A couple of days ago the Sunday Times had an interview with former Para Lt Colonel Stuart Tootal who has left the army in protest an the Government's treatment of the armed forces and the army in particular. Amongst various horror stories (including the farcical, dreadful behaviour of the Department for International Development over a washing machine) was a description of the conditions of the wards in Selly Oak that wounded soldiers were being treated in:
"One para sergeant major had been shot through the arm leaving it shattered in 14 places. When Tootal asked how he was, he replied: “Pretty shit, sir.”
“He motioned to a civilian patient next to him who couldn’t control his bowels, he was urinating and defecating, no one was clearing it up,” said Tootal. “It got so bad my warrant officer would get out of bed and clean it up with his hands.” A para with a damaged back had been waiting days for a CT scan, and nobody had told him that the machine was broken. Another soldier whose lower leg had been amputated was left, unattended, in agony. "
One thought came to me: no one should be treated in conditions like that, let alone members of the military. This isn't a call for dedicated military hospitals or wards which is a different argument, but rather for the NHS to re-introduce procedures that provide decent, civilised and above all, humane conditions for all.
(Full interview here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4364115.ece)
Showing posts with label NHS choice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NHS choice. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Choice in the NHS
I found out the reality of hospital choice in the NHS yesterday. Talking to my GP I suggested that I would like my hip replacement done at another hospital rather than my local one. Not that my local one is bad - it isn't - but that the ones I had in mind were specialist orthopaedic hospitals. However there is lovely Catch-22 involved here: I should have made the choice at the time of referral. But I didn't know what was wrong with me at that time so I went to the local hospital. Hence I cannot change hospitals. Great choice ....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
