NHS Catastrophe, A National Health Service that Kills it's Patients
Politics / NHS Jul 16, 2013 - 05:33 AM GMTBy: Nadeem_Walayat
The fleeting glare of the mainstream press is once more focused on the latest report that gives a window into the reality of just how bad Britain's NHS is in terms of the poor quality of health service it provides to the people of Britain, which as a matter of routine results in thousands of unnecessary deaths each year.
Three years ago the NHS Hospital of death headlines were concerned with some 1000 unnecessary deaths at the Mid Staffs Hospital of which some 300 were under police investigation. At the time I pointed out that this was the mere tip of the hospitals of death ice-berg, today a new report highlights a further 14 similar hospitals with extremely high death rates, and with probably many more to come in future reports. The current report states that as many as 13,000 patients have been killed off needlessly by NHS hospitals over the past few years.
However this number does not include the shockingly high 130,000 patients each year who are put to death by means of the so called "Liverpool care pathway" by being drugged, dehydrated and starved to death as Channel 4 News reported:
"Evidence of patients desperate for a drink of water, nurses shouting at relatives who try to help and staff who appear to lack any compassion at all."
"There is no clinical justification for refusing a dying person a drink. Some hospitals were found to offer high quality and compassion of care, but most weren't."
"The review has called for the Liverpool Care Pathway to be phased out, and replaced by personalised care plans and for an end to financial incentives for placing people on the care plan"
"Once again we are hearing the same phrases we heard about the standard of care at Mid Staffordshire hospital. A lack of openness, a lack of compassion. Nurses and doctors failing to put the patient first."
Many hospitals rightly carry signs about "Zero tolerance of abuse of our staff", but what about abuse of patients and the general public? The NHS, like many bloated public sector institutions has long since forgotten why it was created and whom it serves.
Today's reports into the disastrous NHS is just the latest in a long line of reports going back near a decade which illustrates three key points -
1. That generally Doctors, nurses, NHS staff put personal profit and convenience before patients, this comes out in survey after survey of medical staff who have no incentive to put patients first.
2. That there is little real consequences for doing a bad job as doctors are NOT held to account. Even doctors who kill many of their patients escape by sign gagging clauses in exchange for leaving the NHS with golden handshakes so the facts of the manslaughters / murders never show up in public, but only as statistics of an extraordinary large number of deaths at hospitals.
3. The NHS vested interests always play the lack of funding card in attempting to explain away their negligence, but the facts are that the people of Britain today pay for TWO NHS's as compared to that of 20 years ago i.e. the budget has more than tripled from £40 billion in 1997 to £130+ billion today, whereas an increase in line with inflation would put the budget at around £65 billion.
The fact that the NHS is rotten right from GP's to Hospitals should not come as any surprise to readers of my many articles over the years as the following excerpts illustrate -
22 Sep 2012 - NHS GP's Ignoring Cancer Symptoms, Putting Profit Before Patients
The National Cancer Intelligence Network reports that 1/4 of patients are only eventually being diagnosed when seriously ill in casualty which can have a disastrous impact on their survival chances.
Sara Hiom, of Cancer Research UK and one of the authors of the study states: "Our findings showing the sheer numbers of cancer patients first seen as an emergency are startling.
"Early diagnosis of cancer, when the most effective treatments are more likely to be options, helps improve a patient's chance of surviving their disease."
Professor Jane Maher, chief medical officer at Macmillan Cancer Support, added: "This route to diagnosis can have a disastrous impact on survival chances."
03 Mar 2011 - NHS GP Doctors Putting Profit Before Patient Care, Channel 4 News Investigation
"Your doctor making a profit out of your health care, your GP Sending you to a clinic that he or she owns shares in, we are seeing the biggest shake up of the NHS in its history, Channel 4 news can reveal tonight that there is nothing on the legislation currently before parliament to prevent the outcome no one wants, doctors putting profit before the care of patients, in our special report tonight we show how the new arrangements will create fundamental conflicts of interest potentially harming the trust at the very heart of the doctor patient relationship". Channel 4 News
25 Mar 2010 - Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust Hospital Tip of NHS Hospitals of Death Iceberg
NHS Hospitals of Death Pumping Out Phony Data
A recent lengthy report into the REAL performance of one of Britians top ranked hospitals placed The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust as a killing field for patients that walk through its doors, this is set against NHS phony statistics on hospitals and GP surgeries that relentlessly paints a picture of everything is great, against the facts of actual patient experience as reported by the Telegraph -
Up to 1,200 patients are thought to have died unnecessarily at the trust between 2005 and 2008.
A damning report on the deaths found chronic staff shortages, receptionists in casualty departments assessing the urgency of cases and nurses switching off equipment that did not know how to use.
Both trusts are “Foundation Trusts” a status supposedly awarded to only the best in the NHS.
03 May 2009 - Privatise the NHS and Save the UK Economy from Bankruptcy
NHS Spending Black Hole
The NHS is a spending black hole that has grown to more than 10% of GDP from 3.5% of GDP in 1948 that carries more than a million passengers on its its gravy train. As mentioned before every extra £1 spent on the NHS only generates barely 10p in increased output. Britain spends 3 times the amount on the NHS per capita than most Eastern European States that still somehow manage to delivery a better health service which leaves Britain languishing at the bottom of the European Health leagues.
Incompetence, greed and waste are the operate words, NOT value for money or putting patients first as illustrated by an opinion poll amongst 156,000 NHS staff that found that patient care is not a top priority for the NHS. It is no wonder that patients in their hundreds of thousands are seeking private health screening and GP services for if the truth of the matter were told, if patients left themselves to the NHS then they would in many cases be dead before the NHS got around to calling them in for their consultations from the waiting lists. Why wait as long as 18 months for an NHS screening appointment when you can have one next week for £150? That is if the patient makes it past the 2 minute GP diagnoses sessions that are akin to GP's swiping patients in and out of their doors as credit cards to bank profits on.
11 Oct 2007 - UK NHS Hospitals Turning into Killing Fields Due to Super Bug and Patient Neglect
An estimated 3000 patients die annually in badly run hospitals throughout the UK. Drastic action has to be taken to what is tantamount to manslaughter due to deliberate neglect of patients before thousands more die unnecessary deaths. Firm action should include closure of hospitals responsible for the slaughter of patients and criminal prosecutions of staff on charge of manslaughter.
15 May 2007 - Britain's NHS - Free for ALL but Worthless for Many!
So if you live in a poor area, are non-white, a smoker and possibly also overweight, you don't stand a hope in hells chance of effective GP or NHS healthcare in today's Britain, a first world country with third world healthcare for many ! A possible solution to the problem of GP's abusing their independence and inability to manage themselves in a professional manner in the interest of patients rather than their wallets, is that they should be brought back under direct NHS control.
There is only one solution to the NHS catastrophe and that is to privatise the NHS so that the power to purchase health services lies with the patients rather than the GP Consortia's and NHS Institutions.
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Nadeem Walayat
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Nadeem Walayat has over 25 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of four ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series.that can be downloaded for Free.
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