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UPDATED: Man missing from hospital found

8:00am Monday 18th January 2010


A PENSIONER who discharged himself from Colchester General Hospital against medical advice and sparked a police search has been found safe.

Joseph Preston left the hospital shortly after midnight on Sunday, despite having had surgery on Thursday.

The 72-year-old retired Clacton man’s disappearance triggered an extensive police search throughout the hospital grounds, surrounding roads and fields.

Police were contacted shortly before 11pm on Sunday by a farmer in Langham who had come across Mr Preston on his property.

Mr Preston was conveyed to Colchester General Hospital where he was treated for the effects of the cold weather.


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Your Say YourClacton

totallyfootball, Colchester says...
11:14am Mon 18 Jan 10

Another disgraceful NHS event at the Colchester General, how did that poor elderly man walkout of a hospital in blood stained pyjama's? I will tell you how because the oafs that falsely portray security staff at the hospital were probably sitting on their square arse's in their cosy little office reading the bloody paper as they always do unless someone can prise them out of their chairs.

As for the police being notified at 11pm Sunday a **** good job they made of looking for him, why was the helicopter circling over the country park when the last sighting of the man was walking past the Rugby Club? I am led to believe it cost something hideous like £20,000 an hour to keep that thing in the air and then there were the police horses on the ground?

All this expense because someone who is paid to do a job at the hospital has failed yet again to do it. My Uncle walked out in his pyjamas a couple of month's ago, fortunately he walked to our house just around the corner but was sadly lacking in oxygen and his body was heading towards shut down. I understand that their will now be an internal investigation, well if all the others are anything to go by that will take all of ten minutes and be swept under the carpet as usual.

The NHS is a national joke and if they introduce Health Care in to the 2012 Olympics then the Colchester General will get Gold for sure. I think the new man in charge should follow his predacessor, do not pass Go, do not collect £200 just your P45, after all, you and the rest of the NHS are not worthy. Don't get me started on the £22 million for interpreters my system will blow, the NHS is not short of funds, it obviously just does not know what to do with it.

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pingu, colchester says...
12:54pm Mon 18 Jan 10

MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY. Well done and well written. Truth is the unlucky ppl can never win with a hospital they all stick together. a SAD MATTER.
Where was the care once again. I forgot, they dnt care only about themselves.

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totallyfootball, Colchester says...
1:06pm Mon 18 Jan 10

Time for change pingu, I hope that the relatives take legal action, the time for covering each others arse's has to stop and someone needs to be made responsible and accountable. I never look to apportion blame just make sure the same thing does not happen again, sadly it has happened too many times now. Look out NHS and the Colchester General in particular as I am now a man on a mission. I have had a few personal issues in the past they nearly cost me my life and I have a few new ones now. So time to light the blue touch paper and stand well back people, if you see a pin in the Colchester General move yourself as my grenade is somewhere not far away and it's about to go off!

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paperboy10, Colchester says...
1:23pm Mon 18 Jan 10

For god sake, get some sense of proportion people!..you are all totally right that yes it is a nightmare what has happened to this poor bloke but you can't tar all the NHS with a blanket (it's a national disgrace atitiude)!. I work at the hospital and although i think that Carillion could sometimes act a little more professionally it is not the secuirity teams job to restrain people whom walk out of hospital, it is quite obvious that noone saw this guy walk out, but why not blame members of the public?, how many people must he have walked by and noone has come to his aid, yet you blame the two people on secuirity detail? I am aware that secuirity are called on a regular basis by the wards requesting that they detain a patient, no one is allowed to do this other than the Police. The NHS is a remarkable organisation that runs soley of the dedication of the staff, i am very proud of the NHS and understand that in any organisation things will sometimes go wrong, errors will be made that it just a fact of life, where blame is made i agree people shoudl be held to account but it's no use just ranting about how the NHS is a national disgrace, have any of you travelled? there are some countries i would never wish to fall ill in, if you ever require emergency treatment then you will always have your friends there giving you the very best care that is available, you shoudl support your locla hospital!. Instead of moaning about how crap we are, why not get involved? do some voluntering instead of making useless comments.

I am glad that this poor chap is now safe and sound and no harm came to him, let's hope that his health continues to improve..

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totallyfootball, Colchester says...
1:49pm Mon 18 Jan 10

Paperboy 10 you have made one very valid comment, the NHS is a remarkable organisation........
... but for all the wrong reasons. I am sorry that you find my comments so useless and invalid but not as useless as those that don't do their jobs properly. Sadly this is a national thing now because we accept a culture that does not care and like you don't do anything about it and hope the issue will go away so we choose to ignore it or sweep it under the carpet. As for errors and things going wrong the NHS are experts but hey lets look on the bright side Paperboy 10, the elderly gentleman has been found so that makes it alright now doesn't it? What a shame it was left to a farmer to return him to you and your remarkable organisation. Thats why the NHS and this country is such a shambles, we are all so proud of it for all the wrong reasons and I will be doing something about it.

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PROOFREADER, COLCHESTER says...
3:24pm Mon 18 Jan 10

The fact that the gentleman got as far as Langham does not say much for Colchester police and the helicopter search team who were sent out to look for him either

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crazy comments, clacton says...
3:42pm Mon 18 Jan 10

Bloody awfull hospital. My mother has recently been in there over the christmas period. When in there she fell in the bathroom and finished up having bruises plus a cut head and hand.

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totallyfootball, Colchester says...
3:52pm Mon 18 Jan 10

Yeah give them a fast car to chase and they are on it like a rat up a drain pipe, people finding not one of their strengths I am afraid. As I said earlier why are we looking in the country park for hours on end when the gentleman was spotted hours earlier going towards Langham. Bring back Sherlock Holmes because the modern force is sadly lacking the elementary method of policing!

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dennismenace, wivenhoe says...
4:52pm Mon 18 Jan 10

Reading these comments I can see that some people NEVER make mistakes and could do a far better job at running our police force and hospital than those currently in charge. So why aren't you?

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totallyfootball, Colchester says...
5:55pm Mon 18 Jan 10

Sorry denisemenace perhaps you should read the comments all the way through? I have said that I never apportion blame just look to make sure it never happens again, but sadly they do! These two organisations are very big and I personally feel out of control and beyond reproach, it's time for the PM to bring in some legislation that make these sectors more accountable. You are obviously oblivious as to how poor they are run and there only strength of late seems to be wasting tax payers money and why because they can. Whilst people are prepared to sit on the proverbial fence of what's acceptable and pretend this country is a great place things won't change. No one is perfect but if I kept cocking-up I would expect the sack.

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louloubell2000, colchester says...
7:45pm Mon 18 Jan 10

read the first line of this article... he discharged him self. not made to leave or not attended to, but left of his own accord. you can not make a person stay if they dont want to, encourage not to but if they want to go they will.

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Feisty CBC, Colchester says...
10:59pm Mon 18 Jan 10

louloubell2000 wrote:
read the first line of this article... he discharged him self. not made to leave or not attended to, but left of his own accord. you can not make a person stay if they dont want to, encourage not to but if they want to go they will.
If he discharged himself in his pyjamas then I think the alarm bells should start ringing. VERY LOUDLY!!

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Boris, Colchester says...
1:11am Tue 19 Jan 10

If it's true he discharged himself, then they will have his signature to that effect at the nurses' desk on his ward. They should still have made sure he was properly dressed to go out in the cold, and if he insisted on going out in his pyjamas, they should have alerted the security guards, to tell them to try and persuade him to return.

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Wicky, Colchester says...
1:31am Tue 19 Jan 10

Mmmm Hope he gets well soon - Still even though he's well within his rights to discharge himself (it's a hospital not a prison!) on a night shift when there are generally only two trained staff on duty on a ward (+2 assistants)

Surely the senior night matron/sister on duty covering the hospital must have been called to the ward to bring some experience to bear for the sake of the gentleman's well being.

If he was post operatively confused and was able to discharge himself without any intervention, or ensuring he had adequate transport and funds to get a taxi home (someone should have followed him to make sure he was at least picked up) then something went seriously awry and someone failed in their duty of care.

Even if he was sensible and wanted to discharge himself surely someone could have brewed a cuppa and persuaded him to stay until the morning, to reconsider his decision.

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totallyfootball, Colchester says...
1:24pm Tue 19 Jan 10

Wicky you have made some very interesting points and Fiesty you are spot on. No, it's not a prison but once you take on the welfare of a person then you are responsible for them. Yes, he may have discharged himself but I think to let someone out in their blood stained pyjamas without contacting a relative to get some support from his family in their quest to retain him is ignorance personified. And who in there right mind (which he obviously wasn't) would want to be released in that condition. I am not looking for someone to lose their job over this but it's obvious procedures need to be changed and sooner rather than later. As I initialy mentioned about two months ago my Uncle did the same thing, however he did not discharge himself he walked out in a confused state and was sadly lacking oxygen, fortunately we live in Turner Road and he found his way to us. This man made no attempt to contact anyone just walked off!

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JROB1973, colchester says...
5:36pm Wed 20 Jan 10

totallyfootball wrote:
Yeah give them a fast car to chase and they are on it like a rat up a drain pipe, people finding not one of their strengths I am afraid. As I said earlier why are we looking in the country park for hours on end when the gentleman was spotted hours earlier going towards Langham. Bring back Sherlock Holmes because the modern force is sadly lacking the elementary method of policing!
Great comment. Once again some shiny *****d armchair hero brings his motley collection of half truths and myths to a sensible debate, and crayons all over it. The police search was comprehensive, and thorough. He went missing at 2300, and the hospital informed police by midnight, and they were searching by 0005. There was no report of a sighting at Langham until the following evening, the only sighting was on Mill Rd, direction unknown, at the same time as the hospital report, and an unconfirmed possible sighting in Gt Horksley the following morning. Both of which were saturated with officers immediately. Langham was not a place this male had associations with, so I'm curious just how you would of managed this incident differently?

Exactly...far easier to gob off anonomously on a web forum, isn't it?

Good luck to Mr Preston, by the way, a happy end to a very tense 23 hours!

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totallyfootball, Colchester says...
7:06pm Wed 20 Jan 10

Better pop to the General and get that touchy nerve sorted you protest too much Sir. You can get a long way in an hour why did the hospital take so long to inform the police? It was stated that he was seen going past the rugby ground so who's facts are right or wrong, maybe we will never know. But the picture from my shiny armchair won't change until situations like these and negligence is reduced.

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dennismenace, wivenhoe says...
7:45pm Wed 20 Jan 10

Whilst the General Hospital has its issues I don't believe it is as bad as the media would lead you to believe. (For instance, tonight's headline 'HOSPITAL TESTING BLUNDER' - correct me if I'm wrong, but is the retinal screening service not provided by the PCT rather than the General Hospital?)

Public expectations are extremely high and people are shocked when they or their relatives for example suffer complications following surgery or fall in hospital. The hospital has a duty to minimise the likelihood of such events occurring, but the risk cannot be completely eliminated.

I also want to know why people are assuming that hospital staff 'allowed' Mr Preston to discharge himself.

With only four members of staff on duty at night to care for 34 patients spread across five bays and six individual rooms all patients cannot be observed at all times. Is it not feasible that whilst staff were attending to other patients Mr Preston left the ward unobserved? It then doesn't take many minutes to leave the hospital premises......

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Wicky, Colchester says...
8:00pm Wed 20 Jan 10

dennismenace, wivenhoe wrote: "Is it not feasible that whilst staff were attending to other patients Mr Preston left the ward unobserved?"

"A PENSIONER who discharged himself from Colchester General Hospital against medical advice..."

Seems clear in the first paragraph that Mr Preston simply didn't go missing without his intentions being known to staff.

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totallyfootball, Colchester says...
8:09pm Wed 20 Jan 10

dennismenace you are totally right and peoples feelings do come to the surface especially when the mistakes are near to home. I have personal issues with that alleged hospital that go back some 12 years so I am not talking out of turn here. The trouble is these things keep happening and you have to feel that nothing is being done about it. As I said before the NHS is so big it has become unaccountable. The Trust for Essex is a shambles, the recent boss got the sack but it has changed nothing, the young lad killed by his own hospital bed to go with the other unexplained deaths at Basildon, the highest in the NHS and still they Blunder on. Getting back to Mr Preston the hospital have stated that he released himself, I have an open mind about that because if he did there will be forms to prove it but no one is bringing them to the party at the moment. Yes there are a limited number of staff on an night time, I know that as I have witnessed it, It's strange in one of the wards during the day I counted in excess of 20 staff and at night 4, so why don't the hospital restructure the rosta because the question can be viewed both ways, why does it take 20 to do what 4 do at night? But what ever the facts are that elderly man should not be allowed to leave a hospital in his pyjama's and without confirmation that he is being picked up by someone. As I said at the start of this my Uncle walked out in a confused state, the security is none existent, although strangely enough the Carillion personal are now patrolling the grounds. It's not until something like this happens to you that it hits you in a different way. I nearly lost my life 34 years ago in the Essex County Hospital so to me it's just ongoing incompetence. I don't think the local paper is on a crusade they like myself just want to see things improved. I never look to apportion blame but just to make sure we don't do it again, the NHS needs to adopt that attitude and be more accountable to stop there situations arising.

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ASH14, Colchester says...
1:27pm Sat 23 Jan 10

totallyfootball, Colchester says...
8:09pm Wed 20 Jan 10
Yes there are a limited number of staff on an night time, I know that as I have witnessed it, It's strange in one of the wards during the day I counted in excess of 20 staff and at night 4, so why don't the hospital restructure the rosta because the question can be viewed both ways, why does it take 20 to do what 4 do at night?

Stupid question really. Before I start, I work on one of the wards and 20 members of staff is a gross overstatement. The daytime is when the bulk of activity on a ward happens. We sort out patient hygene, provide meals, carry out and ammend care plans to name but a few of our tasks. We also have other disciplinary teams vsiting the ward, who are not needed at night. We have physios, occupational therapists, dieticians, social workers, domestic staff, haemotologists, specialist nurses, matrons etc. These are not ward staff, just staff attached to the ward. This explain's the large, but not adequate numbers of staff during the day. Why do we have drastically reduced staff to patient ratio's at night? Because not much of the above happens at night. Why? Because patients are asleep. You do not need more than say, 6 on at night, because activity is minimal to allow patients to rest. http://www.colcheste
rhospital.nhs.uk/non
_executive.shtml
I suggest you visit the link above. If you really want to make a difference, why not apply for that vacant directors job. Get out of your chair and do something. By what you have written on here, you can OBVIOUSLY do a much better job than the people who run the hospital.

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totallyfootball, Colchester says...
1:54pm Sat 23 Jan 10

I run three very succesful businesses at the moment so I have no time to sit in an armchair, nor would I be interested in running a lost cause as there are too many thngs to change and so little time to do it. I have witnessed things first hand and don't take kindly to being called a liar, facts are facts. But the same in any government backed body you people defend yourselves but most of the time blindly. I don't disagree that the NHS for it's sins has a difficult job but for some reason wants to make it more difficult. I witnessed some absolute horrors the last time I was in the hospital and it nearly cost me my life so read your own link, maybe there are some pointers in their for your work mates? You as an individual probably do your job very well, as for me you will never change my opinion until we start to see some changes and reduction of the same mistakes time and time again or money being wasted in the wrong quarters.

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Elderly man missing from hospital Elderly man missing from hospital


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