Monday, August 20, 2007
Tear Down the NHS
This is a brilliant article which captures exactly both my own recent experience and the deep corruption at the heart of the NHS. Paul Cable's describes the cruel and offhand treatment of his dying father by nursing staff who feel little or no obligation towards their patients. This is reinforced by that great catastrophe of modern hospital design, the nursing station. This allows nurses to cluster, gossip, generate futile bureaucratic procedures and evade the patients. Gordon Brown could double or treble the billions he has poured into the NHS and it will have no effect on this culture of irresponsible cruelty. This institution has no ethos other than its own protection and perpetuation. The British really must abandon their sentimental delusions and allow the politicians to do what most of them know must be done. They must tear down the NHS and start again.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
There's an easier, cheaper, more effective option - Bring back Matron!
ReplyDeleteMy own, ample experiences of hospitals & GPs have been very good, but i may have been lucky. Having also temped in three different parts of the same hospital, i've only encountered a seemingly genuine will to help. But i have been warned that my present post, in Physiotherapy, is much friendlier than most.
ReplyDeleteMost of the physiotherapists, nurses & doctors i've talked to, and we have explicitly discussed the NHS, were decent people who were strongly resistant to the bureaucracy and bullshit of things, and just wanted to do their job. But i may just have been lucky.
In any case, pumping money into institutions isn't going to redress the deep structural problems. The G could, for example, pump money into education, but more textbooks & better buildings isn't going to do much good if the bureaucracy and institutional cynicism of teaching aren't tackled.
I've recently been visiting a very old friend - 98 years old,in fact- who is dying in a private hospital, where the caring ethos is everything anyone could ask of a hospital (it is, unsurprisingly, Christian). His troubles started when he had a bad fall and lost his grip on things (he is blind, but had always lived entirely independently). Taken into the local NHS hospital, he received exactly the kind of 'care' described in that excellent piece, and was soon distressed and deteriorating. Happily he agreed to be moved to the private hospital, where it was promptly discovered that he had an undiagnosed lung infection, on top of the kidney infection he had picked up courtesy of the NHS. His doctor stated matter-of-factly that he'd have died if he'd stayed where he was. Both these infections were promptly dealt with, and ever since he has been receiving the kind of care we used to assume was of the very essence of nursing, but which seems to have all but disappeared from the NHS. He is in no pain or distress and is in remarkably good spirits. And - a small but very significant thing - the nurses call him Mr, rather than infantilising him by using his Christian name.
ReplyDeleteIs this a problem of the NHS or nursing in general? It seems to me that the job has become too professionalised. Hence, the degrading of patient courtesy.
ReplyDeleteIt may not be the case in private hospitals, but is this because of simple PR - you look after couples better if they are paying?
One aspect of the problem, I think, Anthony. Managerialism in the NHS is another. I have been struck by the noticeboards on wards. They are covered in advice and help notices for the staff - warning them against patients, the dangers of lifting heavy things etc. This is a culture that exists only to defend itsef, not to serve others and it has been created by managers.
ReplyDeleteAh, "to serve others." I don't believe the government has come up with a target for that.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I shouldn't be lamenting that Allan and I have to come up with over $10,000 a year out of our own pockets to cover the health insurance for our family of four (yes, we are among the middle-class Americans without health insurance -- because we're mostly self-employed). If your NHS is as terrible as it sounds, perhaps "free" is better than nothing.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, when I lived in France, I twice wound up in an emergency room (allergic reactions, long story....), and got absolutely first-class care. And what did I pay? Not a franc! And I wasn't a citizen. That was good care.....
For information:
ReplyDeleteOur training program for Sep/Oct (page 1)
Managing Violence & Aggression
Diabetes - managing patients
Writing for publication
Management of acute pain
Preceptor preparation
Managing Violence & Aggression
Managing Violence & Aggression
Mentor workshop for nurses
Clinical audit
Managing Violence & Aggression
Lymphoedema
I think you can see where this is going ...