I found THIS an interesting BBC report on the state of the NHS in Scotland;
“Hundreds of previously secret NHS reports into serious incidents, including 105 deaths, have been published by BBC Scotland. More than 300 reports into the most serious incidents in Scotland’s hospitals last year have been released. The reports include a person being blown up while on oxygen therapy after lighting a cigarette. They also detail deaths from fatal doses of medicine and missing equipment during a cardiac arrest.”
The BBC should be congratulated on exposing these massive failures within the NHS. I notice that blame for all of this is laid at the fault of the “bureaucracy” within the NHS, which may indeed be the case. I know this site throws many brickbats at the BBC over how it fawns over the appalling NHS but in this case it seems to have provided a public good and I will acknowledge it.
“a person being blown up while on oxygen therapy after lighting a cigarette.”
I know I shouldn’t make light, but that’s one for the Darwin Awards, surely?
reminds me of bill hicks and his…
‘when you’re smoking a cigarette through a hole in your throat, maybe it’s time to give up.
But, BBC provides a public good – note singular ‘a’.
Not a great return on our annual £3.6 billion quid tax.
Or a sad comment on the quality of science education in this county.
And yet they still keep quite on lots of things.
The NHS’s own research states that they contribute to or kill, 20-80,000 patients a year.
To many, that’s a figure that has to be barmy. How can an organisation bump off so many, and nothing happen? The number can’t be right.
However, we have had 1 hospital kill well over a hundred from just one cause – not keeping the place clean. Think how many hospitals in the UK and scale up.
Now think about Shipman. The unofficial figure is 615. The official figure over 200. NHS hadn’t a clue.
Unlike airline pilots, who tend to report error anonymously, for the simple reason that they are killed by their mistakes, doctors don’t. Their lawyers prevent it. So from these Scottish errors, how many resulted in the victims or their relatives being compenstated? Ah yes, the NHS doesn’t do compenstation. Bugger off, your a victim. If we have to pay you, we won’t be able to carry on (maiming others)
The NHS needs splitting.
1. Regulation should be removed from the NHS
2. Insurance. That should be split too
3. Supply should be separated.
All three legs need to be independent. Very simple reason. Look at the conflict of interest if any two of three is combined.
e.g. The NHS won’t regulate if its costs money. Hence the cover ups over deaths.
I have tried in the past to tell people about the NHS’ woeful record but no-one wants to know. Least of all the media.
Two startling statistics from the NHS itself:
1. 18,000 people die each year because of misapplied drugs. i.e nurses giving wrong medicine, dosage, wrong prescriptions from doctors, etc.
2. 4,000 people die each year from malnutrition. That’s 4000 people who are left to die by nurses because they are not being fed, not people who come into hospital under fed.
If BUPA were killing this number of people a year the BBC would be all over it – and quite right too. Yet it remains strangely quiet.
Blimey! Are those figures correct? That is 60 people a DAY (11 a day from malnutrition…)!! How many just died in Gaza from constant “pounding”?
I’ve seen claims of upto 50k deaths for malnutrition, but I can’t believe that. IIRC the NHS tried to claim 250pa at one point and upscaled it under pressure to circa 4k.
The 18k figure was even on the BBC Today programme. It was slipped in as, would you believe, a positive for the introduction of yet more doomed to fail IT aimed at keeping track of patients drugs.
Isn’t that what nurses are for?
Scarily, fewer fully qualified (able to dispense drugs) nurses per shift = more interruptions and distractions from trainee nurses as they need to ask advice from or report back to the (probably lone) fully qualified nurse.
A senior manager will probably recruit more managers under him to help find out how to report the problem in a way that doesn’t adversly affect administrative funding. To start, they’ll probably just need the fully qualified nurses to also fill out detailed timesheets every fifteen minutes, including their thoughts on encouraging diversity. I hear there’s a rather senior manager fresh from the Beeb who’s just become available!
[/sarc]
And this from a link of Ian’s below:
“There are around 450,000 deaths in Britain each year of people who are in hospital or under NHS care. Around 29 per cent – 130,000 – are of patients who were on the LCP.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2161869/Top-doctors-chilling-claim-The-NHS-kills-130-000-elderly-patients-year.html?ITO=1490
FFS!!!
With stories like this, one can understand why the BBC has 574 of its staff on fully-paid PRIVATE health insurance …. not that it lets it hinder its disapproval of private health for any non-member of BBC staff – such as you and me, our relatives, residents of Stafford, or Mrs Thatcher.
Interesting…would they do this in England? Maybe this is more an anti SNP article…
I know you’ve read this site before but this is a peach:
http://www.bbc.scotlandshire.co.uk/index.php/city-news/74-superfast.html
Doctors will say ” The operation was successful, the patient died, but the operation was successful ! ”
Surely not one bloated overpaid bureaucratic public-sector organisation criticising another?
just wait until NHS thought police at Broadcasting house take over.
This only got through the NHS/BBC ‘Iron dome’ because it was in Scotland. If it was about the South east we would have never heard about it and it would have been buried.
While I agree with giving credit to the BBC (Scotland) for making what looks like a serious effort to investigate the scene, expose the problems, and even demonstrate some mendacity in the system, I would withhold full credit until further notice. This could all be done with the goal of collecting fodder for the Tory Cutz / Spending More Is Always The Answer agenda.
The BBC has form.
NHS Scotland falls under the control of the Scottish Government as a devolved activity so any criticism by the BBC in relation to funding would have to be against the SNP administration.
Then it’s still possible fodder for the “Spending More Is Always The Answer” agenda.
It could be argued that it is fodder for the “why waste money on yet another re-organisation when it could be better spent on providing patient care” agenda.
Yes, of course, in a sane world. But we’re talking about the BBC, where the first instinct is always for more government spending and throwing more money at the problem.
The SNP administration takes great pride in having protected the NHS budget in Scotland – it’s even planning for a miniscule real-terms increase over the next three years.
Just like the hypocritical BBC t have used FOI to expose wrongdoings in the NHS whilst spending goodness how much of our money on lawyers to duck under the FOI to suppress their own criminal (i.e stuff the BBC charter) activities.
< href = "http://johnosullivan.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/28-gate-bbc-crisis-deepens-in-exposure-of-rigged-and-unlawful-climate-policy/" title = "28-Gate"
Good. Now it’s time to properly investigate the annual Liverpool care pathway holocaust, the Gosport female Dr Shipman case, the Downs’ Syndrome eugenics programme, and the realities of MMR.. What’s the matter, hacks – thought you’d got the balance “about” right and now you’re back to picking on BUPA?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2161869/Top-doctors-chilling-claim-The-NHS-kills-130-000-elderly-patients-year.html?ITO=1490
http://britain-today.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/female-dr-shipman-cover-up.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/sep/13/downs-patient-hospital-dnr-order
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/10/wakefield-interview.aspx
Wonderful!
A story with both national religions (NHS & BBC) in one piece.
Interesting challenge for the BBC to achieve balance on the NHS. Wanting to get rid of it is a rare view in British society. Reform is less rare, but the principle of being free at the point of use is supported by most if not all mainstream political parties.
I think the accusation here has often been that the BBC suppresses bad news about the NHS to maintain its position as a well respected institution.
I think that accusation is easily refuted.
There is though a distinct lack of debate about radical reform and in my view too much airtime given to some of the most self-serving groups in British public life (RSN, BMA etc). They give you good copy, but seldom are their motives questioned.
‘They give you good copy, but seldom are their motives questioned’.
Oh their motives are questioned alright, but yes, never ever ever by your precious unbiased impartial free at the point of delivery BBC
That’s what I was saying.
Fully agree with your final paragraph, Jim. Whenever has the BBC looked at the health systems of our neighbours in Europe and done a compare and contrast: the French system say, which, according to the accounts of Brits who have been treated by it, is vastly superior.
How many beeboids are in hospital after reading this one ;p
A new tactic in progress surely – if their in hospital they cant be dishing out the lies !!!
I think that this news item was produced as justification for having nearly 600 of the BBC staff on licence payer funded private healthcare schemes.