Today the Daily Mail carries a story of a woman, Catherine Brown who was advised to have a chemically induced abortion at 18 weeks, because otherwise she would have a severe risk of death. The procedure involves inducing labour early and results in a live, if short lived birth.
When she went in to labour in the brand spanking new Queen's Hospital Romford, opened at a cost of £238 million last December, there were no staff on hand to assist. Staff were found, who said they did not have the training to help and left here to it.
With her mothers help she gave birth to Edward in a toilet. No medical staff were in attendance. Edward died shortly afterwards. To make matters much worse the hospital almost disposed of Edward with medical waste.
The hospital has issued a statement expressing regret and saying they have now bolted that stable door. This is clearly not satisfactory.
There are many other instances of Labour cuts and overspend making a mess of the NHS.
In a hospital which has lost its Accident and Emergency department a patient fainted whilst having a blood sample taken. The member of staff carrying out the procedure called for help and was simply told to call an ambulance to taker the patient to an A and E elsewhere.
In central Sussex we have our local hospital, the Princess Royal is under threat. Both the maternity and accident and emergency (already downgraded) are facing closure. As it is women in labour sometimes have to travel many miles to other hospitals when there is no space at the Princess Royal also finding that there is no space at the Royal Sussex in Brighton either.
There is not the spare capacity in Sussex to cope with hospital services being cut, yet the local health trusts, having wasted pots of money wants to do it.
The NHS is breaking down in places, Labour having made a complete hash of running it. It would at least be understandable if vast sums of money were not being spent, but it is hard to fathom how this amount of money being spent could lead to these sorts of horror stories.
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6 comments:
What that lady went through is unforgivable anywhere, and in any circumstances!
ChrisD, yes it is isn't it. Someone there really needs to get a grip.
When budgets increase, accountants/administrators/managers are appointed.
When budgets are cut, nurses/doctors are dismissed and wards closed.
Barking mad.
Anon, no matter how busy or short staffed a hospital is, I would have thought they could find someone and somewhere for this lady to be treated properly and with dignity.
What's all the fuss? Nulabour (and Mayor Ken) want to drag UK kicking and screaming up to the high standards of Venezuela and Cuba.
I have worked in this unit and many others where similar cases occur-regularly. For this one story there are 10 more not brought to the public's attention.Lack of funding and poor management will always be a present. What infuriates me is the attitude "its not my problem". Don't nurses have a basic duty of care, or failing that a shred of humanity to give reassurance to this lady? This article is, of course, only one side of the story(sensationalised as we'd expect from The Mail), but shame on those nurses.
Similar, sometimes shocking, lack of basic care is common among both nursing and midwifery staff. Managers are selective in investigating cases. The real reward in healthcare is the outcome of the patient. Please leave now if you think otherwise.
Obstetric & Gynaecology Registrar.
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