’s 18-week treatment target, as per a Freedom of Information (FOI) disclosure.

Hospital executives emphasize that the figures disclosed in response to the FOI request pertain to inpatients waiting for planned care. They claim that these figures do not necessarily indicate whether the waiting time for treatment contributed to or caused these deaths. Consequently, the data could be subject to various interpretations, potentially leading to misleading conclusions.

Meanwhile, the most recent statistics show a record 7.7 million patients across England awaiting NHS treatment, with 32,021 individuals on the waiting list at Warrington and Halton.

Mike Amesbury, the Labour MP for Weaver Vale, representing Halton and Runcorn, expressed sympathy for the patients who passed away while awaiting treatment and their grieving families. He expressed concern that these deaths might have been preventable with proper NHS resources and blamed years of underfunding for the current situation.

Amesbury noted that despite Rishi Sunak’s promises to reduce NHS waiting lists, there are now 600,000 more patients waiting for care than when he became Prime Minister.

Labour estimates that approximately 121,000 people died while still waiting for NHS care in England last year, twice the number in 2017/18 when it stood at around 60,000.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting criticized the Conservatives for breaking the NHS’s fundamental promise of timely care and argued that only Labour could rescue the NHS from this crisis.

Warrington North MP Charlotte Nichols, also from Labour, lamented the deterioration of the NHS under the Conservatives and called for a Labour government to rebuild public services.

In response to the data, a spokesperson for Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals apologized to patients on waiting lists and emphasized their efforts to reduce waiting times based on clinical need. They reiterated that the data provided in response to the FOI request does not necessarily link waiting times to the cause of death, underscoring the potential for misleading interpretations.

A father with a history of child exploitation and his son, convicted of sexually assaulting two young girls in Warrington, have been sentenced to over a decade in prison.

Residing on Freshwater Close in Great Sankey, this duo committed a series of disturbing offenses. Their actions ranged from exposing one of the girls to explicit cartoons to coercing one of them into engaging in inappropriate sexual behavior.In May, Lee Brown, aged 21 and a convicted rapist, received a prison sentence of four years and four months from Liverpool Crown Court. Shockingly, he even threatened a girl, suggesting that if she didn’t comply with his demands, Father Christmas would not visit.

Today, Terrence Brown was sentenced to six years and six months in prison for committing 11 appalling sex crimes against the girls. These convictions came after a trial.The victims were aged between 9 and 11 and 10 and 14 when these abuses occurred.Prosecutor Michael Whitty noted that the pedophile was apprehended in September 2021 following the victims’ disclosure of the incidents to their mother.

While the police conducted their investigation, the victims revealed that Terrence’s son had also sexually abused them.

To report any sexual offense, you can contact Cheshire Constabulary at 101 or use the following link:

https://www.cheshire.police.uk/ro/report/rsa/alpha-v1/v1/rape-sexual-assault-other-sexual-offenses/.

You also have the option to provide information anonymously through Crimestoppers at 0800 555 111.

Earlier this year, a police CCTV appeal for information was launched regarding the troubling incident involving Malcolm Leather.

The 69-year-old was apprehended and faced legal consequences following a trial at Warrington Magistrates’ Court.

Prosecutor Yvonne Dobson presented the case, detailing the charges against the defendant for inappropriate contact with a girl under 13.

On Friday, February 17, between 3 pm and 3:30 pm, a 12-year-old girl was on the number three bus route, traveling from Warrington Bus Station to the Manchester Road bus stop near Beresford Street.

As indicated in the charge to which he admitted guilt, Leather purposefully made sexual contact with the girl.Following this incident, Cheshire Police officers released CCTV images of a sought-after suspect for questioning. They clarified that the incident was thought to be an isolated case and had been actively pursuing leads to identify the responsible individual.