NHS: "No one is safe"

[Minimo]

Sadly, bad practice is nothing new.

 

Twenty years ago I had major abdominal surgery. My 'named' nurse told me off when I wasn't able to walk down the corridor to the kitchen to replenish my water jug. Other patients had to help me out.

When it came time to remove the stitches, it was discovered that I had been bleeding internally for ten days, and the blood came pouring out. I had to have a second emergency op to repair the damage.

Once that was sorted I was very quickly back on my feet, proving that I was not the sort to lie back to be waited on.

 

So I had an incompetent surgeon, a nurse lacking in any compassion, and generally poor care that nobody had realised something was wrong.

 

I have developed two hernias as a direct result of the botched surgery.

 

This was the Northern General 1993

[Tony]

He asked you to provide evidence so just do it. And don't provide evidence of opinions either

 

The "evidence" as you so quaintly put it, is contained in links to the newspaper of note for the United Kingdom, and in the report itself.

 

I really don't have the inclination to hold your ikkle danny and wipe the snot from your nose until you stop crying like a silly baba.

[Lotusflower]

I understand your point but I disagree. It the NHS is fit for purpose or not. If you knew which bits were OK there might be some merit in more options, but the whole thing is a lottery. Incidents of poor standards of care are not statistically isolated, they are rife, we've all heard of somebody that's suffered at the hands of the NHS.

 

The National Health Service, as a service, an institution, a body, is not fit for purpose in my view, but there is plenty of space below for anyone to counter that with a detailed response as to why they disagree if they wish. They can vote "Yes" too.

 

Re my bold.

 

Hi Tony, I'm wondering if you have had any personal experience of these incidents of poor care or if your remarks are drawn from what you've read and heard.

I can only speak as I've found and in the whole of my experience I find your "not fit for purpose" comment to be a gross misrepresentation.

I spent a week in the Northern General Hospital here in Sheffield last September and I have nothing but the highest praise for the treatment I received in the Coronary Care Unit and on Chesterman Ward afterwards. My treatment was 5 star!

I hope we do not lose sight of what we have in Sheffield in the apparent stampede to dwell on the negative!

[JFKvsNixon]

Sadly, bad practice is nothing new.

 

Twenty years ago I had major abdominal surgery. My 'named' nurse told me off when I wasn't able to walk down the corridor to the kitchen to replenish my water jug. Other patients had to help me out.

When it came time to remove the stitches, it was discovered that I had been bleeding internally for ten days, and the blood came pouring out. I had to have a second emergency op to repair the damage.

Once that was sorted I was very quickly back on my feet, proving that I was not the sort to lie back to be waited on.

 

So I had an incompetent surgeon, a nurse lacking in any compassion, and generally poor care that nobody had realised something was wrong.

 

I have developed two hernias as a direct result of the botched surgery.

 

This was the Northern General 1993

 

This may not have been incompetence, sometimes things can go wrong during and after surgery without anyone having done anything improper.

[Tony]

Tony, I'm curious as to what your alternative would be.

 

Clearly, government policy is trying to push us to more of an American-style system. While that system is highly profitable for private businesses it costs considerably more (as a % of GDP) than the NHS, fails to cover whole swathes of the US population adequately, is the focus of a huge medical litigation industry and doesn't always deliver significantly better outcomes despite the astronomical costs involved.

 

What health system do you think we should have and are there any countries that already have such a system?

Good question. My thoughts are in a hybrid where the private sector owns the infrastructure and delivers the service under contracts written, administered and paid for by the public sector.

 

This happens a lot now in any case (GP's are private sector businesses for example) so it isn't much of a hop, skip and jump to implement.

 

Performance and remuneration are fortified by competition where contracts and their administrators are good enough. The trouble with the NHS is that it is institutionally on its last legs in pretty much every respect. Practitioners should have the freedom to perform more excellently each year, not be encouraged to regress to an ever lowering mean that is masked by a changing landscape.

 

The only obstacle to having an NHS that costs less, runs at a profit while doing more, better, is a silly emotional attachment to a post war ideal that never happened... and politicians that are hungry for votes at all costs.

[JFKvsNixon]

What evidence exists that private industry could do more with less, which does seem to be the cause of the current scandal?

[Tony]

What evidence exists that private industry could do more with less, which does seem to be the cause of the current scandal?

 

If you've ever been in a private sector business working in depth alongside the public sector you'd get it straight away.

 

I'm about to sack my public sector clients because they actually cost me money and keep insisting that we provide a crap service, but will they let you implement a great service and make a profit? Ooooohhh nooo! That's not allowed, so a sacking we shall be, and a crap service they shall have to find elsewhere.

[JFKvsNixon]

If you've ever been in a private sector business working in depth alongside the public sector you'd get it straight away.

 

I'm about to sack my public sector clients because they actually cost me money and keep insisting that we provide a crap service, but will they let you implement a great service and make a profit? Ooooohhh nooo! That's not allowed, so a sacking we shall be, and a crap service they shall have to find elsewhere.

 

Ok so that's one personal anecdote about a rubbish uncommitted workforce. Unfortunately, as most people will acknowledge this isn't confined to the public sector as we've all encountered poor goods and service in the private sector as well. There is good and bad practices in private and public sectors.

[Mecky]

The "evidence" as you so quaintly put it, is contained in links to the newspaper of note for the United Kingdom, and in the report itself.

 

I really don't have the inclination to hold your ikkle danny and wipe the snot from your nose until you stop crying like a silly baba.

 

Newspapers don't sell news, they peddle opinions which generally have a political slant. Now provide us with evidence

[Tony]

Ok so that's one personal anecdote about a rubbish uncommitted workforce. Unfortunately, as most people will acknowledge this isn't confined to the public sector as we've all encountered poor goods and service in the private sector as well. There is good and bad practices in private and public sectors.

 

Not really. You'll note that I used the plural. The whole public sector system is awful from top to bottom, discouraging innovation, stifling talent (there is lots), promoting pointless bureaucracy and empire building focussed on bums on seats (regardless of ability, and there is lots of process following dross) rather than putting the required talent into the appropriate posts.

 

All of this is at the expense of what they are actually there to deliver.

 

And yes, the private sector can suffer from this too, especially where a huge organisation is geared up to serve the public sector in its present manifestation.