The Death of Health Care in Britain
● An old man in hospital had received no nursing care for a week. He wasn’t fed for three days. He asked a nurse if he could be bathed. She brought him a damp paper towel and told him to do it himself.
● A 92-year-old former ward sister was told that she had terminal liver failure. The doctor had apparently conducted an examination via a video link. A face to face visit was refused. Taken by a relative to the local A&E department, the woman was diagnosed with a simple infection – treated with antibiotics. Three days later she made a full recovery. (There had been a 12 hour wait on a ward trolley.)
● A patient was admitted to hospital as an emergency had to wait 49 hours before a bed could be found for him.
● A patient with a broken arm, in great pain, was told by an ambulance service that her condition wasn’t life threatening and that the wait would be eight hours.
● An 89-year-old woman waited six hours for an ambulance and died. It is now recognised that failing ambulance services are responsible for many deaths. In Northern Ireland ambulance delays were a contributory factor in 14 deaths. Ambulances spend 25% to 30% of their time waiting outside emergency departments.
● An NHS boss who had a stroke was taken to hospital by her husband and recovered. She said it might have been different if she’d called 999. Waiting times for ambulances have never been as long. The ambulance service is so bad that patients are told to call a taxi – it’ll be quicker. Such stories now abound.
