In the run up to the May 2010 election, the NHS has become the great untouchable. Out of this multi-million pound operation, not a penny can be saved!
Indeed real increases are still needed to feed the never ending progress being made in medical advances.
All the staff are totally dedicated and work incredibly hard. They are under constant pressure which is why so many of them are off sick so much more often than everyone else. Being “short staffed” are the most frequently used words of excuse and the most common explanation for poor service, poor standards, poor care, mistakes and in some cases even deaths.
Nonetheless, politicians continue to say all nurses are “angels” and do very difficult work in trying and stressful circumstances. It must be the task of completing all the paperwork required to prove they have achieved all their Government targets which explains why they don’t have time to see patients anymore.
This must also be the reason why they now need degrees to fill in forms and to operate all the new technology they now have to use. Thankfully, this means they don’t have to use their eyes anymore to observe patients’ distress, nor are they allowed to think for themselves or use common sense when compassion is required.
The system is the all consuming God to be obeyed. Patients are all too often an unnecessary and indeed irritant part of the process. If only there were no patients the NHS would finally be able to achieve 100% success rates in all its Government targets and the staff could be left to complete all the paperwork to prove it. The 1,000s of NHS Managers in this ‘Alice in Wonderland World’ would at last be able to stop running from meeting to meeting making no decision after no decision. Nor would they need to continue micro managing every step in the NHS paperwork blizzard.
It is a good job there is no truth in any of this. or is there?
Add in all the stories in the press just over the last few months:-
UK Cancer patients dying at a greater rate than Bulgaria.
Dehydrated patients dying for water
MRSA 100% cured because they don’t test patients on discharge.
Rapid discharge leaving many patients with peg feeds and catheterised when they leave hospital.
8000 more NHS Managers.
? Is nobody listening to what relatives and friends visiting the elderly in hospital see every day.
? Is the truth too painful to face up to.
? Can politicians not join up the dots.
? Are there too many votes to lose by being honest.
? Have the public given up in despair.
? Are they reluctant to complain because nothing will
change.
So let’s start by killing the sacred cow – the NHS has to live in the real world of a harsh economic climate and there never will be enough money to satisfy this insatiable animal. We also need to demystify the “angel” myth NHS nurses can’t work miracles all the time and they are not all doing the job as a vocation, poor management has sapped much of that goodwill.
We need new vision and new leadership, not sacred cows and angels.
