NHS Meltdown: Appalling Hospital Conditions
The collapse of the NHS is a horror to behold. Now, stories are coming out of what can only be described as appalling conditions in one hospital. From the story:
The BBC has further details:The full extent of the horrific conditions at an NHS hospital where hundreds may have died because of 'appalling' care was laid bare yesterday. Dehydrated patients were forced to drink out of flower vases, while others were left in soiled linen on filthy wards. Relatives of patients who died at Staffordshire General Hospital told how they were so worried by the standard of care they slept in chairs on the wards. The 'shocking' catalogue of failures was released yesterday after an independent investigation by the Healthcare Commission...
Among the findings of the report were:
-- Receptionists carrying out initial checks on patients;
--Two clinical decision units--one unstaffed--used as 'dumping grounds' for A&E patients to avoid missing waiting targets;
-- Nurses who turned off heart monitors because they didn't understand how to use them;
-- Delayed operations, with some patients having surgery cancelled four days in a row and left without food, drink or medication;
-- Vital equipment such as heart defibrilators was not working.
About 400 more people died at Stafford Hospital between 2005 and 2008 than would be expected, the Healthcare Commission said. It said there were deficiencies at "virtually every stage" of emergency care and managers pursued targets to the detriment of patient care.Can you imagine?
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 4:55 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
I don't know if I should try to pick a worst one, and maybe it's just my preoccupation with dehydration, but this one really struck me:
"Delayed operations, with some patients having surgery cancelled four days in a row and left without food, drink or medication."
That's incredible. I can't imagine how the patients' relatives couldn't be allowed to take them home in the interval and couldn't demand either that they be fed or be sent home. But it's possible that these were lonely people who had no one to speak up for them.
Lydia: Maybe it was always "tomorrow" that the patients and their families were told the surgeries were to take place. I was at hospital with my mother 8, 12, 14, 18, 24, sometimes 36 hours at a stretch, day in and day out, for 10 months and saw a lot of how things go at that kind of hospital; I spent over 72 hours waiting for a doctor who said on Friday she'd stop by to see her on the weekend and said when she'd be there when she was paged and it just wouldn't happen and never did; she was my last hope at getting her out of there. I heard "What time are you coming in today?" every morning (if I hadn't been there all night already) when I called to ask about her as soon as I woke up and "When the doctor is here tomorrow you can ask the doctor" (but one never knew when they would be rounding) every day once I was there. An institution can be more wound up with its own way of doing things than with what people go there having a right to expect and receive.
Well I'm not surprised at this state of affairs in England, which a friend who lives there has told me has become overrun with "political correctness."
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