The wonderful British National Health Service!!!

[abbey]

This report makes me so sodding angry.

WTF has happened to the NHS?

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[Bill Sikes]

abbey wrote: This report makes me so sodding angry. mad:

WTF has happened to the NHS?

html


This is really sad. I suspect that it's government interference, creating a

hydra-headed monster WRT "management" and imposed, rather than

evolved, structure[1]. The whole lot needs to go back about 40 years,

and treat real illnesses such as this, rather than the virtual "anyone can

have whatever they need as long as the beans add up" case today.

BTW, I am not in the *least* impressed with the statement that "nursing representatives said the shocking case was the result of cost-cutting".

Whichever "nursing reprasentative" that was ought to be thoroughly

ashamed of themselves, at the *very least*.

Denial of responsibility by all involved seems to be a thoroughly ingrained

and repulsive trait.



[1] See the "National Blood Service" for an object lesson in how bureaucracy

can be applied to a perfectly well-structured organisation to really foul things

up.

[SuzyB]

abbey wrote: This report makes me so sodding angry.

WTF has happened to the NHS?

html


It's terrible, when i was in hosp i was there for three months and in that time 4 of us have gone on to sue the hosp, for me and another girl it was a matter of being an hour away from dying through sheer incompetence.

[theia]

Bill Sikes wrote:

Denial of responsibility by all involved seems to be a thoroughly ingrained

and repulsive trait.


But haven't we, as a society, brought this on ourselves? We sue for everything nowadays, big and small, and the natural response is to try to avoid being the the subject(s) of the litigation and the consequent disgrace.

My son's girlfriend is a midwife, she's part of an excellent team. But, despite their training and their expertise they are human and cannot foresee every eventuality. But they are so worried about litigation and being discredited, disciplined and blamed for anything that goes wrong even if they could have done nothing to prevent it, that many are thinking of leaving the profession.

But to return to Abbey's post, that incident is indeed a very sad reflection on our once, admirable NHS

[Galbally]

If you think the NHS is bad, you should try getting sick in the Republic of Ireland, its not an experience for the poor or the fainthearted. I think they should put a sign up in Dublin Airport, "Welcome to Ireland" (P.S. Don't get an illness or get into an accident requiring medical attention unless you are rich).

[CARLA]

Sad truly sad..:-1 Medicine here in the States isn't much better with managed health care and HMO's the patient is the last concern of any one these days.:-5

[SuzyB]

theia wrote: But haven't we, as a society, brought this on ourselves? We sue for everything nowadays, big and small, and the natural response is to try to avoid being the the subject(s) of the litigation and the consequent disgrace.

My son's girlfriend is a midwife, she's part of an excellent team. But, despite their training and their expertise they are human and cannot foresee every eventuality. But they are so worried about litigation and being discredited, disciplined and blamed for anything that goes wrong even if they could have done nothing to prevent it, that many are thinking of leaving the profession.

But to return to Abbey's post, that incident is indeed a very sad reflection on our once, admirable NHS


For many people taking action isn't an easy option, luckily for me my case was a very open and shut case, but for many, you are taking on a seemingly big giant and believe me they go into the in's and out's of a DA.

My sister is a Sister in hospital and I know the dedication and hours she puts into her job, she has just been put onto 3 days a week due to v.high blood pressure caused by stress, she feels that half the problem is that the hospitals have hired nurses where English is a second lang and they have to be constantly watched on drug rounds etc, she believes in the old fashion style nursing with a Matron, and feels that it would improve the care on the wards.

[theia]

SuzyB wrote: For many people taking action isn't an easy option, luckily for me my case was a very open and shut case, but for many, you are taking on a seemingly big giant and believe me they go into the in's and out's of a DA.

My sister is a Sister in hospital and I know the dedication and hours she puts into her job, she has just been put onto 3 days a week due to v.high blood pressure caused by stress, she feels that half the problem is that the hospitals have hired nurses where English is a second lang and they have to be constantly watched on drug rounds etc, she believes in the old fashion style nursing with a Matron, and feels that it would improve the care on the wards.


Suzy, of course there has been and always should be the option to take legal action against malpractice and I don't imagine it's an easy option to take. But maybe what I'm trying to say is that nowadays it seems that the prevention of litigation assumes far more importance than the actual service on offer.

I was in my last job for nine years...when I started it was a wonderful concept...people who had gone through the experience of mental illness supporting someone who was currently experiencing distress. By the time I left, all ideals had gone through the window and it was just a mass of rules and regulations of minute detail as to what a volunteer could say or do. And the stress of constantly worrying that someone might overstep the boundaries (be human as opposed to a well trained machine) was immense. Naturally there had to be some procedures in place to protect people who were vulnerable but you cannot believe how much time I was forced to spend writing and rewriting policies and procedures as more restrictive measures came into place. And why? Not primarily to provide the client with more protection, no, but to prevent the organisation being sued. It became all important to guard against this.

And this is the impression I get from the health professionals that I know. It's as if many of them work in a climate of fear, their humanity and compassion weighted down and suppressed by a mass of ever increasing and stifling procedures.

[Bill Sikes]

SuzyB wrote:

My sister is a Sister (...) she feels that half the problem is that the hospitals have hired nurses where English is a second lang and they have to be constantly watched on drug rounds etc, she believes in the old fashion style nursing with a Matron, and feels that it would improve the care on the wards.


The trouble is that the whole system is upside-down. You never see the people

who run the shop, you only see the people who do the work. The faceless

(many and well-salaried) ones shuffle things about to make things work as

they see fit so that their accounts and targets come ight and look good. This

does not produce results, and the worse things get, the greater the number

of people employed to "set things right"; this has been happening for a few

decades. It's past time for the whole lot to be sorted out, including what (and

who) get treated.