I get tired of people drooling over anybody associated with the NHS. Referring to nurses as 'angels' is puke inducing and should stop. Yes, there are many great doctors and nurses in the NHS, inevitably as it is a state controlled near monopoly, but there are also a lot of idiots and skivers, as you find in any walk of life.
My beloved recently blogged about the appalling treatment her mother continues to receive at the hands of the health service. They turned a pretty lively older lady into a housebound shell of what she was before they got their hands on her. You can read it at Rosie's Forum.
Last week I heard a self obsessed bag on the radio informing the presenter that she needed a holiday "probably more than most people because I work in the NHS" she said. Oh really? Of course the rest of us laze around all day picking our noses don't we?
When I spent a night in hospital about three years back it was so grim it prompted me to stop smoking to minimise the chances of having to go in again. In the morning I found a great pool of clotted blood under the bed from a previous occupant. It took me three hours to summon somebody for a glass of water, then when I needed the loo it was an hour before I could get somebody to help me get there.
Recently somebody I know was suffering terribly from depression. She is manic depressive, euphemistically called 'bi-polar disorder' these days, doesn't sound quite as much like a form of madness I suppose. Well we eventually persuaded her to see her GP who claimed to have a special interest in depression. She had a chat and he sent her away with a telephone number to ring if she got any worse. She did, and she rang the number. It was an Age Concern day centre! Useless.
Returning from one of her many visits to see her mother in Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester, my beloved showed me a photo she had taken on her phone. It was a particularly filthy and unhygienic lavatory with 'these bogs are filthy' daubed on the wall in felt tip. They weren't public toilets on the local housing estate, they were the toilets in the hospital.
Today I read about a complete bastard called Edward Ruddick, a nurse found guilty of stamping on a dementia sufferer. Thankfully he's in chokey now, but for only 6 months.
I always used to warn people that countries with 'democratic' in their name were usually anything but. Similarly anybody with 'care', 'carer' or 'caring' in the name of their job title, or their employer's name, needs keeping a very close eye on.
2 comments:
You've hit it with your radio interviewee - a proportion of NHS workers may be lazy, careless and unhelpful but a large number of those consider themselves to be put-upon victims.
I won't add to your litany (I've said my piece in the past at National Death Service) but in the past few years (acting for a realtive with dementia) I have had to deal with NHS staff of startling inefficiency as well as a few - a very few - who really do have the welfare of patients at heart.
It's sad but just about everybody I meet seems to have a horror story about the NHS.
I feel sorry for those working in it who are grafting and doing a great job, they are also let down by the wasters.
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