No sooner has the Staffs NHS trust disgrace started to wane from our consciousness, this was reported yesterday:
His mother, Rita Cronin, says he needed drugs three times a day to regulate his hormones, but he was not given them by hospital staff.
She said he became very dehydrated but his requests for water were refused and nurses called in security guards to restrain him when he became angry.
He became so frustrated that he rang the police from his bed to demand their help but officers were assured Mr Gorny was fine.
She said nurses assumed he was just badly behaved.
Mr Gorny’s cause of death was determined to be dehydration.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “Detectives from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command are investigating the death of Kane Gorny at St George’s Hospital after this was referred to us by Westminster Coroner’s Court.”
A spokesman for St George’s Hospital said: “We are extremely sorry about the death of Kane Gorny and understand the distress that this has caused to his family.
“A full investigation was carried out and new procedures introduced to ensure that such a case cannot happen in future.
Aye right – lessons have been learned. By which they mean an additional layer of stifling target-based bureaucracy has been introduced, to ensure that accountability stays at the bottom of the food chain, as the executives of the NHS trust like it.
Quickly followed today, by this:
One heading in the report says: “The patient doesn’t seem to be in the picture.” It adds: “We were struck by the virtual absence of mention of patients and families … whether we were discussing aims and ambition for improvement, measurement of progress or any other topic relevant to quality.
“Most targets and standards appear to be defined in professional, organisational and political terms, not in terms of patients’ experience of care.”
This weekend it emerged the recommendations of the reports, intended to help the NHS improve, have not even been circulated.
I wonder what day this bad news was buried on – let’s face it, there’s been no shortage of them in the last couple of years.
The stark assessments, collected from leading NHS clinicians and managers, include:
A damaging rift between doctors and managers: “The GP and consultant contracts are de-professionalising, and have had the peculiar effect of simultaneously demoralising and enriching doctors. We’ve lost the volitional work of the doctors and far too many of us are now just working to rule.”
Pointless new structures. “Stop the restructurings. The only thing they generate is redundancy payments.” One body responsible for improving standards reported to five different ministers and had three different names in the space of 30 months.
A culture of fear and slavish compliance. “The risk of consequences to managers is much greater for not meeting expectations from above than for not meeting expectations of patients and families.”
Which is no more or less than everyone but the government has know for years now.
The single most important point though, is this: Given a choice, would you not want the option to pay your hard-earned into a difference scheme and benefit from superior care from a competing organisation? I know I would.
A monopoly provider of health services is QUITE FUCKING EVIDENTLY an utterly failed concept.
Which politician in this clue-forsaken shithole of a country will have the balls to say so? Well, any of them who doesn’t mind being painted as a lunatic by all the parties and the media. So that’s Dan Hannan then.
Fuck this place.
AJ
Al Jahom's Final Word 
“She said nurses assumed he was just badly behaved.”
Ah. Right. ‘Badly behaved’ = ‘expected to be given medication and basics like food and drink’. Clearly, that wasn’t on any nurse’s role profile, so sod ‘im.
Just why do they call them ‘angels’ anyway?
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