The NHS - Run For The Patients?

Picture the scene - Southend Hospital's phlebotomy service:

Under the automated system, outpatients have to book in and get a number from a touch screen before waiting for their number to come up on another screen.

They must then proceed to the hospital’s phlebotomy department on the mezzanine floor, where they face another wait for the number to come up again.

And woe betide you if this system doesn't suit your personal circumstances:

Rosemary Debenham was waiting with her daughter and grandson, who needed a blood test, when the drama unfolded.

Mrs Debenham said: “An elderly gentleman with two walking sticks came into the upstairs department. He said as he was not very mobile and he was frightened of missing his slot, he would wait upstairs until his number was called.”

What could possibly go wrong?

“He was told it could be a two-hour wait, but he was quite happy with this saying he had a newspaper and was content to wait.

“A member of staff then told him he had to wait downstairs and if he didn’t go he would call security. The elderly gentleman was then forcibly removed by security from the upstairs department.”

NHS staff. Angels, all.

Third World Healthcare...

41-year-old Mr Thompson had taken a cocktail of drink and drugs but instead of taking him to accident and emergency, staff at the Edale House unit at the Manchester Royal Infirmary left him sprawled on the floor, where he eventually died.

And before they discovered that he was dead….

CCTV captured staff pulling the lifeless body of Peter Thompson along the floor like they were 'dragging the body of a dead animal'.

The family are appalled at the CCTV footage. And at the attitude of the staff.

Senior nurse Helen De Lacy-Leacey said she alerted night staff that the patient was outside the doors of the ward and asked them to: 'keep an eye on him and make sure he is okay'.

And did they?

Well….

… night manager Steve Soobhug said leaving him to sleep outside was 'the appropriate method of handling the situation at the time'.

If he’d just been drunk rather than dying (in some Third World-standard hospital), you might - might - have had a point. But he wasn’t.

Fellow senior staff nurse Miss Dini Oyebadejo said she checked on the patient several more times overnight but discovered him 'stiff' at 6.15am and raised the alarm.

Eh? Rigor mortis had set in? So all those ‘checks’ you claimed to have done failed to pick up the absence of life?

No wonder the coroner’s asking questions…

Take Your Medicine Like Good Boys And Girls!

The government has more than 30 million swine flu vaccines left over after responding to the outbreak of the swine flu pandemic last year.

Hmmm, what to do, what to do....

I know! *snaps fingers*

Combining immunisation against the flu with the swine flu vaccine would prevent people from being able to turn down the swine flu jab without also missing out on the usual protection against winter flu viruses.

Capital idea! If they won't take their medicine, Nanny NHS will hold their nose until they do!

She said: "By March this year, that vaccine had been given out 5.5million times and there have been no reported cases of narcolepsy in Britain. There is very little change to the seasonal flu vaccination which will still protect against a large number of flu viruses. It is simply that the swine flu vaccine has been added. People will be notified of this when they receive their invitation letters to get the jab so it won't be a surprise."

This sort of breathtaking audacity still comes as a surprise, love, even to me....

"Smoking costs the NHS billions"

The bansturbators are at it again.

FFS, the NHS is a taxpayer funded public body. So what they are really saying is "Smoking costs the taxpayer billions". If that figure of £2.7 billion for the 'cost' of treating smoking-related illnesses is correct*, let's compare it with the taxes that smokers pay;

1. Let's kick off with £9 billion tobacco duties, stick on £1.5 billion for the VAT on top, makes £10.5 billion.

2. We pay for smoking out of our net income, taxable at around 30%, so before we can buy our smokes, we've paid another £4.5 billion in income tax/National Insurance.

3. Add to this the fact that smokers live ten years less than non-smokers, that reduces the number of pensioners by a 15 per cent or so, reducing the cost to the taxpayer by a further £12 billion odd.

Tot that lot up, and you'll find that smokers save other taxpayers about £27 billion per annum. Is it too much to ask that ten per cent of that is spent on treatment?

The much quoted ASH are of course yet another quango - they received a cool £320,400 from the Dept of Health and The Wales Assembly Government (see page 15 of the 2007 accounts), which is more than half their income. And is probably included in the £2.7 billion figure.

* And doesn't get revised up by a factor of four, like they did with alcohol related NHS admissions.

NHS Fuckwittery (9)

Shock! Horror!

Under the heading "Hospital alcohol admissions soar" comes this factoid: Alcohol was the main or secondary cause of 207,800 NHS admissions in 2006/7, compared to 93,500 in 1995/96.

Let's crunch those numbers:
1. Total NHS admissions approx. 10 million per annum.
2. Total spending on NHS in 2006-07 = £82 billion.
3. £82 billion ÷ 10 million x 207,800 = £1.7 billion* (assuming that average cost of an 'alcohol related admission' is the same as the average cost of all admissions)
4. Total alcohol duties collected in 2006-07 = £8 billion (from Tab C4), plus 50% for VAT = £12 billion.

So I think this is the usual BBC-Nulab alliance softening us up for yet more bansturbation. Wouldn't a more appropriate headline have been something like "Nulab drives nation to drink"?

* The Institute of Alcohol Studies reported that the cost was £1.7 bn back in 2004 (see page 8 of this), so this looks about right. Yes, there is such an Institute! All I can say is, I have been studying the effects of alcohol very closely for over a quarter of a century, and I am still none the wiser, heck knows what sort of breakthrough they're hoping for.

Fun with numbers

Remittance Man has produced a statistical tour de force, concluding that if every woman in the UK stopped drinking it would postpone 1,000 deaths a year.

''Doctors fear GP privatisation''

Of course the BMA are against anything that might disturb the cosy relationship they have whereby GP's get handsome pay rises every year* in exchange for not doing much more work.

The gimmick is that GP's surgeries are privately-owned businesses anyway!

* If the figures are to be believed, average GP income has risen from £56,000 in 2001 to £110,000 in 2007.

NHS Fuckwittery (6) - Broken collarbone

Read about The Daily Brute's recent experience here.

NHS Fuckwittery (4)

When I hear people talking about "... markets, competition and choice ... improving our health service", my ears always prick up. Altho' the terms are fairly meaningless in themselves, I do believe that the aim must be a largely taxpayer-funded NHS with competing providers*, as in so many other countries.

The logical conclusion is that people could claim vouchers (for no more than full cost of NHS equivalent treatment) and go completely private, paying the top-up out of their own pockets or out of voluntary private insurance.

So why does trade union f***wit Dave Prentis come out with this in today's FT "We were really pleased that Alan [Johnson, current UK Health Secretary] made no mention of markets, competition and choice in improving our health service"?

Also in this article - a quango realises it is pointless and dissolves itself! Now there's a first!

* Who should own such hospitals and clinics is an interesting debate. I see no reason why they should not be owned by charities, churches, trade unions, the local authority as well as insurance companies and private operators. As long as they are competing!

"Charge drunks for treatment, say Lib Dems"

Says the Grauniad headline (via Tim W).

Besides the serious point that drinkers pay for these externalities via VAT, alcohol duties and so on, I know that the leadership hates Charles Kennedy, but talk about kicking a man when he's down.