The Famous Vase Story

The Famous Vase Story

The famous Mid Staffs vase story has outlasted even the "zombie statistic" of 1200 "excess deaths (or 'state-assisted manslaughters' as Phil Hammond put it). The "excess death" statistics are not being put in the headlines now, due to a sustained effort to correct this misinformation. The vase story on the other hand has appeared in David Cameron's speeches more than once including his 2013 conference speech, and many times in the newspapers and news bulletins (although even the Telegraph issued an apology recently, stating that Francis had heard no "direct evidence" about drinking from vases). 

What is the vase story? Well it's clearly not just that some patients drank from vases. Hospitals often have confused patients, acute confusional states are common in people with dementia after all. No, the vase story specifically states that patients had to drink from vases not because they were confused, but because they were so thirsty due to a lack of water. Numerous commentators have pointed out the holes in this story, including the widespread policy of hospital wards to have no flowers in vases for infection control reasons. There are other issues with the story too that make it frankly implausible. 

One patient was very thirsty, and had to resort to getting water from the jugs of other patients. That is true, and undisputed. That was because he was on restricted fluids for medical reasons (as the BBC interview made clear). This may be required for heart or kidney failure, or low blood salt levels. There is another account of a confused female patient drinking from dirty vessels. Neither of these are consistent with the vase story per se.

Contrary to the accusations of Cure supporters, not one person is denying that there were episodes of poor cure at Mid Staffs. However, it is not denying the problems of Mid Staffs to challenge the exaggerations, embellishments and embroidering of the truth that have accompanied the efforts of Cure the NHS. It would be horrific if an NHS ward was so badly run that patients were having to drink from dirty flower vases, so the veracity of the story is fundamental to understanding how bad the care was. 

It seems ridiculous then to say that the vase story is unimportant, but this is the claim of Cure apologist and supporter Shaun Lintern. However Shaun Lintern has hitherto been unwilling to express an opinion on whether he believes the vase story. Simple enough question, yet he evades giving an answer. So Shaun Lintern - YES or NO?