It’s only a few weeks since the BBC was cheer-leading for the National Health Service on the occasion of it’s 60th Birthday. As B-BBC readers know, to criticise the neo-Stalinist NHS is frowned upon by the BBC which is why when one reads about this horrific instance of NHS bungling incompetence in which seventeen patients who were told they did not have cancer were later informed they had the disease after a mix-up does not cause more than a mild media ripple. I would have thought that any good journalist would want to take up the comment by Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive Martin Woodford that “No patients that we have been able to identify have died as a result of a misdiagnosis.” Not Yet, he means.
But what about the unimaginable anguish these patients and their families have been plunged into by the NHS? The BBC has a duty to challenge the NHS, to pursue these cases of gross incompetence, to ask tough questions about the State Health Provider, but of course it won’t. The NHS and the BBC are spiritually linked; both outdated, both characterised by gross inefficiency, both funded without our consent by our taxes.
Don’t forget the patients killed at Maidstone hospital as well.
Will we see Pamorama pointing out that this wouldn’t happen in a US hospital?
Martin,
So many people die because of our filthy incompetent Stalinist NHS but these are inconvenient statistics for the BBC which continues to suggest that the NHS is the envy of the world. Which world of course is debatable….
It’s funny DV uses the “envy of the world” line.
A frienss and I started muttering that about British institutions about ten years ago, after hearing it on, you guessed, it a BBC programme lauding the NHS.
BBC? Envy of the world mate.
Legal system? Envy of the world mate.
NHS dentists. Envy of the world mate.
Motorways? Envy of the world mate.
Petrol prices. Envy of the world mate.
But hold on! Wasn’t it the licence-payer who was on the receiving end of all the BBC’s sleights of hand in the first place? Surely it was the viewers who were cheated.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/868301/ofcom-justice-fine-the-victims.thtml
The BBC and the NHS are not that closely linked in one important way.
The NHS is meant to provide us with something necessary, health care, and it achieves this with a disppointingly moderate degree of success.
The BBC is mainly meant to provide us with totally unnecessary trashy entertainment such as Eastenders, Casulaty and Top Gear. It does so with spectacular success.
I must disagree.
The NHS is the most loved and cherished institution in Britain, surpassing the BBC which is the second most loved institution in Britain
I know because Polly Toynbee said so on the Andrew Marr show two years ago.
And he agreed with her.
This is the NHS which can no longer provide me or the rest of East Lancs with a local A&E – the nearest is now Blackburn over 15 miles away – I woulddn’t seeing this bunch
http://www.pendletoday.co.uk/nelsonnews/Hospital-bosses-rubbish-health-horror.4319872.jp
Hauled up on TV and not being able to hide behind the univeral apologist “A.Spokesman” who is always wheeled out in times like these
Where is Naughtie Paxman et al to provide some real public service for a change
Do Polly and Andrew use the NHS? I can’t help but think that they view the NHS in the way that Isloington lefties view state education – for us but not for them.
“Will we see Pamorama pointing out that this wouldn’t happen in a US hospital?”
So an American hospital never misdiagnosed a cancer patient?
And I seem to recall Panorama doing this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/4653469.stm
Also David, in your opinion what broadcasters “challenge the NHS” better than the BBC?
Mistmint,
This blog is not called biased msm. It’s the State Broadcaster that is held to account. If you want to know we views on the rest of the msm, check out my own blog.
TPO
LOL, Thanks!
Since the NHS is the envy of the world, has any other country adopted the same model?
Just asked. No doubt the Beeboids can tell me.
hehe
This site appears to be nothing more than a Republican circle jerk.
“This blog is not called biased msm. It’s the State Broadcaster that is held to account. If you want to know we views on the rest of the msm, check out my own blog.”
… but you can still answer the question..
My neighbour, a wonderful, brave woman of 87, who lost both parents, 3 siblings and the chance of children of her own to a a nazi bombing raid, and a husband to the Korean war, but still lived a giving, purposeful life was admitted to our local big city hospital on Monday 28th July 2008, with mild chest pains.She was suffering from the midterm stages of Parkinson’s, and hallucinations caused by medication, but we and her sole surviving nephew managed to help her living at home. She was, never the less physically strong, and could debate politics fiercely during her frequent lucid periods, she was a staunch Labour supporter.
On her first night in hospital ( for chest pains that were actually nothing), she suffered a broken hip as a result of “falling out of bed” and has since then been on a downward slope- due to dehydration and lack of nourishment, and to be honest, a basic lack of care- on 2 occassions, I’ve had to physically stop “nurses” from forcing her out of bed to take her for a walk, as they were totally unaware she had a new hip- I checked her log and it was empty! If we didn’t visit her and feed her, she would starve. She has no pain relief, or fluid drip, as the “nurses” state that she keeps pulling it out! When we questioned her care, and asked to speak to the person in charge, we were told the sister in charge wasn’t in until next Tuesday!
This fine, perfect woman, a patriot who has given many generations of her family to the nation is being murdered by the NHS!
As of 02/08/2008, she is still alive, not because of, but in spite of, the incumbant guardians of the NHS. We’re in the process of trying to get her transfered into our local town Hospital, where we can muster more friends to keep her alive. As a side note her room is grubby and very outdated, it has obviously fallen under the radar of the deep cleaning regime.
I’ll keep you posted.
Figsta
ady: hehe
This site appears to be nothing more than a Republican circle jerk.
ady | 02.08.08 – 10:41 pm | #
hehe, This poster appears to be nothing more than an ill-educated prick.
Probably all and any criticisms you level at the BBC are justifiable, but not so the NHS.
I have been having treatment for malignant melanoma for some 8 years now,and have together had five periods in hospital. In truth in certain wards the nursing culture has not been great, but the physicians/surgeons have been all one could hope for. For the last 15 months I have been undegoing chemotherapy (my 21st course of treatment is due tomorrow, I believe at around £2000 a pop) Twice in the time I have been having chemo’ I have been hospitalised for emergency treatment. The first time I fainted away, and having rung the emergency Oncology Registrar, an ambulance was at my door within 20 minutes. The second time, running a high temperature, from the time I got through to the emergency oncology registrar at around 9:10 pm, to walking through the door of the ward in which a bed had been found for me was less than 50 minutes.
Mistakes happen everywhere,of course where health and lives are concerned the repercussions are frequently more severe, but to slag off the NHS because of a the sort of case you hifhlight is silly. Any comparison with quality of treatment in US hospitals, and its availability to the population at large, I believe would favour the uk.
Any comparison with quality of treatment in US hospitals, and its availability to the population at large, I believe would favour the uk.
tERRY aHERNE | 04.08.08 – 3:04 pm | #
That’s because you believe the lies you’ve been told. By the likes of the BBC.
NHS – NOT the envy of the world.