A bit of politics and health today: this is from the Telegraph By Laura Donnelly: this is the article in full:

“Row as terminally ill woman given bed in hospital bathroom

Health service managers engaged in bitter argument over who was to blame after a terminally-ill woman was forced to stay in a hospital bathroom.

Correspondence between the head of a Liverpool hospital and the chief executive of the local ambulance service reveals angry attempts to blame one another for failings which meant dementia patient Gladys Joynes was left in a bed wedged between a bath and a commode.

The makeshift accommodation at Royal Liverpool Hospital was so unsuitable that the 79-year-old, who is in the late stages of Alzheimer's disease, had to be taken off her drip when the machine's batteries ran out, as it could not be plugged in.

Her tray of food was placed on the floor, near an overflowing litter bin, her daughters said.
Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen Hospitals was issued with a written warning by local NHS officials over the incident, after a photograph of the accommodation was printed in the local newspaper.

In the correspondence, disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, Tony Bell, the hospital chief executive, said the ambulance service was responsible for failing to respond to calls to transfer Mrs Joynes elsewhere.

He wrote: "Whilst conditions for the patient were safe, her care and accommodation was less than satisfactory, and the family took the issue to the Liverpool Echo, who subsequently printed a damning account, complete with pictures."

He tells John Burnside, head of the ambulance service, that he wishes to "formally register" the hospital trust's dissatisfaction with the service.

But Mr Burnside hit back, pointing out that the service was short of crews because they were wasting thousands of hours queuing outside A&E units.

In a response, written in February, Mr Burnside says: "It is clear that you feel both angry and wounded by the incident and the adverse publicity it attracted, especially at a time when your organisation and staff were working hard to meet exceptional demand."

He goes on to express dismay at the hospital's failure to acknowledge the demands being made on the ambulance service, including delays at A&E departments which have left the service in a "critical" situation.

In total, 4,000 hours were wasted by ambulances waiting outside A&E departments in the region during the month of December, the letter says.

Mrs Joynes' daughter Kathleen Huxley described the NHS bosses' attempts to pin the blame for the incident on each other as "pathetic".

The forensic psychologist said that all she wanted from the hospital was assurance that the situation would never be repeated.

She and her sister arrived at the hospital in January to find her mother, who had been admitted via Accident and Emergency because she was suffering pneumonia, in a bathroom that "looked more like a war zone".

Mrs Huxley said: "What worries me most is what would have happened if we had not arrived when we did.

"My mother was distressed, and confused and vulnerable, and it was appalling to see her being treated in this way."



The average salary of a Hospital CEO is about £150,000+ why was this terminally ill woman treated in this way?

The money meant for patients is obviously not going to the right people, “Lord” Darzi keeps promising better this and better that in the NHS, but it isn’t happening, they are spending £350 million on management consultants and patients are forced to stay in a toilet.

The CEO of the hospital should be sacked: no golden handshake, no pension and no reference, the board of the hospital should resign, and let people who actually care about patients take their place.

This is totally unacceptable, and heads must roll.



Angus


Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

SOMETIMES YOU JUST CAN’T WIN

GP penalised for lack of complaints - Telegraph Under the new payment system for family doctors, the surgery receives money for hitting targets and completing tasks.

One of the payments is dependent on being able to demonstrate how the surgery has dealt with complaints.

Dr Nicola Williams, a GP at the practice in Preston, said her practice would be missing out because a lack of any complaints mean no information could be provided.

Dr Williams said that although the loss was only £375, it flagged up a key problem with the principle of the system.

She told Pulse magazine: "If you haven't got any complaints, that is a good thing, you've obviously worked hard to get to that place, maybe you could reward it in some other way. We're putting in all this work but not getting the money.

"You wouldn't antagonise patients to make a complaint but you're going to start picking up much pettier things just for the point of it."

A spokeswoman for NHS Central Lancashire said the trust was unable to discuss individual cases, but had to adhere to national guidelines.

She said: "Practices are rewarded for using complaints and suggestions as a potential source of learning and development."

Maybe the pointy heads at the Dept of Heath could use this practice as “a potential source of learning and development." as to how not to get complaints.

Just a thought.

"The sweetest of all sounds is praise."- Xenophon

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

EU WORKING HOURS DIRECTIVE-NOT WORKING

From the Telegraph Junior doctors are being pressurised to lie about their long working hours to meet new European regulations, a new poll shows.

More than one in 10 said that they had been asked to falsify information.

The survey was released as the Royal College of Surgeons warned that hospitals were being tempted to employ "dangerous working practices" to meet the regulations.

Under new rules which come into force at the start of August hospital doctors will not be allowed to work more than 48 hours a week.

But there has been strong criticism of the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) from within the profession amid claims that it will affect patient safety and damage the standard of doctor training, prompting ministers to announce a review last week.

Of 35, 298 junior doctors who responded, 31,360 said that their hours were compliant "on paper".

But one in 10 said that this was because they had been asked to lie.

Of the 3,938 whose hours showed that they had worked more than 48 hours, 17 per cent also said that they had been asked to lie but had refused to do so.

Dr Andy Thornley, chairman of the BMA's Junior Doctor Committee said the findings were "deeply worrying and a sad reflection on the Government's failure to properly prepare for the full implementation of the EWTD".

He added "We are concerned that the NHS has allowed a culture of lying and deception to develop instead of looking at what needs to be done to maintain patient services and training opportunities for junior doctors."

I suppose these doctors realise that they can be hauled before the GMC for lying about their hours.

Why is there a need to lie? Tell the truth and show that the working hours directive for junior doctors does not work and never will.

“Private and public life are subject to the same rules; and truth and manliness are two qualities that will carry you through this world much better than policy, or tact, or expediency, or any other word that was ever devised to conceal or mystify a deviation from the straight line.”-General Robert E Lee

Angus


Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

Conscientiousness Index for medical students

Medical students who misbehave at university and fail to turn up at lectures could find themselves labelled potentially risky doctors under a new system to flag up early concerns.

The so-called "Conscientiousness Index" awards or deducts points for factors such as attendance at seminars, communicating well with teaching staff or handing in work on time

The British Medical Association (BMA) said there were already systems in place in medical training to help make sure doctors were professional.Medical students have become well-known for their "work hard, play hard" approach. But there could be concerns if this attitude affects their professionalism during their studies.

The new index, developed by Durham University's school of medicine, measures "day-to-day" diligence among students.The system was tested on about 200 students who had points awarded or deducted for attendance, responding to staff e-mails, submitting data they were asked for and other elements to indicate a professional attitude.The vast majority were found to be extremely conscientious, with a small proportion showing inconsistencies in their levels of professionalism.Lead researcher Professor John McLachlan said: "A doctor's behaviour is as important as his or her knowledge."In fact, most complaints to the General Medical Council are about doctors' behaviour, not their lack of knowledge

"In medical training, it is vital that we train people to be rounded, knowledgeable and professional."Using the index, we found that the vast majority of students are highly conscientious, making a very small percentage stand out when they lapse."This makes it easier for staff to identify those students and take early steps to help them."


THE General Medical Council has made it clear that there is more to being a good doctor than simply being someone who is able to pass exams.Medicine needs a lot of individuals from a variety of different backgrounds who have a well-rounded education and experience in a range of things.

That includes getting involved in sport, doing charity work and travelling, as well as enjoying socialising and meeting students from different backgrounds.These things all contribute to making good doctors.

They are also reflected in the application forms you have to fill in for your first job, which rewards achievement and participation in extracurricular activities.Medical students have always had a high level of professionalism and conscientiousness expected of them. This is already set out in guidance by the GMC.

I must admit I am a bit confused about this, shouldn’t it be in place already, and have been in use for the past hundred years or so?

Still shame it isn't going to be used on certain doctors who have been in practice for years.

“Our thinking and our behaviour are always in anticipation of a response. It is therefore fear-based.”-Deepak Chopra



Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

GPs HAVE NO CONFIDENCE IN GORDON BROWN

From the Pulse- GP leaders to take 'no confidence' vote in Gordon Brown GP leaders have won calls for a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Gordon Brown and health secretary Ben Bradshaw, accusing the Government of 'taking revenge' on GPs for having successfully delivered the new contract.

The vote will be put to the LMCs' Conference in London next month, along with a raft of other motions attacking the Government's spin campaign against GPs, moves to bring in private providers and issues on GP pay.

Last year GP leaders passed a unanimous vote of no confidence over the ‘UK Government’s stewardship of the NHS’ and defied advice from GPC leaders in demanding the heads of health secretary Alan Johnson and Lord Darzi, despite calls from GPC chair Dr Laurence Buckman to avoid personal calls for resignation.

After the forthcoming motion was revealed, at a meeting of the GPC this week, Dr Buckamn said: ‘It’s unprecedented. We’ve never seen [a vote for] no confidence in a Prime Minister. It will be an ‘interesting’ debate.'

It took the GPs long enough to come round the public has had no confidence in Gord or Ben Bradshaw for years, especially after his cringing boot licking performance on Question Time.

"Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was."-Richard L Evans

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

THE THIN END OF THE WEDGE

The Telegraph is featuring this article Drunks should pay for emergency treatment Drinkers admitted to hospital for less than 24 hours, such as those needing stomach pumps or just sleeping off the effects of a heavy night, should be made to pay up to £532, a report by Policy Exchange recommends.

This “think tank” thinks it has the cure for all ills, introducing charges for drinkers who are admitted to hospital is the beginning of privatising the NHS.

What next?-charging smokers for cancer treatment, or athletes, boxers, footballers, rugby players, and other sports “persons” for treatment, because let’s face it all the above are “self inflicted” injuries.

Or children who fall out of trees; or off their bikes-self inflicted.

There can be no differentiation between “illnesses” the NHS is there to treat us with no cost at the point of treatment, it is set in stone, and is a right we pay for.

If the know alls at Policy Exchange want to make a difference then let them advise the Government to reinstate the licensing hours, prevent supermarkets from selling cheap booze 24 hours a day, close the nightclubs at 11 pm, do away with “happy hours” and buy one get four free drinks.

Charging patients for treatment is a no-no; it goes against the prime directive of the NHS, which is treatment for all regardless of the cause of that illness.



Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

SALT-THE TASTY KILLER

Food industry opposes tougher salt-reduction targets - Times Online food companies are ready to challenge new salt reduction targets, claiming that consumers will not accept the taste of many products.

Industry figures say that salt levels set by the Food Standards Agency may also compromise food safety, especially for cheese and ham, which will shorten the shelf life of items in stores and create more food waste.

The agency is demanding a lower salt content for bread, pizza, ready meals and savoury snacks and wants to cut the salt in burgers and grill steaks by 25 per cent. It accepts that many of its targets may be impossible to meet.

Thin and frozen burgers are lower in salt than thicker burgers, which require more sodium to bind the ingredients. It is continuing, however, with calls for new recipes and product formulation to try to make 6g of salt a day the maximum average daily intake for an adult.

Health chiefs estimate that 20,200 deaths from high blood pressure and heart disease would be prevented annually if the nation achieved the 6g-a-day average, down from the present average of 8.5g. About 75 per cent of all salt eaten by consumers is in ready-made or processed food.

The British Retail Consortium, which represents leading supermarkets, said that many of the new targets would be difficult to achieve. Stephen Robertson, its director-general, said: “In some cases we believe customers won’t accept the change in taste.

It’s crucial we take customers with us as tastes don’t change overnight. Salt can also play an important part in preserving food. It would be perverse if we reduced salt to the extent that it reduced a product’s shelf life and increased food waste — compromising a key part of government food policy.”

Bread-makers are particularly concerned that they will not be able to meet the target. Gordon Polson, director of the Federation of Bakers, said: “It is technically impossible for the industry to go beyond the 2010 target of 430mg sodium per 100g to 400mg by 2012.”

I wonder what food really tastes like?

“A wise woman puts a grain of sugar into everything she says to a man, and takes a grain of salt with everything he says to her.”-Helen Rowland


Angus


Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

Patients who miss dental appointments could be fined under Tory plans

The Conservatives pledged to bring back a system of charging patients who fail to turn up, and said they would "slash bureaucracy" to improve access to NHS dentists.
Figures out last year from the NHS information centre showed that around a million fewer people are now seeing an NHS dentist than before Government reforms of the system.

A new dental contract was introduced in 2006, which also led to charges for missed appointments being scrapped.

The Government insists the information centre figures do not represent the real picture across England, insisting new services are opening all the time.

Other new pledges from the Tories today include creating incentives for dentists to spend more time on preventative dental care, improving oral health and reducing long-term costs.

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "This Labour Government is leaving a terrible dental legacy which will be difficult to fix.

"Over a million people have lost their NHS dentist in just three years and dentists are fed up with the flawed, system of perverse incentives that Labour have introduced.
"That's why I am announcing today that a Conservative Government will immediately cut waste and bureaucracy and restore access to an NHS dentist to the million who have lost one under Labour.

"And we will make preventative treatment a real priority because we urgently need to improve our nation's dental health.

"Our plans will create real incentives for dentists to help people avoid tooth decay, so that we can cut the shocking rise in the number of people needing to have their teeth pulled out."

The Tories obviously don’t use NHS dentists because they all “fine” us if we miss an appointment; check the notice in the waiting room.

“Happiness is your dentist telling you it won't hurt and then having him catch his hand in the drill.” ~Johnny Carson


Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

Angus Dei politico

Angus Dei-NHS The Other Side

BBC NEWS NHS dentistry in England needs to be completely overhauled to improve access, the Conservatives have said.

They have proposed a series of measures, including NHS quotas for dentists, school check-ups and an overhaul in the way dentists are paid.

A new contract introduced in England and Wales in 2006 aimed to attract more dentists to the NHS, but latest figures show fewer patients are being treated.

But the government says access to NHS dentistry is already improving.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "We aim to ensure that everyone who wants to see an NHS dentist can by March 2011.

"We have invested over £2bn in NHS dentistry - the result is more NHS dental practices expanding and opening all the time.

The tide is turning and we are now seeing access to NHS dentistry starting to increase."

The 2006 deal effectively scrapped the system of registration whereby dentists had a list of patients.

Instead, they have been paid to carry out a set number of courses of treatment.


The Tories said they would make changes to the contract to restore registration so that dentists were paid to provide treatment to a set number of patients with incentives in place to encourage good care as happens under the current GP contract.

Their proposals also include a return to school screening for five-year-olds - they say two thirds of NHS trusts no longer run the check-ups since the rules were relaxed in 2007.

The party said it also wanted to see quotas introduced to ensure newly qualified dentists worked a set amount in the health service for five years.

I really don’t care who sorts it out, just get it sorted, having to wait until 2011 for everyone to have a dentist is pathetic after over ten years of Labour power, and yes, the old way was best with dentists’ lists and school checkups.

And making dentists work in the NHS for five years is actually a good idea.


"We can try to avoid making choices by doing nothing, but even that is a decision."-Gary Collins


Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

YEAH RIGHT

A limited budget need not be a barrier to eating healthily, as five portions of fruit and vegetables can cost just 80p a day, says a nutritionist.

This is from the BBC NEWS the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) is concerned the credit crunch will see shoppers ditching healthy food items.

But the WCRF's Nathalie Winn said shoppers should buy in season and also use cheaper tinned and frozen produce.

Fruit and vegetable consumption has been linked with a reduced risk of some types of cancer.

Eating a variety of fruits could decrease the risk of developing cancers of the stomach, mouth, pharynx and larynx by nearly a fifth, and of the the oesophagus by 5%.

Foods containing lycopene, such as tomatoes, have been shown to decrease the risk of prostate cancer by 20% the WRCF said.

Increases in food prices, and pressures on the family budget because of continuing economic problems, may prompt people to buy less fruit and vegetables because they think they are too expensive and are worried about wastage, they warned.

Well Nathalie Winn, I don’t know where you shop, maybe Harrods, but you obviously haven’t been to your local supermarket because the price of all food is rising at about 18% per year; my shopping has risen by almost 25% this year.

It is hard enough just to afford essentials, fruit and veg are fast becoming luxuries in today’s world, so just back off a bit and have another think, or better still get the supermarkets to lower their prices all round, because “every bit helps” as a well known retailer says who is making about £1 million per hour, doesn't.


"Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks."-Lin Yutang

Angus


Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

TOLD YOU SO

Men really do have an excuse for supposedly being wimpy about coughs and colds - their immune systems are not as strong as women's, research suggests.

A Canadian study indicates that the female sex hormone oestrogen gives women's immune systems added bite at fighting off infection.

Oestrogen seems to counter an enzyme which blocks the inflammatory process.
The McGill University study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers focused on an enzyme called Caspase-12, which is known to put a brake on the inflammatory process, the body's first line of defence against harmful invaders such as bacteria and viruses.

They worked on mice that lacked the Caspase-12 gene, and were thus extremely resistant to infection.

The human Caspase-12 gene was implanted into a group of male and female mice, but only the males became more prone to infection.

The researchers concluded that oestrogen produced by the female mice blocked the expression of the human Caspase-12 gene.

Dr Leslie Knapp, of the University of Cambridge, said there was a substantial body of evidence to show that women were better at fighting infections than men.

She said: "Women are well known to be able to respond more robustly to infections, and to recover more quickly than men.

"In evolutionary terms it only takes one male to reproduce with lots of females, but females are much more important in terms of producing offspring."

Don’t care about importance, now, where are the tissues?

“Men and women belong to different species, and communication between them is a science still in its infancy.”-Bill Cosby

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

RATE YOUR GP SITE STAGGERS ONWARD

From Pulse The GPC has dropped its opposition to controversial plans for patients to anonymously rate GP practices on the NHS Choices website, and is now actively working with the site to develop the proposals, Pulse can reveal.

Negotiators have been persuaded in a series of high-level meetings that the site will offer sufficient safeguards to protect GPs from malicious attack, including a key proposal for practices to have instant right of reply.

The GPC had expressed grave doubts over the scheme, which will allow patients to leave comments or score practices in areas such as access and courtesy, warning it could be ‘misleading’ for the public.

Its change of tack clears the way for the rating system to be rolled out to practices across the country from early autumn.

The GPC has now agreed to help draw up the questions patients will be asked and the rules for comment moderation.

LMCs are to help NHS Choices build up a database of named practice contacts ahead of the launch in September or early October, to identify who will receive alerts when patients leave comments.

Under the safeguards agreed by NHS Choices, practices will have the right to reply to all comments, all of which will be pre-moderated. Malicious or campaigning comments, or ones identifying individual staff, will not be allowed.

However, plans to allow patients to sort practices by their ratings – effectively creating league tables – remain. Patients will also be able to leave anonymous comments and say whether they would recommend the practice to a friend.

Ministers hope the ‘TripAdvisor-style’ ratings will make it easier for patients to choose a practice and force GPs to be more responsive to feedback.

Sorry, but this is still a bad idea, the majority of patients know their GP and the GP practice, there is no need to “rate” them, it is bad for patients and bad for GPs, if you don’t like your GP change to another, if you like them write them a thank you letter.

The NHS knobs are obsessed with ratings, and targets, a rating system for GPs will only muddy the waters, and provide jobs for more management layers that the NHS and we do not need.

It should be scrapped, and the money used, because it will cost money, put to use for patients not stats.

“Torture numbers and they'll confess to anything.” Gregg Easterbrook

Angus
Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

A BIT MORE PRIVATISATION

Dept of Health The Department of Health is inviting applications for partnerships between health, social care, education and business sectors to become Health Innovation and Education Clusters (HIECs), which will deliver high quality care to patients, it announced today.

The £10million cash injection will fund the cost of setting up these new clusters, which will bring together organisations from across the NHS, higher education, industry and other public and private sector organisations.

The clusters will improve the knowledge and skills of NHS staff, by providing best practice education and training for nurses, doctors, dentists and the full range of professions in all healthcare settings. This in turn will quickly bring the latest innovations in care and treatment, including new medicines and devices to NHS patients.

Health Minister Lord Darzi said:
"I encourage organisations from all relevant sectors to apply to become Health Innovation and Education Clusters (HIECs).

"HIECs are special partnerships that draw on the wealth of skills and experience of their members to improve the development of high quality care and services by quickly bringing the benefits of research and innovation directly to patients.

"These projects will attract and encourage the best talent who can recognise and rapidly adopt new and innovative healthcare and treatment."

To help applicants the Department of Health has published a guide 'Breakthrough to real change in local healthcare: A guide for applications to create Health Innovation and Education Clusters (HIECs)'.

The guide marks the start of a period of informal discussion with prospective bidders over the next four months, leading to a national selection process in September this year.

Here is a novel idea to improve patient care, why not use the money to employ more nurses.


"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." Hanlon’s Razor

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

IT MAKES YOU PROUD DOESN’T IT

From the BEEB- Nurses lack decontamination areas some nurses are having to decontaminate vital equipment in hospital bathrooms because they have no access to a dedicated cleaning room, a survey says.

A Royal College of Nursing (RCN) survey of 2,000 nurses found 37% had no access to a room for cleaning equipment.

Of those, a third have had to use a bathroom as an alternative.

The RCN described the results as "shocking", but the Department of Health said it was for individual trusts to make proper arrangements.

Dr Peter Carter, RCN chief executive and general secretary, said: "Having the time and space to clean and then store essential everyday hospital equipment such as IV stands, commodes and patient cushions is crucial in keeping patients safe from dangerous infections.

"It's shocking that some nurses have no choice but to store equipment in hospital bathrooms.

"People need to recognise that fighting infection is about much more than just hand washing."

The RCN survey also found that more than one third (34%) of nurses who have responsibility for decontaminating patient equipment have never received any formal training in how to do it.

Four out of 10 nurses said their organisation did not provide cleaning services 24 hours a day.

Shadow health minister Anne Milton said: "This is yet more evidence that nurses aren't getting the support they need.

"Given that three times as many people now die from hospital infections each year than die on Britain's roads it is simply unacceptable to find basic standards of hygiene are not being met because the resources aren't available.

"Nurses are being put in an impossible position. It's unfair on them and unfair on patients."

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "We have made substantial investment - an additional £270m a year by 2010/2011 - for the NHS to tackle healthcare associated infections.

"Trusts must make adequate arrangements for decontamination, out-of-hours cleaning and staff training in infection prevention and control."

One other point, those things that are put on your finger to measure the oxygen level in your blood are traipsed round the ward from patient to patient, and I have never seen one being cleaned between patients.

Just an observation.

“Hygiene is two thirds of health” Lebanese proverb

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

NHS DATA SECURITY-NOT!

Patient data found on hard drives Medical records, confidential letters and X-rays of patients in Lanarkshire have been found on second-hand computer hard drives.

Two disks bought for a study on data security contained sensitive information from Monklands and Hairmyres hospitals.

NHS Lanarkshire said the disks were disposed of in 2006 before it improved its data protection procedures.

The disks, bought in the UK had patient medical records, images of X-rays, medical staff shifts and sensitive and confidential staff letters relating to Monklands and Hairmyres hospitals.

In a statement, Lanarkshire Health Board said: "This study refers to hard disks which were disposed of in 2006. At that time NHS Lanarkshire had a contractual agreement with an external company for the disposal of computer equipment.

"In this instance the hard drives had been subjected to a basic level of data removal by the company and had then been disposed of inappropriately. This was clearly in breach of contract and was wholly unacceptable."

The trust has carried out a review of its policies and now no longer uses external companies to dispose of IT equipment, the statement added.

The information uncovered in the study was enough to expose individuals and firms to fraud and identity theft, said the researchers.

So buy yourself a second hand hard disk, you never know what you will find out.


“Ask for no guarantees; ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away.” Henry De Bracton

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

Female binge drink rates 'double'

BBC NEWS Health Female binge drink rates 'double' the Joseph Rowntree Foundation study found 15% of women now binged on alcohol each week. In men, the figure stood at 23% - a small rise on previous statistics.

During the last 20 years, there has been a general increase in drinking in nearly all age groups in the UK.

Campaigners said the findings showed drinking was a problem across society.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation commissioned researchers from Oxford Brookes University to look at a range of sources for the research, including Office for National Statistics data and government reports.

Another interesting article- Bingeing youth of educated women educated women are far more likely to binge-drink in their 20s than those with few qualifications, a study shows.

The Institute of Child Health examined the drinking habits of thousands of British women born in 1958.

Social pressures at work have been blamed, alongside the extra money the educated have to spend.

However, by age 40 less-qualified women were more likely to be drinking too much, the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health study found.

Men of course binge drink as well, but the opposite applies- For men the binge-drinking limit was 10 units in one sitting.


Men with fewer qualifications tend to be three times more likely to binge-drink than their well-educated counterparts, but this did not vary much at different ages.

So why do we have this state of affairs? It seems that “aggressive advertising” is partly to blame, along with the price of alcohol, for instance I walked into my local Tesco the other day, the first aisle was completely full of wines and other drinks, and this is before you can even get to the fruit and vegetable aisle.

Every other advert on the TV is for alcohol, special deals on beers and wine, “buy 100 cans of lager and get 50 cans free” sort of thing.

This encouragement by the “Super” markets makes it easy for us to purchase vast amounts at cheap prices, and being human once we have it home it would be a sin to waste it.

Over drinking is becoming a massive problem in the UK, it not only damages our health but puts an enormous strain on the NHS especially the A&E depts.

The answer is fairly obvious, make alcohol more difficult to obtain, no special offers, even better introduce “licensing hours” in supermarkets so that you cannot buy drink at 8 am, less advertising, and of course drink less, but that would mean that the retailers would see their profits fall, and they are not in the business of “moral selling” only income.

“When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.” Henny Youngman


Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

IS IT FINALLY THE END OF MIXED SEX WARDS?

You wouldn’t think it is 2009, men and women are on the same hospital ward, sharing toilets and other facilities, with no privacy or dignity.

But it is and there are, the Dept of Health has issued a “plan” whether it is cunning or not remains to be seen.

From next year hospitals that treat patients in mixed sex accommodation will not be paid for their care, Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced today.

These tough new penalties are part of a package of measures being introduced in a new drive to virtually eliminate mixed sex accommodation and ensure it doesn't reappear.

The Department of Health's guidance to trusts is that men and women should not have to share sleeping accommodation or toilet facilities. From 2010/11 hospitals who fail to deliver this will face serious financial consequences - unless there is an overriding clinical justification.

The Health Secretary also announced that a £100million Privacy and Dignity Fund will be made available to support the NHS to make the necessary changes to virtually eliminate mixed sex accommodation.

The package of measures includes:
* Financial penalties for those hospitals where patients are treated in mixed sex accommodation - unless it can be clinically justified.
* A £100 million ring-fenced Privacy and Dignity Fund to help Trusts make swift adjustments to hospital accommodation.
* Improvement teams will be set up to go into hospitals that need support over the next six months.
* A greater focus on measuring and improving patient experience of mixed sex accommodation.

Single sex wards-good idea, bad penalties, “serious financial consequences”, so who will pay these “consequences”, will it be the senior management, no, it will be us, our money will be taken from the hospitals that fail to adhere to the rules, or in other words there will be less money available for treatment.

Speaking at the NHS Chairs conference in London, Alan Johnson said:

"People often feel at their most vulnerable when they are in hospital and being cared for in mixed sex accommodation can be deeply distressing. These measures will help to ensure that patients can be treated with the dignity and privacy they rightly expect.

"The message is clear - the NHS has taken great strides in reducing mixed sex accommodation over the last twelve years but now it must eliminate it altogether other than where clinically necessary. Hospitals who fail in their duty to protect patients' privacy will be financially penalised as we will not foot the bill for care that has taken place in mixed sex accommodation.
"I recognise that there are real, practical difficulties that some trusts need help to overcome and the new £100million fund will help provide the support they need to achieve this."

Chief Nursing Officer Christine Beasley said:

"Hospital staff must realise that being cared for in mixed sex accommodation can be very upsetting for patients particularly those that feel very vulnerable such as the elderly. Doctors and nurses have a clear duty to make sure that hospital patients are cared for in an environment which meets their clinical needs, and ensures that their privacy and dignity is maintained.

"We hope that by all but eliminating mixed sex accommodation we can dramatically improve patient experience".

The Government has been in power since 1997, they (or we) have poured hundreds of billions into the NHS to what effect?

The senior management are in the top 1% of earners, on average each CEO takes £150,000+ from the NHS, the medical directors take home more than the CEOs, often as much as £180,000+, the Nursing Director takes home £100,000+. HR Directors £100,000+, and because of this patients of both sexes have to share the same bathrooms and WCs.

So the NHS is going to throw another £100,000,000 into the pot for “privacy and dignity” which should be the norm for patients not the exception.

It isn’t rocket science to rearrange beds so that all wards are single sex, there may need to be new bathrooms built, but as most of the Trusts are now Foundation status they are allowed to use the “profit” made for improvements to the buildings.

So where is the six or seven £billion profit going, back to the NHS, they are taking it back to reduce spending then giving £100 million for “improvements”.

This Government and the NHS have had over eleven years to sort this out, they haven’t, the most important thing for patients apart from proper treatment of course is dignity and privacy.

The NHS should not have taken 11 years to address this basic need.

“The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.” Dag Hammarskjold



Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

PORKER FLU-A NEW EXCUSE FOR “SICKIES”

Thousands of Britons are using swine flu as an excuse to take days off sick from work, the latest figures show.

Flu-related absences have increased by almost 30 per cent within two days and experts fear that the number will rise further after the bank holiday weekend.

The disclosure came as the first two cases of human-to-human transmission of the virus within Britain were confirmed.

Absence figures show that as many as 26,500 people took the day off on Thursday, complaining of coughs, colds and other flu-like symptoms.

The number of absences was 18 per cent higher than the 22,700 which would normally be expected at this time of year.

This was the day after the first two British cases were confirmed and the World Health Organisation raised its alert level to five out of six, indicating that a pandemic is imminent.

Friday's figure was 27 per cent above average with 21,500 – as fewer people normally go sick on the Friday before May Day bank holiday – experts said.

It is feared that the sharp rise in people taking "sickies" will cost the British economy millions of pounds.

Aaron Ross, chief executive of absence management experts FirstCare, which carried out the survey based on figures from 1,000 companies, said: "What seems to be happening is that people are taking symptoms more seriously than normal.

"It has to be remembered that all absence from work comes at a cost to employers and to other employers as well.

We should all work to reduce absence from work, and get in place good occupational health facilities.

"We don't want to go back to being the sick man of Europe. I would appeal to people to think about those who are left behind when they take a day off."

He said that a pandemic would devastate British business, with 25 per cent of the working population staying at home. This would cost the UK economy up to £1.5 billion per day.
What would you do?


“We are at war between consciousness and nature, between the desire for permanence and the fact of flux. It is ourself against ourselves.” Alan Watts



Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

SWINE FLU-IN PERSPECTIVE

I suppose it had to be the porker disease that takes the biscuit this week, but how “deadly” is it?

Simon Jenkins of the Guardian gives his view Mad journalism disease – more contagious than swine flu? Mad journalism disease is now raging through the media. According to a report in the Guardian, Mexico's swine flu outbreak has moved to potential "Armageddon" status. There is simply no limit to the hysteria that scientists and their allies are able to generate round a health scare.

People dying from wars, accidents and even routine diseases such as Aids and MRSA get no coverage. The death rate from flu, even in Mexico, is still at about the normal rate. Yet the mention of the words death and virus in the same sentence is enough to wipe all proportion from the reporting mind. Any risk, however minuscule, is worth an Armageddon headline. It is a field day for scaremongers.

There is no shred of evidence that this flu is worse than other strains or other diseases that have been similarly hyped in the past, notably CJD, Sars and avian flu. Adding the prefix "as yet" to "no evidence" does not get the hyperbolist off the hook. In cases where there is some sense in raising public consciousness to alter behaviour, as was the case with Aids, then stirring public panic might be justified.

There is no such sense in the case of Mexican flu. Those very few people who were infected and travelled elsewhere have responded to drug treatment. I imagine more come back from Mexico with "Montezuma's revenge".
The number of recorded deaths in Mexico itself appears to be on a par with mortality from other strains of flu, from which tens of thousands die worldwide each year, usually from the complication of pneumonia.

It is highly likely that some Britons will get ill from this new flu. It is possible that some, very unlucky, ones will die from it. There is a "risk", as the pundits claim, that this will happen. But how great is that risk? On any available likelihood it is millions to one. Gone is all sense of proportion?

A lot of politicians, scientists and doctors are now getting free publicity. Drugs companies and mask manufacturers are making a killing, despite public advice that masks are pointless. On the other hand travellers, parents and children are being needlessly terrified and those involved in the travel business are being punished with a massive loss of revenue, utterly unrelated to the likelihood of their customers getting ill.

The scaremongering will not diminish that likelihood in any way. At this juncture in the recession, to impose multi-million pound costs on an industry and endanger thousands of jobs is irresponsible.

The only disease that needs stamping out is mad journalism. At a time like this the media should shut up, report facts and tell people what they can do, not create statistically inflated hypotheticals and fantastical scenarios.

Or in other words, it’s just the flu,

“We experience moments absolutely free from worry. These brief respites are called panic.” Cullen Hightower

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

Just a bit of fun

A video to take the panic out of swine flu.


“Pessimism, when you get used to it, is just as agreeable as optimism.” Arnold Bennett

Angus

Angus Dei on all and sundry

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico